NH Teamsters Call on Lawmakers to Heed the Public

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May 03, 2011, 02:13 ET

New Poll Shows more than 60 Percent of Granite Staters Support Union Rights

MANCHESTER, N.H., May 3, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Teamsters Local 633 Principal Officer Dave Laughton today urged state lawmakers to listen to their constituents and vote against a right-to-work bill aimed at destroying unions.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100127/IBTLOGO)

New Hampshire's House is expected this week to vote on reconciliation of right-to-work legislation with a Senate version. Gov. John Lynch is expected to veto the measure, and the Legislature will try to override the veto.

Poll results released yesterday by WMUR TV-9 and the University of New Hampshire Survey Center show more than 60 percent of respondents support workers' rights to form unions and collectively bargain for wages and benefits.

"This poll supports what we've been saying all along about these attacks on New Hampshire's middle class," Laughton said. "Lawmakers who join in these attacks are violating the will of the people. The poll numbers show Granite Staters see collective bargaining as protection for both union and non-union workers."

The WMUR Granite State Poll asked two questions about union organizing and collective bargaining in New Hampshire. Both questions asked people if they thought workers in New Hampshire should have the right to form unions and bargain for wages and benefits. One question just asked about public employees alone.

More than 60 percent of the respondents to both questions said they favor the rights of unions to organize and bargain for wages and benefits.

"New Hampshire is not Wisconsin," Laughton said. "I'm pleased that most New Hampshirites support their neighbors' right to organize and bargain for a fair standard of living and a safe workplace."

Complete poll results can be found here:
http://www.unh.edu/survey-center/news/granite-state-poll.html.

Teamsters Local 633 represents nearly 5,000 members in the Granite State.

SOURCE Teamsters Local 633