Indiana Senate approves right-to-work bill

By Tom LoBianco, Asso­ci­ated Press

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Law­mak­ers put Indi­ana on the verge of becom­ing the Rust Belt’s first right-to-work state, pass­ing leg­is­la­tion Wednes­day that pro­hibits labor con­tracts requir­ing work­ers to pay union rep­re­sen­ta­tion fees.

Hun­dreds of union mem­bers gath­ered at the State­house chanted “Shame on you!” and “See you at the Super Bowl!” as the vote was announced. As the streets of Indi­anapo­lis bus­tled with Super Bowl fes­tiv­i­ties, pro­test­ers planned a down­town rally that they hoped would point a national spot­light on the state.

Indi­ana will be the first state in a decade to enact a right-to-work law pro­hibit­ing labor con­tracts that require work­ers to pay union rep­re­sen­ta­tion fees. Indiana’s move is expected to embolden national right-to-work advo­cates, who have unsuc­cess­fully pushed the mea­sure in other states fol­low­ing a Repub­li­can sweep of state­houses in 2010. But few right-to-work states boast Indiana’s union clout, borne of a long man­u­fac­tur­ing legacy.

The law’s pas­sage would close one chap­ter in a con­tentious debate that sparked a five-week walk­out by out­num­bered House Democ­rats last year and saw them stage numer­ous boy­cotts this ses­sion, delay­ing action on other bills and threat­en­ing to spill over into the Feb. 5 Super Bowl.

The Republican-controlled Sen­ate approved the bill in a 28–22 vote Wednes­day morn­ing. The bill now heads for the desk of Repub­li­can Gov. Mitch Daniels, who has said he will sign it upon arrival.

Union pro­test­ers said they were not ready to be silenced.

Chuck Wheel­don of Lafayette, wear­ing a Super Bowl 2012 base­ball cap, said he was glad Indi­anapo­lis was host­ing the game in a sta­dium that many of his fel­low car­pen­ters union mem­bers helped build.

“I don’t want to ruin it for any­body, but I def­i­nitely want every­body around the rest of the coun­try to know what the heck is going on,” Wheel­don said. “If we cause a lit­tle ruckus, so be it.”

Daniels said this week that it would be a “colos­sal mis­take” for union pro­test­ers to dis­rupt Super Bowl fes­tiv­i­ties and that any such move could back­fire on them.

Indi­ana AFL-CIO spokesman Jeff Har­ris said pro­test­ers planned to hand out leaflets before Sunday’s game.

Sup­port­ers say right to work helps cre­ate a pro-business cli­mate that attracts employ­ers and increases jobs. Oppo­nents say it leads to lower wages and poorer qual­ity jobs, and they accused Repub­li­cans of rush­ing the bill through to avoid dis­rupt­ing the Super Bowl.

But with Repub­li­cans out­num­ber­ing Democ­rats in the House and Sen­ate, and House Democ­rats fac­ing stiff fines if they walked out for a lengthy period as they did last year, oppo­nents had few oppor­tu­ni­ties to stop the bill.

Tes­ti­fy­ing against the bill Wednes­day, Sen. Vi Simp­son, D-Bloomington, said there was no evi­dence that right to work cre­ated jobs and likened the bill’s fate to the Super Bowl, but with one team play­ing at a huge disadvantage.

“Our side has fewer men on the field, and our team doesn’t have pads or hel­mets,” Simp­son said. “We already know what the final score is going to be.”

Experts say many fac­tors influ­ence states’ economies and that it’s nearly impos­si­ble to iso­late the impact of right to work. For major indus­tries, access to sup­plies, infra­struc­ture, key mar­kets and a skilled work­force are key fac­tors, accord­ing to busi­ness recruit­ment spe­cial­ists. For a state’s work­ers, the impact of right-to-work leg­is­la­tion is lim­ited because only about 7 per­cent of pri­vate sec­tor employ­ees are union­ized. Over the years, job growth has surged in states with, and with­out, right-to-work laws.

Okla­homa, with its rural-based econ­omy that pro­duces com­par­a­tively fewer union jobs than Indi­ana, was the last state to pass right-to-work leg­is­la­tion, in 2001.

Over the past year, Repub­li­cans have pushed for other anti-union laws in bat­tle­ground Rust Belt states where many of the country’s man­u­fac­tur­ing jobs reside, includ­ing Wis­con­sin and Ohio, but they also have faced back­lash from Democ­rats and union sup­port­ers. Wis­con­sin last year stripped pub­lic sec­tor unions of col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing rights.

Despite mas­sive protests out­side the Capi­tol, Wisconsin’s GOP-dominated Assem­bly passed a law backed by Gov. Scott Walker in March that strips nearly all col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing rights from orga­nized labor. Walker is now prepar­ing for a recall elec­tion after oppo­nents turned in a mil­lion sig­na­tures aimed at forc­ing a vote and oust­ing him from office. In Novem­ber, Ohio vot­ers repealed a law lim­it­ing col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing rights that was cham­pi­oned by Gov. John Kasich and fel­low Repub­li­can lawmakers.

Posted by AP News on Feb 1 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.