Indiana House Approves ‘Right to Work’ Bill
Day After Senate Clears Companion Measure
January 26, 2012
By Nora Macaluso
LANSING, Mich.—The Indiana House Jan. 25 approved legislation (H.B. 1001) that would make Indiana the 23rd state—and the first in 12 years—to prohibit mandatory union dues or fees.
The vote was 55-44, according to the House Republican Caucus, and came over the objections of Democrats. Several stood to denounce the bill, saying it would drive down wages and hurt unions, and claiming the legislation was rushed through without a fair hearing. The Republican-controlled Senate passed its version of the bill (S.B. 269) Jan. 24 by a vote of 28–22.
Lawmakers have said the two are nearly identical.
The House vote was largely along party lines. One Republican, Rep. Ed Soliday, joined a string of minority Democrats in speaking out against the bill.
“I believe in the right to property,” he said, and “one of the key components of the right to property is the right to contract.” Government, he said, should not interfere with a business owner's right to sign a contract under any terms he or she deems reasonable.
Chants from protesters outside the door could be heard throughout the three-hour House debate. “This won't bust unions, because these people are fighting to pay dues,” the bill's sponsor, Rep. Gerald Torr (R) said.
Attempt to Pass House Bill Failed Day Earlier
An attempt to pass the bill in the House was thwarted Jan. 24 when Democrats declined to show up, preventing the needed quorum. A day earlier, House Democrats complained that they had not been given the chance to finish offering amendments to the bill after some amendments—including a proposed change that would have put the issue before voters in a referendum—were defeated along party lines.
“The Republicans told the people of this state that they do not deserve the right to decide whether or not to bring ‘right to work for less' to Indiana through a statewide referendum,” House Minority Leader Patrick Bauer (D) said in a Jan. 23 statement. He said the legislation was being pushed through in “a brute force demonstration of the tyranny of the majority.”
But House Speaker Brian Bosma (R) said the legislature “can't afford to not address this issue this session.” A referendum, he said, would result in “decisions being made based on 30-second commercials rather than through open debate and vote by those elected to lead.”
Labor union supporters have been at the state capitol in Indianapolis protesting the legislation, cheering or booing lawmakers from chamber galleries. The Indiana AFL-CIO said Jan. 24 it had collected more than 6,000 signatures in 24 hours on a petition urging Democratic lawmakers to “continue to stand strong.”
Construction Industry Amendments
Both chambers approved amendments stipulating that certain portions of the law would not apply to the construction industry. The provision, however, is “not a carve-out” exempting the building trades, Tory Flynn, a spokeswoman for the House Republicans, told Bloomberg BNA Jan. 24.
“What we're doing here is recognizing and preserving the unique nature of the relationship that exists between the construction industry and the building trade unions by exempting their training and hiring-hall processes,” Rep. Eric Koch (R), sponsor of a House amendment on the construction industry, told Bloomberg BNA Jan. 24.
Unions, he said, still could negotiate agreements with construction companies, as long as the agreements did not cover dues or fees or require union membership. The House approved the amendment 57-41, Koch said.
Pete Rimsans, executive director of the Indiana State Building & Construction Trades Council, called the amendment “double-speak” and said it does not change the way the law would affect the industry. “We find it very disconcerting,” he told Bloomberg BNA Jan. 24. Union-employer relationships, outside the ban on requiring membership contemplated in the legislation, are outside the authority of the general assembly, Rimsans said.
“We think (the sponsors) are trying to fool some people and tell them they're doing something [the legislation] doesn't in an attempt to get some final votes for passage,” he said. “It's a little bit of misdirection.”
Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) is in favor of the legislation.
Meanwhile, a union-funded group—“A Working Person Like You”—that is opposing the Indiana right-to-work bill ran a television ad critical of Daniels following his response to President Obama's State of the Union address Jan. 24. Eddie Vale, a spokesman for the group, told Bloomberg BNA Jan. 24, that the ad cost about $30,000 to air and ran on broadcast networks in Indiana and nationally on CNN and MSNBC following the Indiana governor's response.
The ad features Daniels telling members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in 2006 that he is opposed to any changes to labor law in Indiana. He told the union: “I'm a supporter of the labor laws we have in the state of Indiana. I'm not interested in changing any of them. Not the prevailing-wage law, and certainly not a right-to-work law.”
The ad asks viewers to call Daniels and ask him why “he no longer supports working people.”
