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Foxnew.com...
Wisconsin Union
Battle Could Set Stage for National ‘Right-to-Work’ Debate
By Judson Berger
February 21, 2011
AP Photo
For years, the country has been split practically 50-50 between states
that allow employees to decide whether to join a union and states that
allow unions to require membership. Most southern and central
Midwestern states are right-to-work states, while the West Coast, New
England and the northern Midwest comprise what critics call
“forced-unionism” states.
Along with requiring public employees to contribute more to pensions
and health care coverage, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker wants to put his
state in the right-to-work column. His proposals have touched off an
epic battle in Madison between pro-labor Democrats and Republicans who
say they’re just trying to balance the budget.
And now that battle is spreading.
Throngs of union members and supporters gathered in Indianapolis Monday
for a protest against a proposed bill in the Indiana House that would
restrict collective bargaining rights and make it a misdemeanor to
require any employee to join or pay dues to a union.
Republican state Rep. Jerry Torr, the bill’s author, described his
proposal as a tool to attract business to Indiana. He told Fox59 in
Indianapolis that prospective employers are avoiding the state because
they’re worried about its work rules.
“What I’m trying to do is bring jobs to Indiana,” Torr said. “We have
lost manufacturing jobs in Indiana because we are not a right-to-work
state.”
But opponents say it will lower pay and hurt workers.
“This is an attack on the middle class,” Allison Luthe, a community
organizer with Central Indiana Jobs With Justice, told FoxNews.com. She
estimated about 2,000 people were at the Indianapolis protest as of
Monday morning.
Indiana AFL-CIO President Nancy Guyott claimed the bill would be a
“political payoff to wealthy campaign donors,” according to Fox59.
Read the complete story at Foxnews.com
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