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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Lujan, B.

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/28/08

HM 29

SHORT TITLE Support Federal Employees Free Choice Act

SB

ANALYST Cox

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

NFI

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Memorial 29 requests support of the Employee Free Choice Act. This Act would author-

ize the National Labor Relations Board to certify a union as the bargaining representative when a

majority of employees voluntarily signs authorization cards designating that union to represent

them.

This Memorial requests that the legislature of the State of New Mexico provide for first-contract

mediation and arbitration and establish meaningful penalties for violations of a worker's freedom

to choose a union.

The Memorial further requests that the legislature of the state of New Mexico urge Congress to

pass the Employee Free Choice Act to protect and preserve for America's workers their freedom

to choose for themselves whether or not to form a union.

The Memorial requests that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the New Mexico Congres-

sional delegation and to the Governor.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

Senate Joint Memorial States that:

House Memorial 29 – Page

2

•

In 1935 the United States established by law that workers must be free to form unions;

and

•

the free choice to join with others and bargain for better wages and benefits is essential to

economic opportunity and good living standards; and

•

unions benefit communities by strengthening living standards, stabilizing tax bases, pro-

moting equal treatment and enhancing civic participation; and

•

States in which more people are union members are states with higher wages, better

benefits and better schools; and

•

unions help raise workers' pay and narrow the income gap for minorities and women by

increasing median weekly earnings by thirty-one percent for union female workers,

thirty-six percent for African American workers, forty-six percent for Latino workers and

eight percent for Asian American workers; and

•

workers are also more likely to have health coverage and guaranteed defined-benefit pen-

sions in union jobs;

•

and eighty percent of private-sector union workers have employer-provided health insur-

ance compared with only forty-nine percent of nonunion workers and sixty-eight percent

of union workers have defined-benefit pension plans compared with fourteen percent of

nonunion workers; and

•

workers across the nation are routinely denied the freedom to form unions and bargain for

a better life, with twenty-five percent of private-sector employers illegally firing at least

one worker for union activity during organizing campaigns; and

•

seventy-seven percent of the public believes it is important to have strong laws protecting

the freedom of workers to make their own decisions about having a union, and sixty per-

cent of workers would join a union if they had the chance; and

•

employers often refuse to bargain fairly after workers form a union by dragging out first-

contract bargaining for up to two years in forty-five percent of successful campaigns; and

•

each year millions of dollars are spent to frustrate workers' efforts to form unions, and

ninety-two percent of private-sector employers force employees to attend mandatory anti-

union meetings; and

•

when the right of workers to form a union is violated, wages fall, race and gender pay

gaps widen, workplace discrimination increases and job safety standards disappear; and

•

a worker's fundamental right to choose a union without coercion and intimidation is a

public issue that requires public policy solutions, including legislative remedies; and

•

the federal Employee Free Choice Act received majority support in both houses of con-

gress in 2007 but was defeated by a minority of senators; and

•

the Employee Free Choice Act will safeguard workers' rights to make their own decisions

about forming a union, provide for first-contract mediation and arbitration and establish

meaningful penalties when employers violate workers' rights;

DUPLICATE RELATIONSHIP

This Memorial is identical to Senate Joint Memorial 24.

PRC/bb