When Forbes studied The Best States for Business and Careers, Indiana ranked 34th. Indiana ranked 49th in economic growth prospects. A Right To Law Act would change its 49th ranking.
The Right To Work states of Idaho, Virginia, and North Carolina took the top three spots. States that embrace employee freedom from union conscription dominated the top of the list.
Right To Work States top list: Indiana 34th, Kentucky 25th, and Illinois 41st
Virginia is prospering more than most states in the nation, thanks in part to its Right to Work law — and Gov. Bob McDonnell is not hesitate to acknowledge the fact. He recently wrote a letter outlining his position on the issue and made it clear — he is a proud and ardent supporter of the state’s Right to Work law. Read and enjoy:
There’s much more separating Richmond and Washington than just 100 miles of interstate.
It’s a Tale of Two Cities.
In Washington they’re bogged down in red ink, spiraling debt, expanding government and overspending – all while the difficult decisions are left to future generations.
Here in Richmond, for the second straight year, we’ve reached the end of our fiscal year in the black —with a surplus this year of more than $500 million.
What does it take to create jobs and bring economic development to Virginia?
It’s really common sense and a focus on getting results, something that is in short supply in Washington.
Businesses want consistency and a level playing field, low taxes, reasonable regulation, good schools and a world-class transportation system.
We are unapologetic supporters of Virginia’s Right-to-Work laws and fighting off the union excesses that is hurting businessmen across the United States.
We’ve kept taxes low on businesses in Virginia.
We’ve worked to reduce the regulatory burden on businesses here in the Commonwealth.
Contrast that with how Washington does businesses.
In Washington, the Administration is using unelected people in appointed boards to do what Congress can’t, like using the NLRB to prohibit companies like Boeing from relocating some of their workforce to Right To Work states. (more…)
In Virginia, voters get a choice between Obama’s Former-Democrat National Committee Chairman and chief Obamanomics cheerleader Tim Kaine or freedom champion Former-Governor George Allen. George Allen has championed freedom for for employees from forced-dues as Governor and U.S. Senator. His campaign has announced that he intends to continue to fight compulsion for both workers and businesses if he is elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012.
From Wesley Hester at the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
Republican U.S. Senate candidate George Allen will today roll out his “Freedom to Work Act,” a three-pronged blueprint to free U.S. businesses of what he sees as onerous burdens imposed by the federal government.
Allen will unveil his plan at Botetourt County-based Dynax America Corp., a Japanese subsidiary that manufactures parts for automotive transmissions. Allen recruited the business to the state as governor in 1996.
The goals of the plan, Allen said Tuesday in an interview with The Times-Dispatch, are to “help businesses create jobs, save the taxpayers money and protect the liberty of working men and working women.”
[T]he plan would amend the National Labor Relations Act to prevent workers from being compelled to pay union dues or fees to obtain or keep a job and guarantee workers the opportunity to cast a secret ballot before a union can be organized.
“No working man nor working woman should have to pay union dues or fees of say $700 a year as a condition of getting or keeping a job,” he said. “That’s just a matter of liberty.”
“Freedom of Movement,” would strip the National Labor Relations Board of the power to order any employer to move, shut down, or transfer employment.
Allen’s plan would also seek to prohibit project labor agreement requirements on federal and federally assisted construction contracts, and repeal Davis-Bacon wage laws, which require that federal government construction contract workers be paid no less than the locally prevailing wages and benefits on similar project.
Virginia’s solid Right To Work foundation has helped keep its state budget in the black, its people working, and made it an attractive place for businesses to locate. More importantly it allows Virginia to lived up to Patrick Henry’s words demanding “Liberty.”
New Hampshire has the opportunity to live up to its motto and “Live Free” by overriding Gov. John Lynch’s veto of freedom.
Lynch, who is heavily financed by forced-union dues given to him by Big Labor bosses, chose to thwart freedom for working men and women. Somehow, Lynch decided it is more just to require people to be forced to pay tributes union bosses against their will that to let struggling workers in New Hampshire decide if they should keep their own wages or choose to share some with a union. Encourage your legislators to override Gov. Lynch’s veto of “Freedom” and “Liberty.”
