TERRE HAUTE —
Right-to-work bill hurts state’s workers
The Republican-controlled legislature and its leadership team cannot call our Hoosier state a great place to live, when they place the blame for our economic peril and high unemployment on our public servants who educate our kids, pick up our trash, clean their offices and run our factories.
When they seek to eliminate unions, end collective bargaining and initiate right-to-work, they are seeking to undermine the middle class as we know it.
They are destroying the only segment of our society that demands that Hoosier workers are paid a fair wage, have a safe place to work and share in the fruits of their labor.
I recognize that only about 12 percent of Hoosier workers are in unions. But that 12 percent sets the standards across our state in salaries, benefits and working conditions. If you are making a decent salary in a non-union company, you most likely owe that to a union.
And now, our illustrious legislative leadership has proclaimed that the implementation of right to work will produce more jobs, bring in more companies and treat workers with dignity and respect. Do Hoosiers really believe this?
It’s a direct political assault by the Republican leadership to put labor unions out of business in our state. It’s a final stake in the heart of those who, for the most part, support the “other political party.” It’s politics as usual for the GOP.
RTW is a simple, but divisive concept. I would guess that most of the General Assembly members still don’t fully understand it. Case in point. House Majority Leader Bill Friend stated on a democracynow.com interview on Jan. 5, that “payment of fees for non union members in a union shop was a point worth discussing.” Goodness sakes. He doesn’t even know that his “point worth discussing” is the very essence of what RTW is!
RTW is no more than mandating that there cannot be a union security clause in any labor agreement. It is not about protecting workers from paying mandatory dues.
I keep hearing the Chamber of Commerce, that great institution of workers’ rights, defending Hoosier workers against forced unionism. First time I’ve ever heard the Chamber defending workers’ rights. And they got it all wrong.
Workers in union shops do not have to belong to the union. But they do have to pay a “fair share” for having representation and benefits of a union contract provided by their union if, and only if, the employer agrees to it a negotiated contract.
The same gang that wants government to get out of the way for our job creators are now dictating to those employers how to run their business.
Right-to-work simply means that a worker in a union shop would not have to pay any fees for union representation, but gets all the rights and privileges of the union contract.
And the union must represent these non-paying workers in all contractual matters, just like they do for their co-workers who pay union dues. And get this. They can even sue the union if they believe they don’t get fair representation.
This isn’t about fairness for Hoosier workers. This is about “payback time.” It is all about the business community and their Republican allies banding together to weaken unions and make our state union free.
Each time the House Republicans overreached, they paid the price in the next election. Yep, history does repeat itself. They did it with prevailing wage in 1995 and lost in ’96. They did it again in 2005 and lost in ’06.
And they are doing it again in 2012 and will pay the price at the ballot box this fall. Yes, we do have referendums in Indiana. They are called elections.
— Russ Stilwell
Boonville, Ind.
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