Join the Pro-Growth Rebellion – Pass Right to Work
Those among us who have achieved a certain age grew up watching and being inspired by The Lone
Ranger, introduced at the beginning of each episode as the “daring and resourceful masked rider of the
plains, who, with his faithful Indian companion Tonto, led the fight for law and order in the early West.”
The Lone Ranger’s modus operandi was that, whenever the balance between the wealthy and powerful
few and the poor and oppressed many was upset, he and Tonto would swoop into Town, organize the
good, defeat the bad, and restore the balance.
In doing this, the Lone Ranger resembled a labor union, but with one significant difference: Once the
Lone Ranger had achieved his objective, he would leave, thereby avoiding pursuit of his law-and-order
agenda to the point where – by suppressing such offenses as spitting on the sidewalk, jay-walking, and
double-parking horses – he would harm and eventually become obnoxious to those he had benefited. A
labor union, on the other hand, remains forever, and pursues its redistributionist agenda to the point where – by demanding and extracting ever more pay and benefits – it harms and eventually becomes obnoxious to those it benefited by making their labor, and the industries employing it, uncompetitive.
Over the 70 years since enactment of the Taft-Hartley Act, workers have increasingly rejected union
membership, not from unmindfulness of or ingratitude for what the union movement accomplished for
them, but from a recognition that its goals have been accomplished, and that it’s time for the union – like
the Lone Ranger – to ride off into the sunset until needed again.
But union leaders don’t see it that way. To them, a union is forever, even though the goals it was formed
to achieve have been accomplished. So they fight for existence and relevance by seeking to require by law
what they cannot accomplish by voluntary association. Thus, in many states if more than 50% of workers
agree to create a union shop, all workers are required to join the union and pay dues. In others, nonmembers, though allowed to work, are required to pay a fee for the union’s services as their bargaining agent, regardless of their opinion of the services’ value to them.
Right-to-work laws ban contracts that require non-union employees to pay union dues. Such laws may
cover private sector contracts, public sector contracts, or both. The benefits to states having the protection
of right-to-work laws are overwhelming. Economist Arthur Laffer has noted that “the economies in states
with right-to-work laws grow significantly faster than those in forced-union states. They also have higher
employment growth, attract more residents, and have more rapid growth in state and local tax revenues
than forced-union states.”
New Hampshire has before it an opportunity, in Senate Bill (SB) 11, to join the 24 other states that have
sided with the simple proposition that no American worker should be prohibited from joining a labor union, required to join a union as a condition of employment, or – through union dues or agency fees – be required to pay for representation or contribute to political causes he opposes.
Granite State Taxpayers urges voters to join the pro-economic growth rebellion by urging their Senators and Representatives to pass, and Governor Sununu to sign, SB 11.
Attorney Gregory M. Sorg is a former State Representative and is a Board Member of Granite State Taxpayers.