The NH Senate and House (our House) each passed this bill forward, only to be rejected by Gov. Lynch.
This override is more than just maintaining a worker’s right to retain private property and their freedom to associate, and it’s more than the proven economic benefits New Hampshire would receive from becoming the 23rd Right to Work state. It is also about the dignity of the Republican and Conservative majorities we fought so hard for last November.
Unfortunately, the Senate stopped the House’s "Kurk" amendment (mandating that public employee unions re-negotiate their contracts before they expire) and, as such, the corrupting agenda and influence of these Unions remains intact. As a result, their membership breathed a huge sigh of relief, and realized that our caucus is on somewhat shaky ground (the Senate’s RGGI vote made that even a bit worse).
It’s one thing to ask Unions to follow a contractually-agreed time frame when renegotiating, but it’s a completely different (and more disturbing) issue when they force employees to join their ranks, or they confiscate a portion of employee income (Agency fees) when they do not join. I will not even get into the discussion of how some unions disregard Federal law in the way they operate and organize or how they spend their dues-fed revenues (I did this in earlier tracts).
Right to Work does NOT break the unions, but it does eliminate their guaranteed membership quota, forcing them to actually convince their peers to join, and preserves the income of those who do not join. We all realize that accountability and competition are healthy concepts – yet we are at risk of throwing away the opportunity to make taxpayer funded public employee Unions follow them.
In summary, there are 5 things to take away from this debate:
- Liberty, and the basic freedom to associate in the workplace
- Preservation of assets, prohibiting income confiscation
- The economic benefits of becoming the 23rd (and only Northeast) Right to Work state
- The dignity of the Republican majority, and how a failure to override will affect ALL future legislative action
- The hope that House members will do the right thing, even in the face of adversity and threat, as our Founders did.
If we fail to override the Governor’s Right to Work Veto, the Unions win (again), while New Hampshire, and liberty, both lose.
