Fiscal impact reports (FIRs) are prepared by the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) for standing finance

committees of the NM Legislature. The LFC does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of these reports

if they are used for other purposes.

Current FIRs (in HTML & Adobe PDF formats) are a vailable on the NM Legislative Website (legis.state.nm.us).

Adobe PDF versions include all attachments, whereas HTML versions may not. Previously issued FIRs and

attachments may be obtained from the LFC in Suite 101 of the State Capitol Building North.

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

SPONSOR Sanchez, M.

Original Date

Last Updated

1/22/08

HB

SHORT TITLE Support Federal Employees Free Choice Act

SJM 24

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

Senate Joint Memorial 24 requests support of the Employee Free Choice Act. This Act would

authorize 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 Joint Resolution 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 Joint Resolution 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 Joint Memorial requests that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the New Mexico

Congressional delegation and to the Governor.

Senate Joint Memorial 24 – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

Senate Joint Memorial States that:

•

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,

promoting 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

pensions in union jobs;

•

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

insurance 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

percent 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

congress 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;

PRC/mt