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Indiana labor leaders fight for influence

At stake: whether a right-to-work law turns out to be a mostly symbolic setback or a serious blow.

The Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS - After losing their fight against right-to-work legislation, labor organizers are making a desperate bid on shop room floors and at union halls to persuade members to keep paying their union dues and avoid crippling labor's influence in Indiana.

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Union protesters gather outside the Statehouse in Indianapolis after the Senate voted to pass a right-to-work bill on Feb. 1. The legislation prohibits labor contracts requiring workers to pay union representation fees.

Associated Press file photo

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Factory workers, painters, electricians and other workers in the state's 179,000-member unionized work force are being called into meetings to hear impassioned pitches on why they should keep authorizing deductions from their paychecks even though the law means they no longer have to do so.

"We're gonna push them pretty hard and let them know this is what our services provide," said Brett Voorhies, legislative director for the United Steelworkers District 7, which has 45,000 active members in Indiana and Illinois. He said he has met with members of 200 locals in Indiana since supporters of the pro-business legislation begin planning their push for right-to-work last year.

But some union members are clearly tempted to drop out. Some who are politically conservative resent labor's campaign donations to Democrats; others may feel they just need the extra money.

"We're concerned at this point at how that's going to affect us," said Kelly Hugunin, unit president of United Steelworkers Local 1999 in Indianapolis. "I've had several people say 'Yeah, I'm still going to pay my dues.' And there's been some that have said they're not going to pay."

How many members decide to become "free riders," as non-dues payers are called, will determine whether the passage of the right-to-work law here turns out to be a mostly symbolic setback for organized labor or a grave financial and political blow.

No comprehensive data exist on how much active union membership dropped in the 22 states that adopted the law in earlier years. But after right-to-work passed in Oklahoma in 2001, about a quarter of union members stopped providing financial support.

Indiana's experience is being closely watched across the nation because it is the first state in the manufacturing Rust Belt to adopt the controversial law, which says that workers in a unionized workplace cannot be required to pay for union representation. The other right-to-work states are clustered in the conservative South and Mountain West.

Supporters of right to work, which was approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature here two weeks ago, say the measure will draw more employers to the state and increase jobs.

But union officials say the measure just lowers wages and was intended to punish unions for supporting Democratic candidates. Organizers say the money they lose will reduce their ability to provide services to their members and to organize workplaces.