New Mexico is Right for Right to Work

New Mexico is Right for Right to Work

[media-credit id=7 align="alignright" width="300"][/media-credit]Eric Fruits, the president and chief economist at Economics International Corp., an economics consulting firm, makes the case on why passing a Right to Work statute in New Mexico would help create jobs and prosperity: Right-to-work legislation is one of the very few pro-growth policies that is virtually costless to enact. And a large body of research has found that it benefits states economically. New Mexico, along with much of the country, still struggles to recover from a recession that began more than four years ago. While the state has benefited from the recent energy boom, states like New Mexico have struggled to cope with the employment consequences of the recession. In response, policymakers have tended to focus on fiscal policies such as tax cuts and “stimulus spending” rather than market structural solutions. Right-to-work laws can be a key component of a pro-investment and pro-employment package for New Mexico that encourages firms to locate and expand in the state. A large body of research has found that, as a group, right-to-work states have enjoyed more rapid employment growth, better job preservation and faster recoveries from recession that states without right-to-work laws in place. New Mexico has recognized this when the Legislature passed right-to-work legislation twice – in 1979 and 1981 – only to see the legislation vetoed by then-Gov. Bruce King. Proponents of right-to-work legislation argue that individuals should have the choice of whether or not to join a union and that the choice of whether to join a union should not be a condition of employment. They point to the relatively rapid growth in employment and incomes in right-to-work states relative to non-right-to-work states.
Union Bosses And Senate Democrats Try to Stop Worker Pay Raises

Union Bosses And Senate Democrats Try to Stop Worker Pay Raises

Sen. Marco Rubio writes on the pages of National Review about the RAISE Act, legislation that would permit an employer to award individual employees with financial incentives beyond the pay or compensation level specified in a collective bargaining agreement (CBA): The basis of the American Dream is that one can work hard, play by the rules, and realize one’s potential. But big-government policies deny this freedom to millions of Americans. One of these policies can be fixed when the Senate votes on the RAISE Act later today. Under federal law, private-sector union contracts do not just set the minimum wage employers pay, they also set the maximum wage. Businesses may not pay more than the union rate without negotiating it. Unfortunately, unions often say “No” when employers propose rewarding productive workers. Unions prefer contracts that, to quote Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa, “create uniform standards for all employees” — no matter how hard they work. Only about one in five union contracts permit performance pay.

Union Bosses Press for Court-Imposed Bailout

Union bosses in Indiana are pressing for a judicially imposed bailout, arguing that the state's new Right to Work Law will reduce revenues to the union since membership is no longer compulsory.  The LibertyLawSite looks at the lawsuit and the impact the law has had on job creation in the state:   Amidst a series of setbacks at both the ballot box and the court house, the fate of the compulsory union movement may depend in large measure on the outcome of two lawsuits currently pending in Indiana.  In early 2012, Governor Mitch Daniels signed into law a bill that made Indiana the nation’s twenty-third right-to-work state.  Unions have filed two challenges to that law, one each in state and federal court.  The outcome of those lawsuits will help to determine whether Indiana remains a right-to-work state and whether other states follow Indiana’s lead. In its first few months of operation, the right-to-work law has, by almost any measure, helped to attract new businesses to Indiana.  Indiana has only 2.2 percent of the nation’s population.  In April, the first full month after the law took effect, more than one in eight jobs created around the country were created in Indiana – more than in states several times the size of Indiana.  According to the state’s economic development arm, almost fifty out-of-state companies cited the right-to-work law as one reason that they were considering opening a location in Indiana.