Indiana Democrats spent the better part of the last two legislative sessions battling the majority Republicans and GOP Gov. Mitch Daniels fighting to stop right-to-work legislation. On Wednesday, Hoosier Democrats conceded that they simply did not have the votes to maintain their opposition and conceded. That day, Indiana’s House voted 54 – 44 to make theirs the 23rd right-to-work state.
Daniels is expected to sing the legislation which would make Indiana the first “Rust Belt” state to ban contracts that require workers to pay mandatory fees to labor unions.
Democrats offered any number of forms of opposition to this legislation, offering amendments and seeking a referendum where voters would deliver an up or down verdict – hoping, certainly, for an Ohio-like repudiation of what they believed to be an overreach by the newly minted Republican majority in the state legislature.
In the end, all their efforts failed, but Democratic House Minority Leader Patrick Bauer is touting his caucus’ ability to stall the legislation for over a month as a victory.
Right-to-work legislation, already on the books in 22 primarily Southern and Western states, prohibits unions from imposing fees as a condition of employment, either prior to hiring or during the course of employment, as a precondition for taking on employees. Right-to-work also curtails the union’s ability to attract new members – labor unions are facing a historical nadir of members and Indiana becomes the latest in a series of states to present an existential threat to the labor union movement.
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