HELENA — Religious colonies of Hutterites in rural Montana are fighting the state’s attempts to impose a labor law backed by businesses that complain they can’t outbid the low cost of the communal workers.

Hutterites are Protestants similar to the Amish and Mennonites who live a life centered on their religion, but unlike the others, Hutterites live in German-speaking communes scattered across northern U.S. states and Canada.

They don’t pay wages, don’t vote and don’t enlist in the military. They make their own clothes, produce their own food and construct their own buildings.

“Their core belief is that they have no property.