Move to Right to Work State Improves Quality Of Life

‘Our Quality of Life Will Improve’

Relocating to Right to Work Idaho Lifts Workers’ Living Standards

Bob Piazza is the president of a high-tech pump manufacturer that has operated successfully in Sonoma, Calif., for 70 years. But not for much longer.

As Sonoma Index-Tribune editor Lorna Sheridan reported on April 30, before the end of the year Mr. Piazza’s firm, Price Pump, will “pull up stakes and move its headquarters — lock, stock, and barrel — to Boise, Idaho.”

Mr. Piazza did not make this decision lightly. As he told Ms. Sheridan, he has lived all of his 74 years in California, and he and his wife have lived together there for the 53 years they’ve been married. When the firm moves, the Piazzas will have to move to Idaho.

‘… the Way Things, are Going, We Don’t Have a Choice’

“I don’t love change,” he admitted to the Index-Tribune.  “But the way things are going, we don’t have a choice.”

He cited California’s heavy tax burden and government “over-regulation” as good reasons to move, but the state’s extraordinarily high cost of living is perhaps the worst problem of all. Just for starters, it makes it extremely difficult for him to fill many positions:

“It’s impossible to hire [entry-level] workers here as [such] workers can’t afford to live here.”

California is one of 22 states that still lack a Right to Work law prohibiting the termination of employees for refusal to pay dues or fees to an unwanted union. The high cost of doing business in California and many other forced-unionism states has nothing to do with high living standards for employees.

In fact, half of Price Pump’s 36 employees have gladly accepted offers from Mr. Piazza to make the move with the company to Right to Work Idaho, where they will be able to continue doing the same jobs for the same pay they are receiving in Sonoma.

But a dollar goes much further in the Gem State than it does in the Golden State.

According to data collected and published by the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center, a state government agency, the overall cost of necessities like housing, food, energy and health care is 53% higher in California than it is in Idaho.

One Price Pump employee who lost his house during the Great Recession told Mr. Piazza he would be making the move to Idaho because it would “give him a chance to be a homeowner again.”

Big Labor Politicians are Primarily Responsible for California’s Unaffordability

According to Ms. Sheridan, several Price Pump employees “have been pleased to find that they can buy a house in the Boise area that is comparable to their home in Sonoma for less than half the cost.”

The Index-Tribune quoted the assessment of Quality Assurance Technician Ryan Daley, who along with his wife and another 11 employees made a trip to Boise to see the area in March:

“[My wife and I] agree that the Boise area would be a fantastic place to raise our young family and keep the American dream alive. Our quality of life will improve.”

It is regulation-happy, tax-hiking politicians, installed in office and kept in power by Big Labor’s forced-dues-fueled political machine, who are primarily responsible for the high cost of living and doing business in California.

A September 2017 editorial appearing in southern California’s Orange County Register focused on the public policies fostering high housing costs:

“[Z]oning restrictions that limit the amount of developable land; . . . high development impact fees, overly strict building codes and labor rules that drive up the cost of building; abuses of the California Environmental Quality Act that delay or kill development altogether. …”

Right to Work Passage a Critical Step for Making California Less Job-Toxic

National Right to Work Committee Vice President Matthew Leen commented: “If elected officials in the Golden State want to stop the hemorrhaging of good jobs to Right to Work states like Idaho, they need to make their state more hospitable to private sector employees and business owners.

“And passage of a Right to Work law prohibiting the termination of employees for refusal to join or pay dues to an unwanted union is an absolutely necessary first step towards making California a better place to work and hire employees of all educational backgrounds and skill levels.”

(source: July 2018 National Right to Work Newsletter)