New Right-to-Work Legislation Resurfaces at Statehouse [VIDEO]

The House Labor, Industrial and Rehabilitative Services Committee heard testimony about the latest bill that would, if approved, allow employees at union jobs to not to forced to join a union or pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment. 

The Franklin Partin right-to-work act, HB-323, named after the former president of the NH Right to Work Committee, who passed away in 2010, is the latest bill to come before the House to propose such provisions. 

A number of the bill’s sponsors – including former House Speaker William O’Brien, R-Mont Vernon, and state Rep. Al Baldasaro – spoke on Jan. 30, in favor of the bill, calling it a freedom of choice measure that would allow new companies to come to the state.

Raymond Buckley, the chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, as well as a number of labor leaders, like Mark MacKenzie, the current president of the NH AFL-CIO, criticized the legislation saying it would lower the state’s living standards.

According to the bill’s text, it would allow employees to opt-out of belonging to a union or being forced to pay dues without facing discrimination or discharge. It would also prohibit “coercion and intimidation” by anyone against an employee, or that person's family, that is choosing to opt-out. The bill would levy penalties against unions that violated the law and allow employees to sue if necessary.

Opponents of the bill pointed to studies – like the Economic Policy Institute’s Right To Work: A Failed Policy – which purported to show that workers in states that have adopted right-to-work legislation earn wages and benefits that amount to about $1,500 less than comparable workers in non-right-to-work states. Free trade policies like NAFTA and globalization, in general, have “rendered RTW impotent,” according to the report, since companies looking lower wages are more apt to move jobs overseas than to right-to-work states. Opponents also challenged the idea that new companies would come to New Hampshire noting that currently, the quality of life and the economy are stronger in the Granite State than in right-to-work states.

A previous right-to-work bill was approved by the Republican-controlled House in 2011. Then-Gov. John Lynch vetoed the bill. The House was unable to override the governor’s veto, falling about 12 votes shy, according to press reports.

The bill is expected to be defeated in the House, now that Democrats hold a majority.