Indiana House Democrats, failing to have won enough members to their side in the election, is seeking to stop the whole process of representative government in Indiana by once again bailing out on us.
The Democrats stayed in caucus and refused to come into the House Chamber on the first day of the session.
Nothing is more important to organization Democrats in Indiana than union money and power so nothing, including all the other operations of state government, is more important to them than stopping legislation that allows workers not to pay union dues if they don’t wish.
Forget that it would improve employment in the state. The needs of Hoosiers are secondary. Right-to-work would be taking food out of the mouths of too many tied to the current labor/Democratic Party apparatus.
So we again repeat the 2011 session, when Democrats shut down the House for five weeks to try to stop legislation that targeted labor unions and public education. “Right-to-work” legislation was pulled then. Don’t expect that now.
This year the Republicans have Gov. Mitch Daniels committed to the fight as well as a good deal of public sympathy. Exactly why should someone be forced to join a union to have a job?
The answer is they shouldn’t. But the battle lines were drawn a long time ago and it is frankly hard telling what the Democrats, a party which has largely become an extension of organized labor in Indiana, won’t due to keep Republicans from changing their world.
Nancy Guyott, president of the Indiana AFL-CIO, even sat in on the Democratic caucus at the Statehouse Wednesday.
Let’s hope the 2012 session doesn’t go up in smoke in a test of wills. If it does, let’s make sure we reduce the number of labor-owned Democrats in the General Assembly in future sessions so as to keep this from happening again and again.
Copyright © 2024 Chronicle-Tribune