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

SPONSOR Ezzell

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

01/31/2007

HB 559

SHORT TITLE

Right To Work Act

SB

ANALYST Moser

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

NFI

NFI

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Attorney Generals Office (AGO)

Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC)

NM Department of Corrections

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 559 would enact the “Right to Work Act" which would prohibit making hiring,

promotion, or continued employment conditional on becoming or remaining a member of a labor

organization or paying dues or fees to any kind of labor organization. It would prohibit

employers from requiring that a person be approved or recommended by a labor organization

before employment, promotion or continued employment. It would prohibit employers from

deducting dues or fees on behalf of a labor organization unless the employee so authorizes in

writing, and provides that such authorization is revocable.

The Act would not apply to labor agreements in effect on its effective date, but would apply to

renewals, extensions, and new agreements entered into after its effective date.

The Act provides for misdemeanor criminal penalties for its violation.

House Bill 559 – Page

2

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

There will be no fiscal impact.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

This bill would outlaw “closed shops", which are businesses or employees who require that their

employees be members of certain labor organizations as a precondition to employment.

The bill would also outlaw “union shops", or places of employment where the employer may

hire either labor union members or nonmembers but where nonmembers must become union

members, or begin to pay union dues, within a specified period of time or lose their jobs. The bill

would also prohibit “agency shops", or places of employment in which employees must pay the

equivalent of union dues, but which do not require them to formally join the union. According to

the National Right to Work Committee, 22 states have enacted so-called “right to work" laws.

The Public Employee Bargaining Act (PEBA) currently allows for employers and unions to

agree to “fair share" agreements through which employees are required as a condition of

employment to contribute the equivalent of dues to a labor organization. However, subsection

(B) of PEBA provides that if PEBA conflicts with other statutes (which would include this bill if

it passed), the other statutes control or prevail—this would result in “fair share" fees no longer

being applicable upon expiration of any existing contracts.

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