New Hampshire Public Employees Get Freedom to Form Unions by Majority Sign-Up

by Mike Hall, Jul 18, 2007

New Hampshire union members’ political activism paid off yesterday when Gov. John Lynch (D) signed legislation giving public employees the freedom to form a union when a majority of workers sign union authorization cards. The majority sign-up legislation passed the state House and Senate earlier this year.

The victory has its roots in last November’s election, when working family voters threw out the anti-worker majorities that had controlled the state legislatures for years, and elected Lynch.

The state’s public employee unions and other unions then mobilized to build support for the majority sign-up legislation through phone calls, e-mail messages, lobby visits and postcards.

The bill is similar to the majority sign-up provisions for private-sector workers in the federal Employee Free Choice Act. Majority sign-up is much faster than the government-run balloting process and leaves less time for employers to harass and intimidate workers so they will back off from joining a union.

Oregon working families chalked up a majority sign-up victory in June when Gov. Ted Kulongoski (D) signed the public employee legislation. In Massachusetts, the House passed majority sign-up and the state Senate may soon take up the bill. In a related development, more than 12,000 Delaware state employees won the right to a voice at work earlier this month when Gov. Ruth Ann Minner (D) signed legislation granting the workers collective bargaining rights.

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