The chair of the Delaware Republican party is taking Democratic lawmakers to task for killing a “right-to-work” bill in committee last week.
In the weekly Republican message, Ssate GOP party chair Charlie Copeland accuses Democrats on the Senate Labor Committee of taking “marching order” from union leaders opposed to the bill.
The bill would have created designated areas where workers wouldn’t be forced to join a union as a condition of their employment. It also sought to exempt manufacturing businesses in right-to-work zones from paying the Gross Receipts Tax for five years after hiring twenty or more workers.
The measure failed to get enough support for a vote to release it to the Senate floor for a vote and Copeland argues it deserved more consideration than it received.
“These are small, reasonable, measured approaches that would give businesses incentive to come to Delaware and hire workers, all while not interfering with the important roles unions’ play," said Copeland. "Nothing in this bill is anti-union; everything in this bill is pro-job creation, and more importantly, pro-worker.”
A similar bill in the House would allow individual municipalities and counties in the state to establish right-to-work zones. It has yet to get a hearing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRpABZesslQ
Full transcript of GOP weekly address:
Hi, I’m Delaware Republican Party Chairman Charlie Copeland. This week, the Democrats in Dover buried a Right to Work bill that would bring thousands of manufacturing jobs back to Delaware. The Democrat <> controlled Senate Labor Committee took their marching orders from the Union Bosses and quickly moved to defeat commonsense labor reform. It raises the question: are the Democrats and union bosses looking out for Delaware’s workers? Or for themselves?
Delaware has lost over 20,000 manufacturing jobs since 1990, and if we’re going to reverse this sorry trend, we’ve got to begin looking at meaningful legislation. Across the country, Right to Work laws have been protecting workers’ jobs and helping restore state economies. They’re giving more power to individual workers and spurring job growth by attracting more business to their states.
The bill would give Delaware’s workers the freedom to choose whether or not to join or financially support a labor union. The bill would also exempt manufacturing businesses in right-to-work zones from paying the Gross Receipts Tax for five years after hiring twenty or more workers. These are small, reasonable, measured approaches that would give businesses incentive to come to Delaware and hire workers, all while not interfering with the important roles unions’ play. Nothing in this bill is anti-union; everything in this bill is pro-job creation, and more importantly, pro-worker.
But these reasonable reforms frighten the Democrats, who, it seems, are happy to see Delaware keep hemorrhaging jobs as long as their campaign coffers are lined with donations from Union bosses. There’s no question about it: when Doug Drummond, President of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, had the nerve to intimidate Labor Committee Democrats by saying the bill would “more or less stop the voluntary PAC deductions that mostly go to Democrats,” they fell right into place. They put their reelection priorities and the union boss’s good graces ahead of the workers of their district, and that is simply unacceptable.
It’s time someone stood up to the union bosses. It’s time someone in Dover looked after Delaware’s workers, families, and unemployed. Right to work is meaningful, proven legislation that is helping state economies get back on track by bringing new business and jobs, and the Democrats’ shameful political move reveals their true priorities.
Thank you.