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AFT-NH Logo 2024

I am here today to express our support for SB 206.

 

AFT-NH supports SB 206 because giving our educators and students distraction free learning time to focus on learning during the school day is just good common sense. 

 

We support this bill because the current system isn’t working. As cell phones have become a common, and constant companion for teens, preteens, and even some elementary school students, the issues this causes in our classrooms have multiplied. Cell phones have become a distraction from the learning tasks at hand, competing with the teacher for the attention of students. With ready access to social media aps, student cell phone use during the school day can increase student anxiety, add to feelings of stress, decrease in-person communication and inflame incidents of cyberbullying. 

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AFT-NH Logo 2024

If you live in a town of one of these School Districts, please attend the Deliberative Session! Please support AFT-NH Members who have worked hard to negotiate a contract that will appear on March 11th (Election Day) ballots. TOGETHER WE WIN!

KNOW THE IMPACT!

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State House 08-2024

Protect Working Families

Action Needed - Red Alert

Attack on Public Employees   This week the House Labor Committee heard HB 735-FN which would require that every public sector union would need to recertify by a vote of the majority of the employees in a bargaining unit when more than half of the current members of the unit have never voted on the issue. While we are confident that our unions would recertify this is an unnecessary burden meant to weaken the collective power of all our members. It would force our local unions to spend time and energy on recertification elections instead of on

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AFT-NH Logo 2024

I am here today to testify in opposition to HB 735.

This bill is a solution in search of a problem. In the Granite State our public sector unions represent the teachers and paraeducators who teach our children, the firefighters who come out in any weather to put out the fire when our house is burning, the police officers who respond when there has been a break in at our homes, the highway department workers who plow, salt or sands the road to make it possible for us to get where we are going, and many others. The point is, these are the people who keep our Granite State communities running. They are friends, neighbors and taxpayers: they live here, and raise families here. They deserve the opportunity to be treated fairly and with respect on the job and way they get that respect is through their unions.

Unions are the only way to level the playing field so that ordinary working people can collectively negotiate a fair bargain with their employer, in this case a town, city, school district or state. And NH voters overwhelmingly support unions and collective bargaining as a way for average working families to get ahead especially in the economy. In fact, a bipartisan RABA Research poll of NH voters completed in the past week found that 90% of Granite State voters believe workers should be able to join a union if they choose and 91% oppose government interference in collective bargaining arrangements. Requiring more frequent automatic recertification votes for already existing unions is government interference in collective bargaining.

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AFT-NH Logo 2024

I am here today to express our opposition to SB 97.

 

In an ideal world, parents could ask for assignment of their student to the public school within or outside of their district that best suited their family’s needs and that would be easy request to grant. Also in an ideal world, all public school districts would have sufficient funding from the state so that every school in every district could provide an equally robust public education to all students: one with small class sizes, individualized learning, a rigorous curriculum, academic support and, if needed, behavioral support, all provided by certified, professional and fully trained educators.

 

We don’t currently have an ideal situation in the Granite State. The State Legislature fails to meet its constitutional duty to Granite State students to fund public schools at a sufficient level. School districts must rely on local property taxpayers for more than 70 percent of their funding so they can meet the learning needs of students. This leads to unequal opportunities between districts. It even leads to unequal opportunities within districts as administrators use grant funding to provide needed supports for student learning and well-being, which sometimes can only be provided in some schools.

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State House 08-2024

Urgent Red Alert

Stop the Attack on Public Sector Unions

This week featured the first attack on Union’s collective bargaining rights with sadly many more to come. The many times defeated so- called Right to Work was heard again this week. Despite the temperatures being well below freezing (and in fact well below zero) our Union Brothers and Sisters showed up to stand up for our collective bargaining rights. Although the bill was scheduled to be voted right after the public hearing, the overwhelming amount of online and in person testimony caused the committee Chair to delay the vote until early

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