Working Families Celebrate Victory in New Hampshire

by Mike Hall, Mar 23, 2006

Longtime observers of the New Hampshire Legislature say that so-called right to work (RTW) legislation has surfaced about 30 times.  Just once did it every make any headway. It got a slight majority in a House vote many years ago.

On March 22, after a working families’ mobilization plan that showed lawmakers just how deeply right to work laws go against the grain of New Hampshire voters, the latest RTW proposal again failed. The bill was put out its misery by a 255­–85 vote in the state House of Representatives, which has just 150 Democratic lawmakers.

Even with the out-of-state backing and slick mailings from the misleadingly named National Right to Work Committee, the bill got far fewer votes this time than in 2003 when the House turned it back 262 to 103.

This year’s victory follows recent working family wins against the right to work for less bills in Kentucky and Indiana.

(Right to work laws were given that catchy but erroneous name by Big Business—but in fact they don’t guarantee workers any rights. What they really do is weaken unions and employee bargaining and destroy the best job security protection that exists: the union contract. Meanwhile, they allow some workers to pay nothing and get all the benefits of a union membership.)

AFL-CIO rep Jan Schaffer reports the network of worksite coordinators the Granite State’s unions set up were crucial in the grassroots fight against RTW, including spearheading the postcard campaign in which working families sent some 24,000 postcards to lawmakers urging they defeat the bill. Says Schaffer:

They were able to generate letters and phone calls to their state reps…get people out to district meetings and a lobby day at the capitol.

New Hampshire, says Schaffer, is unique because the 400 House members don’t have offices. So phone calls from working families went straight into their home or personal cells phones—an accepted practice in the state along with simply knocking on their door sometimes, too. Without offices, lobby day visits are conducted in cafeterias, hallways, cubbyholes and hideaways.

Political observers expect there will be another RTW fight somewhere down the road in New Hampshire because it seems to keep coming back, like an infestation of mosquitoes, dung beetles and other obnoxious pests.
 

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