County residents raise questions about Right-to-Work

Authored by Jim Langham on Jan 16, 2012

Once again State Senator Travis Holdman and local Representative Matt Lehman faced the full heat of the emotional fury surrounding the Right-To-Work legislation currently up for discussion in the present session of legislative action at the Indiana State House.
Lehman, representing House District 79, told those attending meetings Saturday in Decatur, Berne and Geneva that he understands Right-to-Work legislation supporting the fact that Hoosiers should have the freedom to decide whether or not to financially support a union.
"Right-to-Work does not prevent people from joining a union, does not prevent a union from collective bargaining and it does not prevent a union from striking," said Lehman. "Everyone should be free to choose their own or career path without fear of penalty or discrimination. In 1995, the General Assembly passed Senate Bill 5 making a teacher's union Right-to-Work."
Lehman said that the issue is very emotionally charged and subject to various interpretations and reactions.
One constituent asked the legislators whether or not they felt that they were endangered by the fury of the emotional outbursts concerning the legislation.
Holdman said that everything has been very civil, as he has witnessed it.
"I've had some pretty angry phone calls, but this is a very emotional issue," said Holdman. "Everything so far has been civil; last year things got a little testy at times. I've not been threatened at all."
Lehman said that people tend to write things in letters and emails that they won't say directly. Holdman said that the emotional fury is not all one-sided. He noted that people who want Right-to-Work are just as guilty as those who don't want it.
"If you feel really strongly about this, the best thing to do is to come down to Indianapolis," said Lehman. "There are a lot of people around there expressing their opinions right now and they have every right to do that. There are twice as many policemen down there as we usually see. There are a lot more guns in the state house right now.
"I don't have any crystal ball saying how any of this is going to work out," continued Lehman. "I don't bring some packet full of guarantees. I have two huge stacks of data. One compiles information about all of the things that go wrong and another about all of the things that could go right.""This (Right-to-Work) is sending out a message that says, 'this must be a great place to be business,'" said Randy Jaurigue, organizer for the Midwest Region Organizing Committee of the Laborer's International Union of North America.
Jaurigue visited all three town meetings.
"All of my raises these days go toward health insurance costs," said Jaurigue.
"Here I can go to work every day with health insurance. So we bring in more jobs with benefits, and my wages are redirected.
"I pay taxes; I want to see the value of my taxes," continued Jaurigue. "What if I were to stop paying taxes? What happens to states where they don't pay union dues? What really happens to the labor climate there?"
"We have so many situations right now where employees are hired to work for a 90-day probation period. Then when they reach the end of that process and they are to the place where they could be considered for benefits, they are let go and the process repeats itself," said Adrian Aguirre of Geneva.
Both Jaurigue and Aguirre expressed fears that Right-to-Work legislation would create harder times for labor and ultimately work against manufacturing growth in the state.
Lehman said that the simple truth is that the legislation is designed to guarantee stricter worker's rights so that employees can decide their own future as far as union and worker strategy, without force from either direction.

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