SB 61 will hurt New Hampshire workers, households and families

UNIONS

Teamsters Local 633 — representing more than 5,000 working men and women across New Hampshire — is urging lawmakers to reject Senate Bill 61 and asking citizens to make their voices heard against this damaging legislation.

SB 61 is the latest attempt by outside corporate interests to use Republican legislators to force “right-to-work” laws on the people of New Hampshire, who have rejected similar proposals over and over again for close to four decades.

Right-to-work laws will mean weaker benefits and weaker wages for workers, and economic harm to households and families. New Hampshire workers know this. So do most New Hampshire lawmakers. That’s why right-to-work legislation has been blocked in New Hampshire time after time after time.

The senators who sponsored and support SB 61 are not looking out for New Hampshire people. They’re looking out for out-of-state corporate interests. These interests have paid tens of thousands of dollars in campaign funds to some of your elected senators — specifically to deliver a blow to the working people of New Hampshire and to increase corporate profit margins.

New Hampshire knows better than to buy into the argument that this bill is about freedom of choice. We see it clearly for what it is: pro-corporate interests and anti-employment.

Proof of just how much New Hampshire people are rallying against this bill may be seen in the number of opponents who spoke out against it at a hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee. Nearly 40 people showed up to testify against SB 61, including representatives from more than a dozen unions across New Hampshire, a wide range of workers from various industries and people from both the Republican and Democratic parties.

Only four people testified in support of SB 61. And of those four, three of them were from out of state.

The entire process around SB 61 is a scam designed to deceive the citizens of New Hampshire and hurt workers, households and families, to the benefit of corporations.

Right-to-work legislation has been proposed in New Hampshire 39 times. It has rightly been defeated every time. Throughout these efforts, 482 members of the public have testified before the legislature on these bills. Of those, 467 of them — 97% — have been in opposition. New Hampshire citizens have always known that right-to-work is bad for this state. Nothing has changed this time around.

Now more than ever, we need to protect our workers. Many of those who would be negatively impacted by right-to-work legislation include men and women who have worked tirelessly throughout this pandemic. Without hesitation, they have provided support to our healthcare facilities or have delivered necessities to our doors, perishables to our local markets and life-saving medicines wherever needed.

The protection and needs of our New Hampshire families and workers must be a priority for our legislators. Please join more than 5,000 Teamster members and their families across the state join thousands of other New Hampshire people in saying, “It’s time to shut rightto-work down” once and for all.

Jeff Padellaro is secretary/treasurer and principal officer of Teamsters Local 633, which is based in Manchester.