NH AFL-CIO Pres. Brackett: Please Support Rep Ley For Dem. Leader

My name is Glenn Brackett and I am the President of the New Hampshire AFL-CIO. In the wake of November’s election results, organized labor faces a genuine crisis.

Anti-worker zealots in the legislature and the Sununu administration want to destroy unions and the workers’ protections we fight for. We need a labor activist to help us in Concord - That’s why I write today asking you to support Representative Doug Ley’s campaign to become the Democratic candidate for Speaker of the New Hampshire House.Please contact your State Representatives and urge them to support Rep. Doug Ley! (You can find contact information for your representatives here.)

As a labor leader, I have never seen a more effective advocate in the House for the interests of union members and working families generally. Doug, a longtime member of the New Hampshire AFT, co-sponsored and managed the passage in the House of organized labor’s number one priority in the last decade: He passed a restoration of prevailing wage protections to people working on projects paid for with state dollars. Restoring these protections, stripped in 1986 by Gov. John Sununu and his right-wing allies in the General Court, would mean higher wages, greater efficiency, and lower costs in state construction projects. The effort to override Chris Sununu’s veto lost in the Senate but Doug deserves credit for lining up a bipartisan majority of 213 in support of this top priority for organized labor.

Representative Ley also successfully advocated for record levels of support for local education funding and municipal aid, allowing our local governments to hold the line on property tax rates. Doug fought for these priorities in tough negotiations with a recalcitrant governor’s office and got them restored to our state budget.

These efforts alone would be enough to make me an enthusiastic supporter of Doug’s candidacy but these are just a couple examples of progressive priorities that Doug has advanced as House Majority Leader. Others include House passage of agenda items including -

-paid family & medical leave,

-bringing back a made-in-NH minimum wage and returning economic local control to our state’s elected officials from Washington bureaucrats, and

-overiding Sununu’s veto of the death penalty.

Doug’s leadership was also clear to all as New Hampshire’s 400-member House of Representatives wrestled with the COVID-19 pandemic and how to continue to effectively legislate and manage hundreds of bills that still required hearings and votes when the coronavirus hit. That the House successfully managed the outstanding legislation and saw necessary bills passed to keep the state working is a tribute to Doug’s leadership and ability to collaborate across the aisles in times of crisis.

Please join me in supporting Representative Doug Ley’s effort to become New Hampshire’s next Democratic Speaker of the House. The next session promises to be a challenging one and Doug’s leadership is the best hope we have to defend the progress we’ve made in this state and build for the future.

Yours, in solidarity

Pres. Glenn Brackett