AFT-NH Testimony on HB 735
From Debrah Howes, President AFT-NH
Thank you, Chairman Creighton and members of the Labor, Industrial and Rehabilitative Services Committee
My name is Debrah Howes. I am president of the American Federation of Teachers – New Hampshire. I am here to speak on behalf of our 3500 members across the state. Our members include preK through 12 public school educators and support staff, public and private university faculty as well as town employees across the Granite State.
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.
There is no evidence of great unhappiness with the current system. There are already solutions if workers in a covered public sector workplace are unhappy with their union representation. The first is if a union member is unhappy they can work together with other members to change how the union is run. Unions are democracies. The other option is through a decertification vote by petitioning the PELRB. However, satisfaction with the representation in our public sector workplaces runs pretty high. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are approximately 70,000 union workers who work in the Granite State and there are an additional 7,000 workers in the covered workforce who are not union members. Even though these statistics do not separate private sector and public sector, a 90% membership rate is a very healthy approval rate of not only wanting a union in your workplace but actively supporting it by joining.
This bill would create a burden of red tape for the State Department of Labor and the Public Employees Labor Relations Board. It will also place additional and frequent reporting requirements on local cities, towns and school districts. The State would now need accurate and up to date employee lists of every person in the covered workplace to compare to lists from when the bargaining unit was first certified. The lists would need to be updated frequently as there are frequent hirings and resignations in public sector employment, sometimes weekly, Those lists would have to correctly identify who was currently in a position that was eligible to be covered as part of the bargaining unit. With many positions unfilled by permanent employees and contracted out temporarily, this is a challenge.
Some of our bargaining units were certified decades ago, by the way, and are still maintaining membership rates of 90 percent or more even though union membership is not and cannot be required. The composition of positions in bargaining units could be a source of contention between public sector employers and employees unions as job titles have changed over the years since the original certification vote. Opening this issue will lead to expensive and potentially adversarial proceedings between public sector employees and public sector employees’ unions. None of this improves the services taxpayers expect to receive for the taxes they pay.
For members of public employee unions, passing this bill and requiring automatic recertification would be a distraction from our jobs of teaching students, fighting fires, plowing roads or providing for public safety. Union members know the value of having a union. We are able to bargain for higher and more secure wages, better benefits, a secure retirement and a voice in our working conditions. This voice includes input into workers’ safety conditions, reasonable workloads and the resources we need so we can do the job well for the people we serve. If we are always having to prepare for a recertification vote, or hold them frequently with fluctuations in the workforce, the union does not have to ability to be that collective voice that members want it to be.
HB 735 is illogical. It ties the Department of Labor, Local Public Employers and indeed local public employees’ unions up in mountains of red tape. The effect of this would be to eliminate the only tool workers have to secure family-sustaining jobs and to retire with dignity. Granite State voters have made clear that they support unions and collective bargaining.
We urge you to find HB 735 Inexpedient to Legislate.