From the Washington Post:
He received the loudest applause when he mentioned the need to tap the nation’s natural resources as part of a complete energy plan and to turn New Hampshire into a right-to-work state.
“We have a country that is now facing some tough issues,” he said. “It is time for a change.”
Development Counselors International (DCI) ranked the top five and the bottom five states, in terms of what states provide an economic climate most favorable to business. The rankings show that states following right-to-work laws held the top five spots, while states following more union-friendly rules held the bottom five spots.
DCI asked corporate executives and representatives to name the three states they thought provided the “most favorable business climates,” and the three states least favorable to business. Texas ranked #1 in the final survey results, while California ranked dead last at #50.
DCI provided this commentary on the results:
Enacting a Right to Work law in Kentucky would be a boon for jobs and economic prosperity — but don’t just take our word for it. The Bowling Green Daily News agrees:
Gov. Steve Beshear and the Democrat-controlled House are beholden to labor unions in this state and for that reason, year after year we continue to lose companies and jobs to other Southern states because Kentucky is not a right-to-work state.
Right-to-work laws protect workers’ freedoms by not forcing them to pay dues to a union upon becoming employed or throughout employment. Nearly any citizen in a right-to-work state is protected by a state’s right-to-work law.
Labor unions make up less than 9 percent of Kentucky’s workforce, so it would make sense that Beshear and the House would have more concern for the majority of the workforce. Sadly, they don’t. They need the unions, who contribute millions of dollars every election year through political action committees or other ways to encourage the governor and those in the House to follow part of their agenda, which is not allowing Kentucky to become a right-to-work state.
Kentucky is the only Southern state not to have a right-to-work law. For that reason, many companies don’t even consider our state when choosing plant locations.
Business 101 would tell you that this is simply bad business. The governor and House are hindering our state because they ignore reality. Shame on them. It reflects poor leadership and it holds our state back when competing for jobs that could be coming to Kentucky.
Simpson County Judge-Executive Jim Henderson is a strong supporter of the right-to-work concept.
Henderson said on a number of occasions during the process of trying to get a company to come to Franklin, it was eliminated because of not being a right-to-work state. He said it was communicated through correspondence and other means of communication that not having a right-to-work law is why companies aren’t coming to his city.One only has to look at companies such as Nissan North America. The company admitted that one reason it decided to move its headquarters from California to Tennessee and not Kentucky was because of the lower business costs. Interestingly enough, the average Kentuckian has to work 13 months to make what an average Tennessean can in one year. (more…)
Another study has clearly demonstrated that enacting Right to Work laws is a critical factor in creating jobs and a pro-growth environment for your state. Pollina Real Estate has chosen the top 5 states for jobs and according to their report, all five are Right to Work states:
From BigGovernment.com:
Virginia’s Former-Governor George Allen again rises to defend Right To Work and the principles of liberty embraced by our Founding Fathers against attacks from the Obama Administration and the acquiescent U.S. Senate.
It is time for all freedom-loving people to stand up against the forces of tyranny that have taken hold of numerous government agencies such as the NLRB. It is time that elected officials and candidates for office to declare their positions for or against individual liberty. If for liberty, then they must act to oppose the tyranny of forced unionism and its suppression of the individual. (For Governor Allen’s full Op-Ed in Politico click here.)
President Thomas Jefferson defined the sum of good government as, “a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.”
Those words are the uplifting principles of a free society.
Unfortunately these principles are being ignored by the powers in Washington.
Virginia deserves leaders unafraid to speak out against this administration, the federal bureaucracy and the union bosses who seek to undermine our free market economy and who will fight for Virginia’s working families.
The National Labor Relations Board’s complaint against Boeing’s locating some production facilities in South Carolina is an attack on the founding principles of our country. It’s also an attack on the freedom and competitiveness of every state with right-to-work laws -– including Virginia.
It is the responsibility of Washington leaders and candidates running for office to speak out against the dangerous precedent of the NLRB’s assault on the liberty of working men and women everywhere and the rights and prerogatives of the people in the States.
It’s time for this over-reaching federal government to get out of our lives and stop encroaching on the economic freedom of Virginia — and all right-to-work states.