Right to Work in Indiana; behind Big Labor’s staged events
Amanda Hamon of the Indianapolis Journal & Courier does little but regurgitate comments from a hand full of union officials standing around holding signs for 45 minutes. The few ‘facts’ Hamon provides are encased by union officials’ and activists’ propaganda given by inaccurately identified interviewees. There were no inquisitive questions like “How?” in the article. Right to Work laws don’t prohibit wage negotiations; they prohibit employees being forced to pay union bosses against the employees’ will.
The real question that Hamon and other reporters should be asking: Why, if Right to Work is so unpopular, do you need to create these fake protest media stunts and spend millions to fight it? The answer, if these beneficiaries of forced unionism were honest, is that they are fearful that the gravy train is ending. Their self-interested position supporting compulsory unionism is at odds with decades of polling that shows Americans overwhelming believe employees should not be forced to pay tributes union bosses in order to get or keep a job. In fact, a recent Frank Luntz poll confirms that 80% of union members are opposed to compulsory dues.
But the good news from the story, Indiana may become the 23rd Right to Work state in 2012.
A similar [Right to Work] bill prompted Statehouse Democrats to flee to Illinois for five weeks earlier this year… But now, after a Republican-led study committee recently recommended passing right-to-work legislation, it seems the issue is primed to resurface when lawmakers reconvene next year.
The misidentified propagandists in the article:
Eric Clawson, who Hamon described as “a member of the Sheet Metal Workers Local Union 20 in Lafayette,” in reality he is the union’s Business Representative. In Right to Work states, union members have the freedom to quit if they think Local 20 is paying Mr. Hamon or other union officials too much. In fact, employees would have to choice to join or quit for any reason that they feel important.
Sheila Rosenthal, who Hamon described as someone “involved with the American Dream Coalition,” is actually a longtime leftist activist who involved with: Indiana End-the-War Rally, A Greener Indiana, Indiana Peace and Justice Network, Scouting For All’s National Day of Protest Against the Boy Scouts of America, Democracy for America, Indiana AFL-CIO, Lafayette Area Peace Coalition, Kroc Institute for Peace Studies, Lafayette Committee for Israeli/Palestinian Peace & Justice, Grassroots Educational Training (training for organizers like Obama, ACORN, and SEIU). Essentially, Rosenthal is a full-time protestor.