‘A Huge Economic-Development Advantage’

Think right-to-work laws don’t encourage investment? Ask Mobile Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Bill Sisson, who told The Seattle Times last week that RTW status was “a huge economic-development advantage.”

The Times profiled Airbus’s factory in Alabama, where it is assembling A321s. According to Barry Eccleston, president of the firm’s U.S. operations: “We told all the people we recruited that we were planning to create an environment where employees have a direct relationship with management.”

Translation: Thanks but no thanks, International Association of Machinists.

Meanwhile, in New Mexico, the attempt to make the state an “aviation hub” continues to fizzle. Between the third quarters of 2012 and 2015, employment in the sector actually dropped (average of the three months in each quarter):

With few exceptions, it’s only dead-enders in “organized labor” and taxpayer-funded “higher education” who deny the value of RTW as an economic-development tool. Right to work is no panacea for New Mexico’s many economic woes, but it’s a strong step in the right direction. Ask Airbus.