Q: New Hampshire could soon become the 23rd state to pass right to work legislation. Unions don't like it because it makes membership voluntary. Would you support a federal right-to-work law?
PAWLENTY: People shouldn't be forced to belong or be a membe
in any organization. And the government has no business telling you what group to be a member of or not. I support strongly right-to-work legislation. For much of his life my dad was a teamster truck driver. I was in a union. We grew up in a blue-collar
town. I understand these issues. But we don't have a government tell us what organizations or associations we should be in. We tell the government what to do.
GINGRICH: I hope that N.H. does adopt right-to-work. I'd frankly keep it at the state level
because as each new state becomes right to work, they send a signal to the remaining states, don't be stupid.
CAIN: I do believe that the states should have the right. I believe in right-to-work, and I hope that N.H. is able to get it passed.
I had to find ways to improve our business and job climate. We started a program called the Job Opportunity Building Zone (JOBZ). It's a program that allows companies who start or grow their business in economically depressed areas of the state to
essentially enjoy tax-free status. JOBZ ignited 305 projects, with commitments of 4563 new jobs and retention of 0582 existing jobs that would otherwise have been lost. It also produced more than $705 million in new capital improvements.
Source: Courage to Stand, by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, p.182
, Jan 11, 2011
A job is not just a job; it's an identity
As I turned 9 years old, in 1969, Swift & Company closed its plant. They decided to decentralize, in part to combat the power of the unions, and move to a smaller processing plants at a variety of locations. I would figure that out years later. At the
time, all I knew was that they were shutting down. It was all anyone talked about. Thousands of people were left with no work, with what seemed like no warning.
Watching how that plant's closing affected the adults around me made something very clear t
me: a job is not just a job. I suppose that's why I can't stand when jobs are reduced to nothing more than statistics. A job is, in many ways, an identity. Most people's lives revolve around their work. Your job takes up about half your waking hours.
But when you think in terms of the importance work holds in people's lives, how it shapes the choices people make about where and how they live, and combine it with the sense of loss that comes when a whole industry disappears, the loss is immeasurable.
