Group pushes right to work comeback

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - The House Democrat’s walkout, now in its fifth week, started over proposed right-to-work legislation. That bill, HB 1468, died right away, but on Tuesday, one group vowed to bring it back.

The group, the Right to Work (RTW) Committee, has two goals: getting House Democrats back in Indiana and passing right-to-work.

But union laborers said they'll continue to fight against right-to-work.

“Why do you need to have them fired if they won't pay you $30 a month?” RTW Committee President Mark Mix asked.

“We could all work at Walmart if we didn't want a union,” one union laborer in attendance responded.

The RTW Committee wants Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and House Speaker Brian Bosma to bring the issue back to the legislature.

“There are literally hundreds of thousands of Indianans who believe that a worker should have the right to join a union, but should never be forced to pay dues as a condition of getting or keeping a job,” Mix said.

And to get the Democrats back to the Hoosier state, they propose a fine, increased from $350 a day to $10,000 a day, even in favor of putting liens on Democrats' houses to enforce the fine.

“If you're doing your job and you're representing workers in the bargaining unit where they work, they will join you voluntarily,” Mix said. “Why do you need compulsion?”

Union representatives told 24-Hour News 8 that workers do not have to join a union or pay dues.

Workers, they say, could find another job.

“If I don't want a union job, I don't apply for it,” one union worker said. “I'm not forced to apply for that job.”

But workers who do not want to join the union could be fired.

Gov. Daniels said right-to-work was off the table weeks ago and remains there.

“You've heard that from both the Senate and the House leadership, so I'm not sure which part of that message they didn't get,” Daniels said.

Right-to-work supporters said they'll continue to argue their case.