New Mexico’s poor public sector labor laws

The Commonwealth Foundation is the larger, Pennsylvania-based version of the Rio Grande Foundation, a free market think tank.

They recently produced a study (you can read it here) of state public bargaining laws. With the 2018 Janus decision by the US Supreme Court to end forced unionism for government workers, government employees have experienced an undisputed increase in freedom, but “Right to Work” is  one of many state-level laws impacting worker freedom. Unfortunately (but unsurprisingly) New Mexico’s Democratic dominance has led to policies that are VERY beneficial to government employee unions.

The Commonwealth Foundation gives New Mexico a “D-” while UT, OK, and CO all achieve “C” scores. AZ is a “B” and TX is “A+.” In addition to labor laws written in favor of government unions New Mexico has bloated government which further gives the unions power and consumes human resources that could otherwise be used in the private sector.