From the joint appearance by the National Right to Work Committee President Mark Mix and Indiana Right to Work Committee President Rob Beiswenger. Mr. Mix’s comments follow or his complete statement can be downloaded by clicking this link.
Thank you for coming today. I have a brief statement about the National Right to Work Committee’s joint multi-media campaign with the Indiana Right to Work Committee, and then I’ll take your questions.
This $100,000 media campaign, which has been kicked off with an initial ad running this morning in the Indianapolis Star, will also include mail, phones, internet, a state-wide newspaper ad buy and hopefully TV and radio advertising.
Our objective will be to urge Hoosier citizens to put pressure on Speaker Brian Bosma and Governor Mitch Daniels to use their Constitutionally-granted authority to force the Democrats to return to work and hold roll-call votes on the Indiana Right to Work Bill.
More than four weeks ago, Indiana Democrats fled to Illinois to avoid voting on Right to Work because they understood if allowed to come to the floor for an up-or-down vote, the Right to Work Bill would pass and become law.
The good news is, the Indiana Constitution requires legislators to legislate.
And the Indiana Constitution, which requires a quorum of two-thirds, is also very clear on what to do about a walk out.
Should legislators refuse to perform the jobs they were elected to do, the Indiana Constitution allows the majority party to authorize stiff fines and seek other remedies to force law-breaking legislators to return to work.
Currently, Speaker Bosma is fining the Democrats who fled to Illinois a measly $350.
The truth is, the Democrats know that these fines can easily be covered by the union bosses’ “special funds,” which is why they’ve done little or more than chuckle at this threat.
Unless they want to continue being a laughingstock, it’s time for Speaker Bosma and Governor Daniels to start showing some backbone and force the Democrats to come back to work.
To force the Democrats to come back to work, Daniels and the Republican majority should impose a $10,000 a day fine on each legislator until they return to work.
If the Democrats still don’t return, the sitting legislature should take out liens on their property to force them to do the job they were elected to do.
This would get the Democrats to come back to work, and the people of Indiana could get what they voted for on Election Day 2010 — including Right to Work.
The fact is, if passed, an Indiana Right to Work law would simply state that Hoosiers cannot be forced to pay dues or fees to a labor union as a condition of employment.
And as the Governor has conceded in the past, forced unionism has put Indiana at an enormous disadvantage when compared to those states with Right to Work laws.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s own statistics reveal that while Right to Work states were busy gaining jobs, Indiana has continued to lose them.
Over the past decade, private-sector employment increased by 3.7% in Right to Work states, but fell by 8.8% here in Indiana.
PHH Fantus, the nation’s longtime leading business relocation firm, explained that at least half of all businesses automatically eliminate non-Right to Work states like Indiana when relocating.
And those jobs Indiana has been missing out on are good, high-paying jobs.
In fact, over the past decade, real personal income in Right to Work states grew by nearly 30% — more than three-and-a half times that of Indiana!
So no matter how you look at it — whether from a moral or economic standpoint — a Right to Work law would be good for Indiana.
And Hoosiers overwhelmingly support passage of Right to Work.
In fact, according to their own private Republican polling, by a majority of 72% to 25%, Indiana voters support passage of a Right to Work law in the Hoosier state.
Not only that, but the numbers Republicans have in the legislature if translated to Congress would be a 261 to 174 GOP edge in the U.S. House and a 74 to 26 majority in the U.S. Senate.
With such a large majority, Republicans clearly have the votes to pass the Right to Work Bill, which is why the Democrats fled to Illinois in the first place.
After three roll-call votes on Right to Work, a public hearing and dozens of state legislative candidates campaigning on ending forced unionism in Indiana, the message is clear:
Right to Work is poised to pass in Indiana because that’s what Hoosier citizens want.
But despite all this, Speaker Bosma and Governor Daniels have agreed to defeat Right to Work in an attempt to appease the union bosses.
Thus, if Speaker Bosma and Governor Daniels continue their policy of appeasement, they will be as much to blame as the Democrats for killing Right to Work by their refusal to stand up and fight.
This multi-media ad campaign is designed to mobilize public pressure on Governor Daniels and Speaker Bosma to stop trying to appease the union bosses and instead pass Right to Work.
Time is past due for Governor Daniels and Speaker Bosma to show leadership and pass Right to Work instead of sabotaging it.
Thank you again for coming. I’ll now take your questions.