Editor, Times-Union: The people of Indiana need to be aware of the facts of what Right To Work will do to them and their families. I have been involved with this issue since it had come up in the first term of Governor Mitch Daniels taking office.
After talking with the members of the State House of Representatives and the Senate I’m convinced they are not interested in the people they represent. Over a year ago I gathered the facts on the differences in household median income between Right To Work and non-Right To Work states. I also looked at the facts presented by unions and the National Right To Work Committee. The unions’ information is far closer to the truth than the Chambers of Commerce-backed National Right To Work Committee. The unions’ figures were within a few hundred dollars while the NRTWC figures were off by more than $8,000.
When asking my state representative what she knew about this, she said she had only been approached by the Chambers of Commerce. So I asked if she would be interested in credible facts on this issue, that I would gather facts for her from a reliable source and send them to her. So Rebecca Kubacki told me she would like to see them. The very next day she co-authored the Right To Work bill in the House. And she had the nerve to call our local president names recently in the State Capitol.
Indiana is already ranked 37th in the nation in household median income, while corporate income tax rates are the 11th highest in the nation. And these facts come from government sources such as the Department of Labor & the Census Bureau. Is anyone thinking that there might be room for improvement in other areas to attract business to Indiana? In spite of all this, businesses are still coming to Indiana. Recently, there have been several that have decided to build in Indiana such as Nestlé’s, Honda, Zone InfoTech and Litebox. Then General Motors has decided to add a $230 million expansion.
If this goes through, the small businesses in this area that have supported the Chambers of Commerce will surely suffer. When the working class have their pay checks reduced they’ll no longer be spending money. The larger super stores win again and the family run businesses will continue to close.
This is no more than a union-busting bill just like the removing of the state workers’ right to bargain. Then we have the teachers that no longer have the right to bargain, these being some of the most underpaid underappreciated people in our communities.
When you take away the dues of a union it would be like running any club without charging the members dues. Maybe it’s time to cut the dues to the Chambers of Commerce. See if they can exist when their members get all the benefits without having to pay their fair share. The word for this is freeloading.
David Bumbaugh Vice-President USW Local 809 Claypool, via e-mail
