PA needs a Right to Work Law

A guest column by Susan Staub, president of PA Right to Work on important legislation needed to save Pennsylvania jobs:

Pa. needs a Right to Work Law to keep jobs from leaving state

In this sluggish, lackluster economy, the time could not be more right for a Right to Work law for Pennsylvania.

Consider these statistics from the National Institute for Labor Relations Research:

Private sector jobs in the 22 Right to Work states increased by an aggregate 9.1 percent between 2003 and 2008.

Among the eight states with the biggest gain in private-sector employment over the past five years, seven — Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, Texas, and North Dakota — have Right to Work laws.

Seven states had private-sector job growth of less than 2 percent. All seven — Indiana, Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont — are forced-dues states like Pennsylvania, which had 3.82 percent job growth.

If private-sector employment in forced-unionism states had grown from 2003-2008 as much as it did in Right to Work states (9.1 percent), there would be an additional 3.7 million Americans employed in the private sector today.

Right to Work law protect the freedom of both private and public sector employees to keep and hold a job without handing over dues or fees to a union recognized as their exclusive bargaining agent.

Almost every economic indicator shows that forced union dues inhibit job growth.

Please join with Pennsylvanians for Right to Work now as we work to advance Right to Work law legislation in both the Pennsylvania Senate and Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

State Sen. Mary Jo White (R-21st Dist.) and state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R-12th Dist.) are both circulating for co-sponsors for their respective Right to Work Law legislation.

If your state senator and/or representative is not a co-sponsor, please contact them and urge them to be a co-sponsor. If they are a co-sponsor, please thank them for being a true statesman — for standing up for the liberty and individual rights of Pennsylvania's citizens

SUSAN STAUB
President, PA Right to Work
www.PARightToWork.org