New Hampshire Battles to Become the 23rd Right to Work State -- New Hampshire's pro-Right to Work House speaker, William O'Brien (R-Mont Vernon), has vowed to make a strong push to secure enough votes in his chamber to override an all-but-inevitable veto of H.B.474. Time was when New Hampshire had the reputation, largely justified, of being an island of brisk economic expansion among the generally slow-growing New England states.
Lynch vetoes bill that would guarantee that no worker could be forced to join or pay dues to a union to get or keep a job Washington, D.C. (May 11, 2011) – In response to New Hampshire Governor John Lynch’s…
Lynch vetoes bill that would guarantee that no worker could be forced to join or pay dues to a union to get or keep a job Washington, D.C. (May 11, 2011) – In response to New Hampshire Governor John Lynch’s…
It’s official! Governor John Lynch has sided with his Big Labor allies against the individual freedom of NH citizens to choose whether or not to pay tribute to a union boss. Ignoring the calls for freedom and siding with Big Labor…
It’s official! Governor John Lynch has sided with his Big Labor allies against the individual freedom of NH citizens to choose whether or not to pay tribute to a union boss. Ignoring the calls for freedom and siding with Big Labor…
New Hampshire Governor Lynch claims that it is okay to force someone who is not party to a contract to be obligated under the private contract. For Example: Let’s say Paul is hired by Peter to work. Brutus sees Paul earning money and wants a share. Brutus meets with Peter. Peter and Brutus make a private contract of the kind Gov. Lynch endorses. Peter agrees to pay Brutus a cut from Paul’s paycheck before he pays Paul. The agreement cost Peter no more money, it gave Brutus some of Paul's money and Paul gets less money for the same work, an amount exclusivley agreed upon by Peter and Brutus. Gov. Lynch endorses the idea that Peter and Brutus can force Paul to pay Brutus against his will or lose his job. This is what Governor Lynch wants to defend as freedom, compelling a third party (any employee) to be part of a private contract? From National Review’s Brian Bolduc article, Work Free or Die: New Hampshire is “an island of common sense” in blizzard-blue New England, state representative D. J. Bettencourt tells National Review Online. As the Republican majority leader in the state house of representatives, Bettencourt, along with Speaker William O’Brien, hopes to fortify this bastion of liberty’s defenses by passing a right-to-work bill. Although H.B. 474 passed the Republican-controlled house by a hefty margin of 225 to 140, Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat, promised to veto it. “We’re reaching out to members of the GOP caucus individually and making the case,” Bettencourt notes. He makes two points in the bill’s defense: One, “the individual-freedom component,” is that “people who don’t want to join a union shouldn’t be forced to do so.” Two, New England is awash in government, and a right-to-work law would further distinguish New Hampshire from its left-leaning neighbors Vermont and Massachusetts. “To be a right-to-work state carries the potential to be a magnet for small businesses,” Bettencourt argues. Governor Lynch retorts that the bill smacks of bureaucratic meddling in business decisions. “The governor has maintained for some time now [that] so-called right-to-work legislation has state government dictating to private businesses and their employees what should be included in a contract,” Lynch’s press secretary, Colin Manning, has said. Technically, the bill is written in such a way that it forbids private contracts from including provisions to mandate that employees join unions. [Is freedom from compulsion or mandates a bad thing?] But Speaker O’Brien is having none of it.
Based on his April 12th press release remarking about New Hampshire’s March unemployment rate, Governor John Lynch has certainly been ignoring New Hampshire’s January “15-year High Unemployment” rate of “5.1%” (see WMUR link) and March’s 5.2% rate : “We continue…
Indiana has already blown its chance to move to the top five next year, but New Hampshire, Missouri, and Maine still have the opportunity to turn their migration around. For the seventh year in…
New England Citizens for Right to Work Press Release: Right to Work Passes General Court Concord, NH – By a vote of 225 to 140, the New Hampshire House concurred with the Senate’s version of the New Hampshire Right to Work Bill (H.B. 474) today, sending the bill to Governor Lynch’s desk. Once Governor Lynch receives the bill, he has 5 days to either sign the bill into law, let the bill become law without his signature or veto it and send it back to the General Court, where it will take a two thirds vote of each house to override his veto. If the bill becomes law, New Hampshire would be the twenty-third state to pass a Right to Work law, which simply states that no worker can be forced to join or pay dues to a labor union just to have a job and feed their families. Right now, over 68,000 workers in New Hampshire are forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment. “A New Hampshire Right to Work law would simply restore workers' ability to decide for themselves whether or not to join or pay union dues or ‘fees’ to a union official,” said John Kalb, Executive Director of New England Citizens for Right to Work. Polls conducted in New Hampshire show that nearly 80% of Granite State citizens believe it is wrong to force workers to pay union dues just to get or keep a job. Governor Lynch has publicly stated his intention to veto the bill. Kalb said, “Governor Lynch has already promised his Big Labor benefactors that he will veto the Right to Work Bill. But if Right to Work supporters keep up the pressure, we have a good chance of overriding the Governor’s veto and making Right to Work the law of the land in New Hampshire.