Local union sues to stop right-to-work law

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Updated: March 24, 2012 9:03AM

A local union is suing state officials over the recently passed right-to-work law, claiming it puts an unfair burden on employees who pay dues and discriminates against construction unions in particular.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday by the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 in U.S. District Court in Hammond and names Gov. Mitch Daniels, Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller and Indiana Department of Labor Commissioner Lori Torres as defendants.

An email from the Zoeller’s office said it would defend the state’s legislation although it has not been served with the lawsuit yet.

“Though we respect the right of private plaintiffs to disagree with this new law, the state’s position is that the legislature was within its authority to create a new policy concerning mandatory union dues,” Zoeller said in the email.

Local 150, which is based in Illinois but has offices in Merrillville and represents employees at Indiana companies such as U.S. Steel Gary Works and ArcelorMittal in East Chicago and Burns Harbor, says in the lawsuit that the law puts an unfair burden on those employees who pay dues.

The law forbids unions from forcing employees to pay dues as a requirement of their job. However, federal law requires unions to treat every employee it represents the same, even if they don’t pay dues, and the suit says this means nonpaying workers benefit from the dues paid by the union members.

“The Indiana Right to Work law violates the Equal Protection clause by effectively forcing dues-paying Local 150 members and fair share payers to bear the entire representation cost of those individuals who refuse to pay any fees to the union in exchange for the union’s contract negotiation, administration and grievance handling service,” the lawsuit said.

Fair share payments allowed those employees who did not want to become a member of a union to pay money only for contract negotiations.

One of the plaintiffs, Earl Click Jr., is listed as a “potential conscientious objector to the payment of dues on religious grounds.”

Edward Maher, a spokesman for Local 150, dismissed arguments by supporters of the law who say it would give more freedom to workers and would help bring companies to the state. Maher pointed to the fair share payments, saying workers already had an option to not pay full dues and that the new law does nothing for businesses except to help bust unions, which will lead to lower wages.

“Just because you don’t want to be a member doesn’t mean you get a free ride,” Maher said.

Another plaintiff is Bryan Scofield, a union member who works for Portage’s Public Works Department. The lawsuit says the law does not apply to unions of public employees, which gives them an unfair burden of having to support the entire Local 150 when private company employees don’t have to. This can mean Local 150 will either have to cut back on services or raise the dues for paying members, according to the lawsuit.

It also calls out a section of the law that took immediate effect for the building and construction industries, whereas the rest of the law won’t affect other union contracts made before March 12. The suit questions why these two industries are treated differently.

Maher said the entire law contains blatant violations of constitutional and federal labor law. It also does not contain a provision that would allow the rest of the measure to remain law if one part of it is found to be invalidated, he said.

“In our opinion, this thing got pushed too fast,” Maher said.

He added that the union wouldn’t have filed a federal lawsuit if it didn’t think it had a good chance of succeeding.

The lawsuit asks that both the entire law and the section aimed at the building and construction industries be invalidated and that the state be banned from enforcing the law.