Ill. laborers protest Daniels speech

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WISH) - Gov. Mitch Daniels signed a new right-to-work law in February, and the right-to-work battle has since moved on to other states. The combination of those two facts produced a giant rally in Champaign, Ill., Thursday night.

Thousands of union workers rallied, marched and then gathered outside a Republican dinner to protest the appearance by Daniels, chanting, "Go home Mitch Daniels!"

"We've got to stand united," said Perry Stabler. "We've got to stop this."

"This" is the right-to-work bill that is now law in Indiana.

"They've tried to push it in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, New Hampshire - all over the country," said Jeff Harris of the Indiana AFL-CIO, "and each of those places, workers are standing up fighting back."

It's a repeat of the protests we saw in downtown Indianapolis during the right-to-work battle here in January and February. Indiana Democrats fled to a Champaign, Ill., hotel in 2011 in a successful effort to stop the legislation last year. Those Democrats got support then from some of the Illinois union workers who are protesting now.

Daniels addressed the controversy in his speech: "I was really tempted to go out and have a few words and talk to them," he said, "and if I had, or if I'd bumped into 'em, I would've told 'em this: ‘Hey, you're worried for nothing.’"

An Indiana labor leader was there to address the Illinois crowd with a different message. The unions are not giving up. This year there will be 55 candidates on the ballot for seats in the state legislature who have backgrounds in organized labor. That's more than ever before.

The AFL-CIO is conducting candidate training and hoping to pursue a repeal of right to work in 2013.