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On January 30, 2013 the NH House Labor, Industrial, andRehabilitative Services Committee heard HB 323, a bill establishing theFranklin Partin right to work act.
The bill was sponsored by former House Speaker (and manwithout a committee) William O’Brien, Rep. Al Baldasaro, Rep. Mark Warden, andReps: Boehm, Cebrowski, Kappler, and Comerford. Two out of the seven sponsorsare Free Staters. All are Republicans.
This is yet another attempt on O’Brien’s part at passing aright to work law. It was what he wanted more than anything last biennium, andhe’s bitter about being thwarted.
As lead sponsor of the bill, O’Brien testified first. Hebegan by giving us the history of Franklin Partin. According to Obie, FranklinPartin came back from serving his country, and got a job he loved. Then somehowwhatever this beloved job was became unionized, and poor Franklin Partin had toleave. His religious beliefs prevented him from joining a union. (That’s aChristian denomination I’m unfamiliar with.)
In any case, he was the NH president of Right to Work, andspent years fighting to get a RTW law passed in NH, and that’s why Obie namedthe bill after him.
Obie tells us that NH will either be left behind in aNortheast that is a forced union part of the country, or join and enjoy thebenefits of being a rtw state. Even government workers are leaving unions. (Nomention of the cause – they’re losing their jobs). NH is going to become aneconomic backwater. Our young people are leaving NH – leaving because jobsaren’t being created.
Rep. Flanagan (from the committee) asked Obie about wages in other RTW states.O’Brien did a very elaborate tap-dance around having to answer that question.At one point he said that new jobs are being created that are going to looklike low wage jobs, but they really aren’t. HUH?
Flanagan asks for clarification. Bottom line: the jobs beingcreated are low wage jobs, but they’ll get better. In fact, Obie says, NH wagesare artificially high, a symptom of stagnation. This may explain why O’Brienhas never won a Nobel prize in economics.
Rep. Weed asked O’Brien why he thinks young people are leaving the state. Arehigh tuitions part of the problem? O’Brien says he hasn’t seen any data onthat.
He brought only one copy of his testimony for the committee.There are 20 representatives on the committee.
Next up was Rep. Mark Warden, a Republican and Free Stater.Warden tells us that this is all about freedom of choice! Choice is good forsociety. He compared this bill to a woman’s right to choose, and to marriageequality. As a liberty guy, he favors choice! He praises those who refuse to bebullied!
As a liberty guy who loves choice, he didn’t do so well invoting to defend women’s choices. He voted to prohibit the state fromcontracting with Planned Parenthood. He voted to repeal insurance coverage formidwives. He avoided voting on all of the rest of the antiabortion/antiwomanbills that were presented last year. He also avoided voting for the GOP repealof NH’s marriage equality law. He did vote to allow businesses to discriminateagainst gay couples. He avoided voting on leaving NH’s marriage equality law inplace. When it comes to putting his vote where all that choice is, Brave SirRobin is an absentee.
Representative Cebrowski is a sponsor because he’s on theFinance Committee, and it breaks his heart every year to listen to the peoplefrom various underfunded departments and programs ask for money that we justdon’t have. If we pass right to work, our business tax revenues will increaseso that we might give “a little” to UNH. Or to fund CHINS. They’re alllegitimate needs, and he wants to meet those needs.
Rep. Richardson asked him what percentage of private sectorjobs are unionized? Cebrowski didn’t know. The Chairman (Rep. White) askedwhere on the DRED list of things companies want does RTW fall? They haven’ttalked about that, says Cebrowski.
Next up, Al Baldasaro and his stream of consciousness. Hisfather was a union guy in Massachusetts. Back then it was voluntary. Then theTeamsters took over and forced union membership. It is Al’s GOD GIVEN right tomake his own decisions about where his money goes. His girlfriend has a job inMA that is union and it’s KILLING HER. We stand for FREEDOM here in NH. We haveto open our eyes and take a look at our tax structure! (On that Al and Iagree.) This has to do with FREEDOM. A vote against this is a vote against thelittle guy. His daughter works in Boston. His son works in Maine. His kidswon’t come back here because there’s nothing here. But this isn’t about theunions this is about FREEDOM. We have to look out for the little people!
Rep. Kelly from the committee asked him if MA, where hisdaughter works is a RTW state. He really, REALLY didn’t want to answer that.She asks if Maine, where his son works is an RTW state. Again, he really didn’twant to say no.
Rep. Richardson asked if Baldasaro could give him a list ofcompanies that are waiting in line to see this bill get passed. Al can’t andhe’s miffed about it. He’s sure though, that if we give business a reason tocome here, they will.
Rep. Weed: “You keep saying this is about jobs. Are youspeaking of minimum wage jobs? Are you aware that those states with RTW jobgrowth have low wage jobs?” Baldasaro: Would you prefer to have someone work atWal-Mart or go to a good paying job? Apparently he’s not aware that Wal-Martisn’t a union shop.
As for freedom – we all know that Rep. Baldasaro is a hugeproponent of freedom for white, heterosexual men.
The hearing went from 9:30 am to 12:15 pm. There was a lotof testimony. I’m going to just hit some of the high points – or the flat outweird parts.
During AFL-CIO President Mark McKenzie’s questioning by thecommittee Rep. Will Infantine used the phrase “no tickee, no washee.” Willmembers of the Free State Project call for his censure and impeachment forusing racist terminology? Don’t hold your breath!
Former Rep. David Welch was a former union guy in MA. Hesigned a pledge last session to vote for RTW. Then he learned more about theunion presence in NH, and given how small it is, couldn’t understand what thefuss was about. There was no problem in this state with unions, he decided. Hepointed out at this hearing that that decision cost him his re-election. “Allthose emails I got about union thugs…it turns out the thugs weren’t in theunions.”
During his testimony, business owner Jon Bresler asked ifthere was a single businessperson in the room to testify in favor RTW. Therewas not.
Pamela Ian compared the fight for right to work to the fightto end slavery. Free Staters don’t fear grandiosity.
John Kalb of the New England Citizens for Right to Workexpressed a lot of concern for the little guy. That little guy needs a pay cut,bad.
Rep. Richardson asked Kalb what the percentage of privateenterprise in NH with union membership. As it turns out, it’s 4.5%. In hishaste to mitigate the damage done by the revelation of how tiny that number is,Mr. Kalb waxed on about the great businesses in this country that aren’t unionshops. Businesses like Goldman Sachs. At that, the visitor section went wild. Goldman Sachs? The derision musthave been heard at the Barley House.
It was a long hearing. I learned that low wage jobs are theanswer to NH prayers. I learned that “looking out for the little guy,” meansensuring he gets a lousy paycheck. What better way to show you care? I also learned that those who favor RTWappear to believe that it is a magic unicorn that will, once enacted, bringmillions of jobs to our state. The fact that this isn’t true doesn’t concernthem. The fact that they would be low wage jobs doesn’t concern them. They seeauto jobs going to southern states, and think that it’s RTW that is the cause.
It doesn’t occur to them that southern states have lower energy costs. Betterinfrastructure. Better access to shipping ports.
If NH passed RTW tomorrow, we’d still have the highestenergy costs in the Northeast. We’d still have the 11th worstinfrastructure in the nation. We’d still have some of the highest propertytaxes in the nation. We’d still rank 50th in the nation in statespending on our university system.
It’s not RTW that holds us back.
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