Redoubling Effort in New Hampshire

From the National Right to Work Committee:

Springfield, VA (February 16, 2017)

Today, Mark Mix, President of the National Right to Work Committee, issued the following statement regarding the New Hampshire Right to Work Bill, Senate Bill 11:

“Right to Work supporters remain fully committed to ending forced unionism in New Hampshire, and I’m confident they will be back with even more energy next year to put Right to Work over the top.

“It’s been a multi-year battle to pass a state Right to Work law, but one that’s been getting closer and closer over time as it becomes more and more apparent that not only is forced unionism wrong, but Right to Work will benefit the state’s economy.

“For those reasons, six states have passed Right to Work in the last five years, including most recently Kentucky and Missouri earlier this year.

“With Governor Sununu elected on a pro-Right to Work platform, and the state Senate quickly passing Senate Bill 11 earlier this year, we had hoped that the bill would pass.

“But with a combination of weak House leadership and union boss pressure tactics intimidating legislators, the bill failed 200-177 in the House.

“This is a setback for New Hampshire and its citizens, but I remain confident that New Hampshirites will ultimately enjoy the freedom and economic prosperity that come from a Right to Work law.”

New Hampshire to Miss Out on Economic Gains from Right to Work Passage

Of course, while ending compulsory unionism is simply the right thing to do, Right to Work supporters believe that passing Right to Work would have also provided significant benefits for New Hampshire and workers in the state.

In fact, over the past decade, private sector job growth in Right to Work states has grown twice as fast compared to that in non-Right to Work states like New Hampshire.

And those jobs Right to Work states are gaining are good, high-paying jobs.

According to data from the Departments of Labor and Commerce, from 2005 to 2015, real private sector employee pay and benefits in Right to Work states grew by nearly 17% — almost a third more growth than forced-unionism states saw as a whole, and more than double what New Hampshire saw individually.

So it’s natural to expect that the new Right to Work states since 2012 have excelled economically.

In just the first eight months after the Indiana Right to Work Bill became law, the Hoosier State gained over 100,000 new jobs according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Hoosiers also saw income rise twice as fast as forced-dues states in the its first two years as a Right to Work state, while prior to passing Right to Work, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Indiana was one of only six states where worker compensation had declined over the previous decade.

Meanwhile, in Michigan’s first 19 months as a Right to Work state, the Great Lakes State saw a 3.3% rise in manufacturing payroll, while forced-dues states lagged behind at 0.6%.  At the same time, manufacturing employee compensation grew 25% faster than the national average according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Finally, while the new law in Missouri has not yet gone into effect and full data isn’t yet available on the barely month-old Kentucky law, or the law still facing spurious legal challenges in West Virginia, available data from Wisconsin, over its first twelve months as a Right to Work state, show the state gained 49,100 private-sector jobs — a level of job growth the state hadn’t seen in over a decade.

Bill Doomed By Weak House Leadership

But New Hampshire won’t see any of those economic benefits this year following legislators’ caving to Big Labor’s intimidation tactics after Speaker Shawn Jasper failed to push his caucus in favor of ending forced unionism in New Hampshire.

Noted Mark Mix, “Unfortunately, instead of strongly urging his caucus to come out in favor of Right to Work, Speaker Jasper instead opted to publicly predict the legislation’s demise while making excuses for his own unwillingness to lobby the caucus.”

Of course, that should come as no surprise to observers of the New Hampshire House.

In fact, Speaker Jasper hired a Chief of Staff with extensive ties to firefighters union bosses, and had stacked the House Labor Committee with anti-Right to Work legislators with strong union boss links:  Troy Merner (Iron Workers), Mike McCarthy (IBEW), Fred Doucette and Sean Morrison (Firefighters) — two of whom he also placed on his leadership team.

Continued Mix, “Jasper repeatedly predicted the bill’s demise, but it’s easy to predict something you had a large part in causing.  Sadly, with Jasper’s lieutenants hampering efforts to pass the bill through the House, the bill ultimately failed.

“With the benefits to personal liberty and economic prosperity that go along with Right to Work, and numerous studies demonstrating broad support for Right to Work among voters in state after state, including New Hampshire,” Mark Mix noted, “the issue is unlikely to go away in state capitols until politicians put an end to Big Labor’s coercive forced-unionism privileges once and for all.  And as recent history demonstrates, politicians will either realize that or pay a price at the polls.”

Mix concluded, “While disappointed with today’s result, Right to Work supporters should remain confident that forced unionism will end in the Granite State and nationwide.”

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The National Right to Work Committee, established in 1955, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, single-purpose citizens’ organization dedicated to the principle that all Americans must have the right to join a union if they choose to, but none should ever be forced to affiliate with a union in order to get or keep a job.  Its web address is www.nrtwc.org.

This article was originally published by the National Right to Work Committee:

Granite Staters Renew Right to Work Drive