Indiana Becomes Right-To-Work State As Daniels Signs Bill

Governor Mitch Daniels made Indiana the nation’s 23rd right-to-work state by signing a bill exempting nonunion employees from paying dues when working alongside their unionized colleagues.

Daniels enacted the measure yesterday about four hours after the state Senate gave it final passage on a 28-22 vote, ending a contentious debate over a law that Republicans view as a cost- cutting, job-creating tool, while Democrats call it a wage- lowering union buster.

“This law won’t be a magic answer but we’ll be far better off with it,” Daniels said in a statement from Indianapolis. “No one’s wages will go down, no one’s benefits will be reduced, and the right to organize and bargain collectively is untouched an intact.”

Twenty-two states, mostly in the Deep South and the Rocky Mountain West, had already enacted right-to-work laws. Most recently, Oklahoma passed its law in 2001. Republican gains in the 2010 elections prompted legislation in states including Wisconsin and Ohio aimed at restricting bargaining rights for government workers’ unions.

Indiana’s measure targets labor contracts with businesses. Union members composed 10.9 percent of the state’s workforce in 2010, according to the U.S. Labor Statistics Bureau. That’s down from 15.4 percent in 2000.

“There is no empirical evidence, if you take the time to read the studies, that right-to-work creates one job,” Democrat Senator Vi Simpson of Ellettsville said in debate before the vote. “We can expect lower wages for our people.”

Senators debated the bill for almost two hours as union members outside and inside the statehouse chanted, “Kill the bill.”

Republican Senator Carlin Yoder of Middlebury, the bill’s sponsor, said unions “will still be allowed to exist.” During floor debate, Yoder said right to work gives “freedom to those who don’t want to be part of something they don’t believe in.”

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed the bill Jan. 26, ending three weeks of Democrat boycotts that prevented the chamber from operating.

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