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We at the National Right to Work Committee are fighting at many levels to protect America's working men and women's right to decide for themselves whether or not a union deserves their financial support.
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Big Labor's Bogus Ad Exposed: Idaho Economy Growing Twice as Fast as Oklahoma
Idaho AFL-CIO boss admits: “Business has flocked to Idaho”
FOR RELEASE: September 21, 2001
SPRINGFIELD, Va. - Organized Labor's latest television ad attacking State Question 695, Oklahoma's Right to Work Amendment, has been exposed as bogus by U.S. Department of Commerce statistics and confirmed by the current Idaho AFL-CIO president.
Big Labor union czars' latest television ad portrays Idaho's economy as depressed since passing a Right to Work law in 1985. The ad then encourages Oklahomans to oppose SQ 695 on September 25.
According to government statistics and the Idaho president of the AFL-CIO however, Idaho's economy has soared since choosing to protect its workers, outpacing Oklahoma, a state which permits workers to be fired or denied a job for refusing to pay union dues.
The Commerce department's Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) report released June 4, ranked Idaho fourth in terms of real growth in gross state product (GSP) for the 50 states between 1992 and 1999. Oklahoma ranked 34th.
GSP, the state counterpart to the nation's gross domestic product (GDP), is the market value of all the goods and services produced by labor and property located in a state. Real GSP growth, which adjusts for inflation, is considered one of the best indicators of a state's economic vitality.
"In "chained" dollars (an inflation-adjusting measure used by the BEA to account for the different goods and services produced in each state), Idaho's total real GSP grew by 56%, or 6.6% annually, from 1992-99. Oklahoma's GSP grew by just 24%, or 3.1% per annum.
Even Idaho AFLO-CIO President Dave Whaley has been forced to concede the Right to Work law's positive impact on the state economy. In a Labor Day weekend op-ed for the Idaho Falls Post-Register last year, Whaley acknowledged, "business has flocked to Idaho" since 1986.
Using any measure or time frame, other government figures continue to substantiate Mr. Whaley's comments.
In February 1986, the first full month Idaho's Right to Work Law was in effect, manufacturing wages were $9.48 an hour, below the national average of $9.68. That November, Idahoans ignored Big Labor and voted to keep the Right to Work law.
Over the next 15 years, even as manufacturing wages failed to keep up with inflation in neighboring forced-unionism states Washington, Oregon and Montana, manufacturing wages outpaced inflation in Idaho.
In February 2001, Idaho manufacturing wages in current dollars were $15.82, $1.17 above the national average.
High-paying manufacturing jobs in Idaho skyrocketed 41% during this 15-year period, compared to a 6% decline nationwide. Just since 1990, this sector has grown 22.1% per annum in Idaho, nearly three times faster than Oklahoma's 7.9% rate
Thus, total personal income in Idaho grew by 76% in constant dollars between 1986 and last year, far more than the national average of 51%. Idaho's personal income growth outpaced that of 27 of the 29 forced-unionism states.
Overall, from 1990 to 2000, non-agricultural jobs in Idaho increased 45%, twice as fast as Oklahoma's 23.5% growth rate.
For more information on State Question 695, Oklahoma's Right to Work Amendment, please contact Barry R. Kelley at (405) 302-4978.