Dive Brief:

• Missouri is the latest state to propose right-to-work legislation, which would prevent contractors and other employers from requiring that employees join unions or pay union dues. But this effort has a twist: One of the three bills under consideration by the state Legislature would apply only to construction employers.

• The proposal’s sponsor, Democratic state Rep. Courtney Curtis, said a contractor-only right-to-work law would invite more minority employees into the trade.

• Curtis cited a 2011 report by the Public Policy Research Center at the University of Missouri-St. Louis that said white men make up 81% of the state’s construction work force, while nonwhite males account for 7%.

Dive Insight:

Curtis, who represents Ferguson, where black teenager Michael Brown was fatally shot by a white police officer, has in the past voted on the side of labor unions. Observers predict his bill will fail, partly because it singles out a specific industry, and that the legislator’s effort could cost him labor support during his next election.

A spokesman for the local Communications Workers of America chapter noted that unions have increased their efforts to diversify apprenticeship programs since the Ferguson shooting, which raised racial tensions in St. Louis and across the country.