By NANCY WEST, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – To cheers so loud Speaker Sherman Packard threatened to clear the chamber, the New Hampshire House of Representatives voted 200 to 180 to indefinitely postpone so called “right to work” legislation, House Bill 238, on Thursday.
That means the anti-union bill cannot come up again next year as well. HB 238 is the latest in many years in New Hampshire of trying to prohibit collective bargaining agreements from requiring employees join or contribute to a labor union.
It also means that some Republicans, like Rep. Stephen Pearson, joined with Democrats to effectively kill this attempt this session.
“There’s been a tremendous amount of misinformation on this issue lately,” said Rep. Stephen Pearson, R-Derry. “Let’s look at some facts, not sound bites from 10 years ago.”
Pearson said President Trump removed right to work from the Republican national platform, that Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Labor is pro-labor and anti-right to work. He pointed out that Trump invited the president of the Teamsters to speak at the Republican National Convention.
“All it’s doing is alienation working families,” Pearson said. “Right to work is a concept of hollow unfulfilled promises.”
States like West Virginia and Oklahoma passed it and the promised jobs never showed up, he said.
“All it did was lower wages,” Pearson said.
Pearson said right to work is supported by the Americans for Prosperity, an anti-Trump organization that is no longer relevant.
Rep. James Creighton, R-Antrim spoke in favor of HB 238.
“Right to work is not anti-union. It is pro-worker,” Creighton said.
He called it “vital to fair employment practices.
“Workers and employers should have the option to negotiate their own employment agreement,” Creighton said.
After the vote, Americans for Prosperity Regional Director Greg Moore said the issue isn’t going away.
“Americans for Prosperity-New Hampshire has been proud to carry the torch for worker freedom in New England. Thanks to activists and policy champions, the New Hampshire Advantage has made the Granite State the most competitive and fastest growing state in region.
“Unfortunately, lawmakers have rejected an opportunity to stimulate more economic growth by continuing to deny private sector workers in New Hampshire the same right enjoyed by government employees, whose right to work was enshrined by the Supreme Court’s decision in Janus v. AFSCME. But the fight for worker freedom doesn’t end here.
“AFP-NH will deploy all our activists and resources to ensure that we hold lawmakers accountable for voting against worker freedom and continue to build policy majorities until New Hampshire joins the ranks of other Right to Work States,” Moore said.
AFT-New Hampshire President Deb Howes said: “We are grateful the New Hampshire House once again rejected a so-called right-to-work bill, recognizing it as the union-busting scam that it is.
“A bipartisan coalition of commonsense legislators stood with the overwhelming majority of Granite Staters to support workers’ rights. Membership in a labor union provides workers with what they need, including better wages and working conditions, lower risk of workplace injuries and deaths, and health insurance.
“Unions representing educators, for example, are able to negotiate decent wages and working conditions so that students have what they need to excel,” Howes said.
