Metcalfe, Lawmakers Declare Zero-Cost Right to Work Package the Key to Unlocking Economic Expansion and Job Growth

1/22/2013

HARRISBURG – State House members, leaders from organizations across the Commonwealth and several negatively impacted individuals committed to ending the practice of compulsory unionism joined State Representative Daryl Metcalfe (R-Butler) to officially reintroduce the Pennsylvania Open Workforce Initiative for the 2013-14 legislative session.“Whether the economic objective is reining in astronomical state employee pension costs, liquor privatization or expanding school choice, evidence across the nation proves that the most critical and essential step for economic growth is to break the government-sanctioned grip of compulsory unionism by making Pennsylvania America’s 25th Right to Work state,” said Metcalfe. “Best of all, the total taxpayer cost of restoring the Right to Work in Pennsylvania is absolutely ZERO.”

Designed to protect the individual freedoms of Pennsylvania’s working citizens and energize the economy by ending the practice of compulsory unionism, specific legislation and bill sponsors for the Pennsylvania Open Workforce Initiative are as follows:

• House Bill 50, the Freedom of Employment Act sponsored by Metcalfe, would make employment no longer conditional upon union membership or paying dues to a union.

• House Bill 51, sponsored by Representative Kathy Rapp (R-Warren/Forest/McKean), would prohibit labor unions from collecting compulsory union dues from non-union public
school employees.

• House Bill 52, sponsored by Representative Fred Keller (R-Union/Snyder), would prohibit labor organizations from collecting compulsory union dues from non-union state employees.

• House Bill 53, sponsored by Representative Jim Cox (R-Berks), would prohibit labor organizations from collecting compulsory union dues from non-union local government employees.

• House Bill 54, sponsored by Representative Jerry Knowles (R-Berks/Schuylkill), would prohibit private-sector employment from being conditional upon membership or non-membership in a labor organization. Compulsory dues would be prohibited for non-union members.

• House Bill 250, sponsored by Representative Stephen Bloom (R-Cumberland), would give public employees the freedom to opt out of their union membership at any time during their contract. Current law only allows employees to terminate their union membership 15 days prior to the expiration of the contract.

During the past decade, private-sector employee compensation grew 12 percent in America’s Right to Work states as compared to only 3 percent in forced unionism states, such as Pennsylvania.

“No hard-working Pennsylvania taxpayer should be forced into union membership or to pay union dues in exchange for the fundamental Right to Work,” said Metcalfe. “The framers of our Constitution never intended for our government to become an enforcer for unions or a collector of forced union dues at taxpayer expense.”

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Representative Daryl Metcalfe
12th District
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Media Contact: Ty McCauslin
717.772.9979
tmccausl@pahousegop.com
www.RepMetcalfe.com / www.Facebook.com/RepMetcalfe