Unions countering GOP with voter campaign
By Carole Carlson ccarlson@post-trib.com February 16, 2012 8:52PM
Union protestors gather outside the Statehouse after the Senate voted to pass the right-to-work bill in Indianapolis, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012. The governor is expected to sign the bill later in the day. The legislation prohibits labor contracts requiring workers to pay union representation fees. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
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Updated: March 18, 2012 8:08AM
Labor unions are starting new voter education campaigns in response to right-to-work legislation passed by the General Assembly.
“We’re taking the anger and turning it into motivation,” said Randy Palmateer, business manager for the Northwest Indiana Building Trades Council.
“We may have become complacent over the years,” said Palmateer whose five-county organization represents 42 locals and 40,000 to 50,000 workers.
Gov. Mitch Daniels, who once opposed right-to-work, signed the bill championed by Republican Party leadership on Feb. 1 ending a nasty two-year battle that included a walkout last year by House Democrats.
“This won’t bring one single job to Indiana,” said Palmateer. “It will lower wages and job site safety will suffer. It will erode what unions have fought for.”
Earlier, Daniels said he changed his mind on the issue because he said some companies wouldn’t locate in Indiana without it.
The legislation bars unions from charging fees to non-union members for representation. Indiana became the 23rd state to pass right-to-work and the first one in the Rust Belt with heavy concentrations of union workers.
Palmateer said voter registration drives will educate union workers on pocketbook issues. Unions have launched a website called indianaworkersvote.com to answer questions about how to register and where to vote.
“We’re in a transitional period right now with a lot of younger people coming in and older people retiring. We’re going to emphasize labor history and anti-worker legislation. We’ll get our members more involved.”
Jim Robinson, United Steelworkers District 7 director, said his members are still angered by what he termed an “unjustified” attack on organized labor. “We’re going to be talking with our members about it but we don’t intend to change the way we do things.”
Robinson didn’t sense any desertion in the USW ranks. He didn’t offer estimates on what to expect, but one USW official in Indianapolis feared his local could lose 30 to 50 percent of its paying membership.
“I think it will be much less than some people fear,” said Robinson who said steelworkers tend to stick together.
“I wouldn’t want to work in the mill and have people think I was some kind of scab. You work in a blast furnace or a hot strip mill, and people watch out for each other. They’ve got your back.”
Robinson said the USW won’t see the fallout until new contracts are finalized after Sept. 1 at U.S. Steel in Gary and ArcelorMittal in Burns Harbor and East Chicago.
Reach reporter Carole Carlson at 648-3154.
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