8/2/2019 Focus Should Be on Jobs and Building the Middle Class

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For Immediate Release Contact: Rachel NapearDate: 3/13/2012 Cell: 603 247 5056FOCUS SHOULD BE ON JOBS AND BUILDING THE MIDDLE CLASSThe OBrien Legislature needs stop telling New Hampshire businesses what they can and cant do attaxpayer expense.

Concord, NH - At a time when the New Hampshire legislature should be focusing on issues vital to our statelike job creation and improving our education system, the house is again considering legislation that hasbeen rejected by the governor, the legislature, and the people of New Hampshire and that would interferewith small businesses and reduce the wages of working Granite Staters.

"As a business professor and small business owner, I am appalled that the legislature is again spendingtaxpayer dollars on their failed right-to-work legislation legislation that would put bureaucrats andpoliticians between businesses and their employees," said Democratic candidate for governor Jackie Cilley."What we should be striving for are policies that allow every worker to make their way into the middle classand to become the consumer that Main Street New Hampshire is looking for. The one ingredient for asuccessful business is consumers who have the willingness and the ability to buy from Main Street NewHampshire."Cilley, who has taught at UNH's Whittemore School for Business for more than twenty years and currentlyruns a small business with her husband, cited a study published last year by Gordon Lafer of the EconomicPolicy Institute. This study concluded that In states that have adopted RTW (right-to-work), annual wagesand benefits are about $1,500 lower than for comparable workers in non-RTW states for both union andnonunion workers and the odds of getting health insurance or a pension through ones job are also lower."

The report also pointed out that RTW has no impact at all on job growth - a conclusion of multiple statisticalstudies carried out by both the reports author and by other independent economists."We've seen a number of polls that demonstrate that the voters don't support right-to-work legislation,Governor Lynch has already vetoed legislation like this once and the House voted to sustain that veto inspite of Speaker O'Brien's arm-twisting," said Cilley, adding "They all realize we put into place such thingsas collective bargaining, minimum wage laws, worker safety programs, overtime rules, and workercompensation because we want our workers to fully participate in our economy and support smallbusinesses. Our economy won't recover without them."

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