Posted on 01/27/2012 11:40:39 AM PST by MichCapCon
INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana State House on a 54-44 vote today passed House Bill 1001, paving the way to make Indiana the 23rd right-to-work state in the nation. The vote took place after House Democrats finally attended session Wednesday afternoon, ending their work stoppage over the issue.
Under the legislation, unions would be barred from collecting mandatory representation fees.
HB 1001 will now be sent to the Indiana Senate. If the Senate passes the bill without amendment, it would go the the desk of Gov. Mitch Daniels as quickly as this week. Earlier this week the Senate passed its own right-to-work bill, SB 269, which is currently residing in the House.
What seems certain is that, barring the unexpected, the Democrats lost any chance of stopping Indiana from becoming a right-to-work state when HB 1001 passed about 4:45 p.m. Wednesday. House Democrats up until now had been able to prevent sessions from taking place by denying the House a quorum with the simple method of not showing up to work.
Polling showed that Indiana voters didn't like the work stoppage tactic after the Democrats used it to prevent right-to-work legislation from passing last year. Also, this year legislators face daily fines of $1,000 for preventing quorums by skipping sessions.
A long floor debate took place before the vote was taken on HB 1001. The debate started out with Democratic lawmakers forcing open the chamber doors so the yells of anti-right-to-work protesters could be heard.
At first House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said the doors should be shut, but then relented and let the debate take place with the doors open. Eventually, the crowd quieted, particularly after a couple of Democratic representatives asked the demonstrators not to let their voices drown out the comments of the lawmakers.
Rep. Gerald Torr, R-Carmel, sponsor of the bill, said there were two reasons to vote for the bill, individual rights and jobs.
“If not for having to address federal exemptions and other technicalities, this bill would consist of only about six lines,” Rep. Torr said. “First its about saying employees can't be forced to be represented by unions. Second, it's about creating jobs. This bill does not prohibit collective bargaining; it is not about busting unions.
“We are told by our economic development people and our site selection people that somewhere around one-third of businesses will not even look at a state if it isn't a right-to-work state,” he continued. “Many of our unemployed could benefit from this legislation.”
Sen. Torr then addressed some of the anti-right-to-work rhetoric he said he'd heard in recent weeks.
“According to the rhetoric of the opposition, this legislation is radical,” he said. “But how can it be radical when there are 22 other states that have right-to-work laws? And some of those states are kicking our butts in economic development.
“Also, according to some of the rhetoric, this legislation will result in lower wages,” Sen. Torr continued. “If I thought that was true, I wouldn't have sponsored the bill. But when you look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers, they show that spending power is actually higher in right-to-work states. And regarding job creation, when you average all of the right-to-work states and make comparisons, their average unemployment rate is a full point lower than the rate of the states that don't have right-to-work.”
House Democratic Leader B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, harped on the idea that right-to-work is a bad idea and the Republicans had refused to put it on the ballot by not supporting the Democrat-sponsored “referendum amendment” earlier this week.
“This issue was not debated in the last election,” Rep. Bauer said. “It was not an election issue. The Republicans were given a chance to let the people have a voice on this. But not a single Republican voted to do it. So, if you are a Republican who wants to vote against this now, so you can say you voted no on this, you might as well vote yes.
“Just tell people you voted for the right to work for less pay, the right to work for less health care, the right to work for less safety,” Rep. Bauer continued. “Even if there is not a referendum on this on the ballot, there will be a referendum in the election.”
Rep. Wendy McNamara, R-Mt. Vernon, said she believed the core right-to-work issue was a part of the 2010 election campaign.
“I didn't campaign on right-to-work,” Rep. McNamara said. “I had never even heard of right-to-work before it was brought up by some Teamsters. But all I did hear was 'jobs, jobs, jobs,' in the campaign.”
Rep. John Barrett, D-Indianapolis, argued that the Republicans were just plain wrong about the issue.
“You've got the numbers,” he said. “But just because you have the power doesn't mean you're right. What you're doing to the great state of Indiana is a shame, a shame, a shame.”
Rep, Sue Ellspermann, R-Ferdinand, said she'd had experience in both right-to-work states and a non-right-to-work state – which happened to be Michigan.
