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New Hampshire
Legislature Sends March 26, 2003 A large Republican majority in the New Hampshire House of Representatives rejected a right-to-work bill March 25. The 262-103 vote indicated the full body overwhelmingly agreed with an earlier House Labor Committee recommendation against the bill. Lobbying was strong on both sides of the issue in the weeks leading up to the vote. Business groups, which are usually united in support of such legislation, split over the bill promoted by the Virginia-based Right-to-Work Legal Foundation. The bill drew surprising opposition from an organization of small business owners who noted that the current health insurance crisis is worse in right-to-work states. "More than 43,000 New Hampshire workers and their families could lose employer-provided health insurance" if the bill is passed," said a letter to the Legislature from the New Hampshire Small Business Alliance. "That would hurt the state's business climate as well as our bottom line as costs are shifted to small businesses and taxpayers." IBEW International President Edwin D. Hill said the vote showed that labor can work with both political parties in the interest of the common good. "I commend those House members who stood up to the well-funded out-of-state lobbyists pushing this effort," he said. "They voted for stronger communities against the selfish interests of an issue-driven political elite." Right-to-work laws erode the efficacy of democratically elected unions and promote lower wages and benefits, weakening whole communities. The average worker in states with these laws earns approximately $5,000 less than workers in other states and are less likely have employer-provided insurance. States with such laws have higher workplace injury and death rates, higher rates of crime and poverty and weaker schools. Right-to-work legislation has been introduced and rejected in nearly every session of the New Hampshire Legislature since the mid-1970s.
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More on the RTW bill in NH...NH AFL-CIO Right to Work DEFEATED!
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