Gov. Greitens signs bill making Missouri right-to-work state

This is a rush transcript from "Your World," February 8, 2017. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST:  My apologies to Missouri's Republican governor, Eric Greitens.  He joins us right now, just signed a law on making Missouri the 28th right-to-work state in America.

Governor, I apologize.  Very good to have you.

GOV. ERIC GREITENS, R-MISSOURI:  Neil, great to be here with you.  Thanks for having me.

CAVUTO:  All right.  Now, you joined the right-to-work camp.

And, of course, that could be a very tough, uphill battle.  Immediately, the campaigns will begin that you're out to gut unions and those who say that you're out to gut the working man and woman.  I have dealt with this with Scott Walker, who of course was one of the early leaders of that charge.

What do you say?

GREITENS:  Look, it's very clear, Neil, our job and our mission that the people of Missouri sent us to accomplish was more jobs and stronger paychecks for the people of Missouri.

And we signed right-to-work because it is very clear that it leads to more jobs.  You're absolutely right.  The union bosses are going to fight us on this.  They spent millions of dollars against me in the campaign trying to distort my record as a Navy SEAL, distort the work that I had done with veterans.

But the fact is, we're happy to take on this fight because we were sent by the people of Missouri to get more jobs and higher pay.  And we will not just take on the union bosses.  We're ready to take on trial lawyers and lobbyists and career politicians and the special interest insiders.

Anybody who stands between us and our mission of getting more jobs and higher pay for the people of the state of Missouri, we're ready for that fight.

CAVUTO:  Well, as you know, Governor, the unions typically come back, both the private and public sectors, by the way, and say that we negotiate these deals that benefit all members, and then people can opt out of paying dues and still get the benefit of the deal that we put sweat equity into, and the governor endorses that.

You say what?

GREITENS:  The facts are just so clear, Neil.

Look, you look over the course of the past 25 years, job growth in right- to-work states has been twice as high as in non-right-to-work states. Before Missouri signed right-to-work, there were 27 other states that were right-to-work states.

In right-to-work states, people are earning more on average than they were in Missouri.  The facts are just so clear, that this is going to lead to more jobs and higher pay for the people of Missouri.

We look at our Midwestern neighbors, Neil.  We look at Indiana, we look at Michigan, both of which signed right-to-work, and they have been leading the country in new factory job growth.  Our mission has been very clear, and we're happy to make that case to the people of Missouri.

CAVUTO:  I was reading.  And this is switching gears a little bit, Governor, if you will indulge me.  But there's a Politico survey that is out that shows, among Democratic voters, that the majority of them would want to see their representatives really make life difficult for Republicans when it comes to protesting choices the president has for his Cabinet, by extension all the way up to his Supreme Court choice, make their life as difficult as possible.  That's the gist of it.

What do you make of that and how Republicans should respond to that?

GREITENS:  Well, look, I can tell you exactly how we're responding to that, Neil.

We were sent by the people of Missouri to fight for them.  And the fact is, we're willing, as I said, to take on not just the special interest insiders and the lobbyists, but also political opponents who are going to stand in the way of our mission of safer streets and better schools, who are going to put their political interests in front of the people of Missouri.  We're ready to take them on.

The fact is, the people sent us.  I'm an outsider.  They sent us to get results for them.  And that's exactly what we're going to do.  And this kind of obstructionist political insider games, people are sick of it. They want leaders who are coming to get results.  And that's exactly what we have done from day one.

CAVUTO:  Governor, thank you very, very much, Eric Greitens, beautiful state of Missouri, former Navy SEAL as well.  Thank you, sir.  Very good seeing you.

GREITENS:  Good to be on with you, Neil.  Thank you.

CAVUTO:  All right.

END

Content and Programming Copyright 2017 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2017 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.