“When I was younger I was a worker in a union in Flint, Michigan,” Rep. Ellspermann said. “I was transferred to work in Texas, which was a right-to-work state. What I found in Texas was different than what I'd witnessed in Flint. In Texas, the productivity was higher and the worker morale was higher.
“Then we hear rhetoric that this bill would result in lower wages,” Rep. Ellspermann added. “But in Oklahoma, which is a right-to-work state, the per capita income ranking has risen over the past 10 years. Over that same period, Oklahoma passed Indiana.”
Will these people EVER F'n grow up?
This is very good news and I should add very significant news.
It will have a major effect in neighboring states of Indiana.
Excellent!
My dad had obligations to meet so he bowed. His friend did too but he didn't bow ~ he got fired.
So it goes the OTHER WAY.
International Harvester has long since gone bankrupt and disappeared except for the assets. The UAW lost all those sources of dues ~ that's what workers are, sources of dues.
BTW, IH was put under by its top management of outsiders who decided it was more important for the company to have a good dealership operation than money to run its factories.
That's how they ended up nothing but a shell paying retiree health benefits.
This will cost the unions an the DNC plenty. It’s expensive to bus in professional protesters from out of state.
Drinks are on ME!
YEA!!!!
Michigan and Illinois will thank us for this in about 10 years (maybe 15 for Michigan).
I can understand why some would want Mitch Daniels to be president for stuff like this. Indiana is turning into the most rationally run state.
No, they won’t.
In 2006 Daniels went against right-to-work. He’s come around, thanks to people.
The major focus of Republicans over the next few years should be passing Right to Work in every state, and at the federal level repealing all the pro-union legislation.
It's union money which funds much of the Dem agenda, and union personnel who help push that agenda. Take that away, and the Dem party is much weakened.
Right to work wouldn't have passed in 2006; Democrats controlled the Indiana House until after the 2010 elections.
Um.... IH renamed themselves to Navistar and sold off their farm implements business to Case. Then they renamed their truck and heavy equipment biz back to International and are doing very, very well. There’s an International truck plant in the Dallas area, for that matter.
It was a total wipeout of the stockholders and other owners with ONLY the employee health insurance plan (and part of the retirement system) remaining in place.
They were FIRST IN LINE, after USPS, IRS and the other taxing authorities, and when they were all done there was not enough to pay outstanding bills and owners.
He came into office and immediately wiped out the state employee union operations.
Evan Bayh had given the state employee union various privileges via executive order ~ because he couldn't get total union control through the legislature.
Bayh's situation is the one that is analogous to that in Ohio. There, however, the Governor decided to go after everything at once via the legislative route and lost. He's reduced to using what executive orders he can issue. Like Bayh's orders (which were pro union) when a new governor comes into office some day those orders can be tossed in the trash can.
The whole state will become, economically and intellectually, a NEW CHICAGO. But, with fewer people, more money and a government that works instead of stealing.
Just reading a story today about Boeing's huge cargo plane. It's got a dozen or so places it can land at in the US ~ maybe less ~ but it came into Indianapolis to pick up a load of diabetic testing supplies, one of the high ticket items with increasing worldwide demand.
So, world's largest planes can land at Indianapolis to get the good stuff for sale on a world market.
That complex East of Indianapolis also has runways big enough for the Airbus 380 as well. I don't believe they have the terminal in place to handle it well, but I'm sure they will.
Naptown used to be way down the list economically, culturally, socially, etc. Now it's ranked #2 in the Midwest. Shortly, as the state pulls ahead of the otherwise bankrupt Michigan and Illinois, it'll probably be the #1 city.
Indiana Republicans Ping!
Well said. Except that complex is west of Indy. If you haven't been back in a while, you should see this city now. You can't believe how much it has changed in just the past 10 years. It really is amazing. Wait till you see the additional Fed-Ex runways and complex they are planning for the south side of I-70. The new I-70 Airport access area was built to accomodate the Runway overpass across I-70.
All that said, let's keep it a secret. The cost of living is still real good, it's clean and conservative (as big cities go). We don't want too many big city liberals moving in. :o)
I believe Martinsville is ranked #1 in the midwest, economically, culturally, socially.
Martinsville? Really?
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