By The Super Bowl, Indiana Could Have A Right to Work Law
Last year, it seemed unlikely. Now, Indiana looks bound to get a Right to Work law.
On Wednesday, the Indiana House followed the state Senate by approving Right to Work legislation. The action came just a day after Indiana’s governor, Mitch Daniels, delivered the Republican response to President Obama’s State of the Union address.
Both houses have to approve the same bill before it can go to Daniels for his signature. The Indianapolis Star says it’s likely that the Senate will consider the House version, because Republicans are in tighter control in the Senate. After that, Daniels can sign it into law — which he could do before the Super Bowl is played in Indianapolis on Feb. 5.
Right to Work laws prohibit unions from collecting mandatory dues. Labor unions say the laws make it much harder for them to organize, since workers don’t have to support them. Some political analysts say that weakens the unions’ political clout, too.
Indiana would be the 23rd state to approve Right to Work, and the first since Oklahoma approved a Right to Work law in 2011. Indiana also would be the first Right to Work state in the industrial Great Lakes. And, with Republican governors in Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio, it probably won’t be long before the issue comes up for a vote in at least one of those states.
Earlier this week, we told you why Daniels decided to push for the bill this year. He says he was tired of seeing Indiana lose out on projects just because it wasn’t a Right to Work state. One of the projects the state lost, said Daniels, was the Volkswagen plant that went to Chattanooga, Tenn.
Do you think Right to Work legislation is now likely in other Great Lakes states? What’s your thinking on the issue?