The following letter was sent to Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 85 Business Representative Bill Hard, who passed it along to us. It is reprinted with the author's permission.

Dear Bill,

I am writing this letter to you and your membership to explain how the Right-To-Work Law has affected the labor movement in New Orleans. Unfortunately, the bill was enacted July 9, 1976 and went into effect Oct. 6, 1976. Before Oct. 6, 1976, our organization controlled at least 95% of the commercial and industrial market. Local 60 had approximately 3,000 members and no less then 2,000 travelers working in our area.

A few years after the bill went into affect our wages were seriously cut from $16.80 to $12.41 per hour. The reason for this was because our contractors could not compete with the non-union sector. Union shops became double breasted and non-union workers had the luxury of union representation without paying one red cent towards union dues.

Non-union workers had a choice to be union or non-union. This made it very difficult for organizing.

To this day, we are still faced with the repercussions of this bill. For example, signatory contractors have the right by law to lay-off union members and keep permit hands employed. Although for the most part, our contractors usually work with us on this issue depending on the circumstances.

Our market share now in the industrial work is less then 1% and steadily declining due to nonunion contractors in our area. We are still maintaining the larger commercial projects, however, this represents only 10% of the work. My opinion of the right-to-work law and how it affects organized labor is that it is a major mechanism in placed designed to bust unions.

Fraternally,
Rickey L. Fabra
President
Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 60
New Orleans, LA