JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Representative Brandon Phelps, a Republican from Warrensburg, Mo., and Representative Don Mayhew, a Republican from Crocker, Mo., have each introduced bills, House Bill 2208 and House Bill 2069, that would lay the ground work to eventually allow for self-driving trucks to operate in the state of Missouri.
Teamsters Local 41 member Bruce Frakes traveled to Jefferson City to give opposition to the job killing bill.
“Our opposition to this bill is clear. This is a job killing bill for commercial transportation,” said Local 41’s Bruce Frakes in opposition testimony during the Missouri House Emerging Issues Committee to the bills that drew rave reviews.
“Missouri is the Show Me State, I don’t think that is the place, I-70 with weather, with the technology they have brought up and nobody to answer for it,” added Frakes.
Other Teamster Locals and allied labor organizations also testified in opposition to the bill on January 12th, saying that the bill “directly threatens jobs in transportation, delivery, and commercial driving. By designating the automated driving system as the “driver,” the bill eliminates the need for licensed human operators and undermines worker protections tied to driver status, including training standards, accountability, and employment classification.”
“Unchecked deployment of autonomous vehicles threatens both our economy and our public safety. These systems risk stripping states of critical revenue, undermining economic development, and draining income from rural communities that already struggle to stay afloat. At the same time, they introduce serious safety concerns, particularly for first responders, and children riding to school in buses that must operate in complex, real-world conditions. At this stage of development, autonomous vehicle technology is not ready for widespread use. Moving forward without adequate safeguards would invite economic instability and expose the public to unacceptable risks,” said Kansas City’s Representative Emily Weber, who serves on the committee.
The bill also preempts local governments from regulating, taxing, or restricting autonomous vehicles, limiting the ability of cities and counties to protect local jobs, impose labor standards, or address workforce displacement. Additionally, allowing on-demand autonomous vehicle networks under the same framework as taxis and for-hire services creates unfair competition for unionized and traditional drivers without requiring equivalent labor, wage, or benefit standards.
Proponents of the legislation repeatedly argued the bill was not about trucking, but Frakes and other members of organized labor disputed the openness of the language and providing data that a supermajority of Missourians oppose autonomous vehicles on our roads.
Tristin Amezcua-Hogan is the Editor of The Labor Beacon and a member of LIUNA Local 264. Tristin also serves as the Director of Communications for the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO and the Chair of the Kansas City Regional Transit Alliance.
Tristin grew up as the son of a UA Local 669 member in Tecumseh, KS and the great-nephew of George C. Amis, longtime leader of the United Rubberworkers (now USW Local 307) in Kansas. Growing up in rural Kansas as the child of teen parents, Tristin quickly came to appreciate the life-changing benefit of a union job.
Tristin and his partner, Rebeca Amezcua-Hogan, are residents of the Westside, Kansas City, MO's historic Mexican neighborhood. They are proud members of Kansas City's New Reform Temple.
