In New Hampshire, "We Are Wisconsin" now.
Ray Buckley, NH Democratic Party Chair first broke the news on Blue Hampshire:
I was just told that the House Republicans just attached an amendment on the budget bill calling for the repeal of collective bargaining.
Time to get on the phones everyone.
I will post more information as soon as I receive it.
A little later, and a press release with some more detail:
NH HOUSE FINANCE COMMITTEE VOTES FOR UNION BUSTING
After Hours Amendment on Un-Related Bill Calls for Repeal of Collective Bargaining Rights, Harms Middle Class Families
CONCORD, NH – The Finance Committee of the NH House of Representatives just voted to repeal collective bargaining arrangements during a committee discussion on an unrelated bill, HB 2 dealing with the state budget.
“This is an unprecedented attack on the middle class in the State of New Hampshire,” said Diana Lacey, President of the State Employees Association, SEA/SEIU Local 1984. “Speaker O’Brien publicly claimed that he was not interested in pursuing these attacks on workers, but Representative Neil Kurk ignored that message and used a backroom maneuver under the cover of darkness to strip more than 60,000 middle class workers and taxpayers of our collective bargaining rights. While the Speaker promised transparency, Rep. Kurk is pushing forward an amendment that’s never had a public hearing or any other opportunity for public input. These legislators should be ashamed of themselves for treating working families this way, without even giving them a chance to defend themselves. This is politics at its worse, dirty and underhanded.”
The amended analysis reads: “Provides that, upon expiration of a collective bargaining agreement, parties subject to the agreement shall become at-will employees whose salaries, benefits, and terms and conditions of employment shall be at the discretion of the employer.”
Hundreds of employer-employee contracts in New Hampshire will come to an end immediately if an impasse is not resolved by the expiration of the original agreement. If passed, this could mean thousands of New Hampshire workers will become at-will employees with no rights in the workplace regarding wages, benefits and terms of employment. Even simple delays in contract negotiations would put thousands of workers on the line under this new amendment.
Hundreds of Granite Staters have attended State House hearings to voice opposition to similar anti-worker legislation, but this move to circumvent the legislative process and ram through an amendment in the late evening hours means not a single member of the public was allowed to comment on the legislation before it was passed.
“I went to the State House to testify against other anti-worker legislation, and you can bet I would have been there for this bill if they had given me the chance,” said Ann Smith, a Concord resident who recently retired from the Department of Information Technology. “I waited 5 or 6 hours last time because so many people opposed the legislation they introduced. This time the new leadership in Concord didn’t even take the time to hear how many people oppose their extreme ideas.”
“Instead of focusing on creating jobs, the House of Representatives is attacking working families and the entire middle class here in New Hampshire,” Lacey said. “This move is Kurk’s latest attempt to use the state budget as a vehicle to attack the core and fundamental values New Hampshire citizens hold dear. He knows these are controversial provisions that will dilute the discussion on the serious budget cuts and disturbing corporate tax giveaways extremists like him are trying to push through this year. Does he really think he can attack enough taxpayers in New Hampshire that we will be too distracted to see the damage being done to our fellow citizens? Does he think we won’t realize they haven’t created a single job and in fact are sending more people to the unemployment line, cutting life-preserving services, and rolling back our rights?”
“The circus atmosphere Kurk is creating with these attacks will not fool anyone. We know extremists when we see them and we’re watching every move. The State Employees Association will be reaching out to other legislators to see if they approve of late-night amendments with no public hearing and to ask if they stand with their more extreme anti-worker colleagues or whether they will represent the middle class families of their district.”
Here is some context for those of you who don't spend your days tracking New Hampshire politics:
• Last November, GOP supermajorities were swept into House and Senate, though our Democratic Governor, John Lynch, was elected to an historic fourth term. Unfortunately, however, those supermajorities are veto-proof.
• Our state house is massive (400 members); as a result there is little vetting of the candidates, and in a wave election like the one we had in November some really fringe members got into office, led by radical right-winger and inexperienced legislator House Speaker Bill O'Brien. You may remember, he was the one recently profiled by WaPo for being caught on tape telling the Tea People about his plans to disenfranchise voting rights for college kids because they vote their feelings.
• The NH House already passed a "Right-to-Work" law 221-131. While it will probably pass the senate, it will almost certainly get vetoed by the Gov. The original roll call numbers do not speak well to its ability to achieve veto override.
• The bill described above is actually worse than the one in Wisconsin because it also applies to wages. Plus, it had no public hearing.
So the question is: why are they trying this amendment gambit to abolish collective bargaining rights when they already face an uphill battle with the (very harmful but) less extreme Right-to-Work bill? My thoughts:
This has everything to do with trying to grab national attention and out-of-state money. Particularly, out-of-state POTUS Wannabe PAC money. We are the First-in-the-Nation primary state, after all. All the Presidential Wannabes are coming here, and this will give them a great reason to gladhand the NH House GOPers, pose for pictures, write checks, etc... In turn the Gingriches of the world will make soundbites on gutting labor rights that will get carried nationally.
And while I fully expect that this attempt to gut labor rights will fail here, simply due to the roll call dynamics of having a Democratic governor, I also fully expect that Speaker O'Brien will huff and puff and attempt a state government shutdown over this until he has had his fill of national attention and money. And it is unclear what this attention might mean for attitudes on this issue nationally and in your state in the post-Wisconsin landscape.
UPDATE: freeda beat me to it on the Big Orange. Three cheers for freeda!
UPDATE2x: The Concord Monitor:
The amendment passed 18-7, with Republican Lee Quandt of Exeter joining committee Democrats in dissenting.
Quandt said after the vote that there has been an "unprecedented attack" on public employees this legislative session.
"We started a war we don't belong in," Quandt said. "No company or government lasts long when you go to war with your own employees."