"Thanks to my Spider sense, I am freed from those who have deceived me"

"Thanks to my Spider sense, I am freed from those who have deceived me"

Right to Work: Spider Senses Tingling From the Foster's Daily Democrat State Rep. Steve Vaillancourt makes the case for enacting Right to Work: Until the last few weeks, right to work has always been a close call for me. In years past, I have opposed the bill after buying into the argument that one should not benefit from union contracts unless one pays the cost of negotiating them. It was a close call because then as now, I believe the individual should control his or her own life without being coerced into joining anything. Thus, I have always seen a conflict of two principles and have to weigh their importance. This year, with the Daniels amendment, the conflict was removed, and I voted for right to work. It remained a close call, l but the Daniels amendment tipped the scales to supporting the bill. Even with the Daniels amendment gone, I continue to support the right to work bill, and guess what. It's no longer a close call. I'm now a staunch supporter of the bill and urge all my Republican colleagues, especially those who like me have been on the fence in the past, to vote to override the governor's veto. Clearly, unions were using the payment for negotiation argument as nothing more than a red herring. How do I know this? Because, when they refused to budge in their total opposition to the bill, even when the Daniels amendment was added, my Spider senses startled tingling. That's a phrase I use to describe when I begin to realize that I'm being taken for a fool, that those trying to convince me are in fact being less than totally honest.

"Thanks to my Spider sense, I am freed from those who have deceived me"

Right to Work: Spider Senses Tingling From the Foster's Daily Democrat State Rep. Steve Vaillancourt makes the case for enacting Right to Work: Until the last few weeks, right to work has always been a close call for me. In years past, I have opposed the bill after buying into the argument that one should not benefit from union contracts unless one pays the cost of negotiating them. It was a close call because then as now, I believe the individual should control his or her own life without being coerced into joining anything. Thus, I have always seen a conflict of two principles and have to weigh their importance. This year, with the Daniels amendment, the conflict was removed, and I voted for right to work. It remained a close call, l but the Daniels amendment tipped the scales to supporting the bill. Even with the Daniels amendment gone, I continue to support the right to work bill, and guess what. It's no longer a close call. I'm now a staunch supporter of the bill and urge all my Republican colleagues, especially those who like me have been on the fence in the past, to vote to override the governor's veto. Clearly, unions were using the payment for negotiation argument as nothing more than a red herring. How do I know this? Because, when they refused to budge in their total opposition to the bill, even when the Daniels amendment was added, my Spider senses startled tingling. That's a phrase I use to describe when I begin to realize that I'm being taken for a fool, that those trying to convince me are in fact being less than totally honest.

If We Honor Liberty.....

If We Honor Liberty.....

Not many states honor liberty like New Hampshire. Their license plates boldly proclaim "Give me liberty or give me death." To say that forced unionism runs counter to that philosophy is an obvious statement.  Senator Jim Forsythe makes that case in the Union Leader newspaper: Most Granite State citizens take their freedom and liberty seriously, which shouldn't be surprising since our state’s motto is “Live Free or Die.” Yet each and every month, tens of thousands of Granite State workers are forced to surrender a portion of their paychecks to a union just to have a job and feed their family. And to add insult to injury, the unions turn around and use this forced-dues cash to bankroll causes and politicians that many of these workers who are forced to pay union dues would strongly disagree with. I should know, since the unions mailed negative campaign material against me since I was openly campaigning on passing right-to-work legislation. This is antithetical to the idea of freedom. No American should be forced to pay dues to any private organization as a condition of employment.

Right to Work in New England

Once again, the Wall Street Journal makes an eloquent case in support of the Right to Work -- this time imploring legislators in New Hampshire to override a veto to become the first Right to Work state in New England: Twenty-two states have right-to-work laws, most of them in the faster-growing South and West. The big news is that New Hampshire is edging closer to becoming the 23rd, which would make it the first new right-to-work state since Oklahoma in 2001 and could lead to a regional revolution. The state House and Senate in Concord have passed a right-to-work statute, but Governor John Lynch, a Democrat, vetoed the bill. On May 25 the legislature will attempt to override that veto, and House Speaker Bill O'Brien says he is "cautiously optimistic" that he can gain the two-thirds majority to do so. This would be a landmark victory for the right-to-work movement. All other Northeastern states operate under forced-union rules, so the Granite State would gain a decisive competitive advantage over its neighbors in attracting investment and jobs. "Passing right to work on top of not having an income tax could make us the Hong Kong of the region," Mr. O'Brien says. The precedent would put enormous pressure on Maine and Massachusetts to follow. We assume Vermont is hopeless and prefers to be a tourist and natural history museum. Right-to-work laws don't outlaw unions. They simply allow each individual worker to decide whether or not to join the union. In compulsory-union states, workers employed in unionized workplaces are required to have union dues withheld from their paychecks as a condition of employment, so there's big money at stake here for unions.