Small Business Owners Stand with Workers

Maine Small Business Statement in Support of Workers and Bargaining Rights:
People with Good-Paying Jobs are the Bedrock of Our Customer Base
May 30, 2011

Honorable Members of the Labor, Research, Commerce and Economic Development Committee:

As small business owners, we know our businesses are the foundation of our local economies. We also know the foundation of our success is a healthy customer base. People with good-paying jobs, including public employees and workers in the private sector, are the bedrock of that customer base.

That's why we stand with the workers – our teachers, our firefighters, and other public and private sector workers – whose livelihoods and bargaining rights are under attack through anti-collective bargaining and LD 309, the so-called “right-to-work” proposal. Workers' ability to come together, form unions, and exercise their bargaining rights is what has created a level playing field with large, powerful employers, helped build America's middle class, and helped fuel the success of our businesses.

As small business people, we know what it's like not to have bargaining power. We contend with powerful corporate interests – the health insurance industry, Wall Street banks, or big box competitors – every day. Without bargaining power, the deck is stacked against us. We wouldn't wish that on anyone, and certainly not on the customers who sustain us.

As Maine looks to small businesses to create jobs and build the economic recovery, we need policies that bring customers into our businesses and bolster local economies by creating good-paying jobs, not undermining them.

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