Indiana Unions Fight for Survival

Wisconsin's public workers no longer have collective bargaining rights. Lawmakers stripped them away Thursday, and the move's causing a firestorm in pro-labor circles. But Illinois' neighbor to the north isn't the only one seeing an epic battle over workers rights.

Thousands of union members flooded streets outside the Indiana Statehouse Thursday. The demonstrators hoped to stop measures they fear are worse than those in Wisconsin.

It's usually a two hour drive from the Northwest Indiana city of Portage to Indianapolis. Yesterday morning, I-65 was covered in snow, so the trip was more like a slick, three-hour Odyssey. This is did not dampen the spirits of a busload of steelworkers when they arrived at the Indiana Statehouse.

The vice president of Local 6787, Pete Trinidad, said he came down to lend his voice. "We disagree with what our politicians are doing down here. And if we don't come down and have our voice heard then they are going to say, 'Well, you didn't say anything so we just went ahead and did it.' We didn't want that to happen."

In some ways - the stakes are higher for organized labor in Indiana than they are in Wisconsin. You see, the issue of public workers' collective bargaining rights is old-hat in the Hoosier state. Indiana's Republican governor, Mitch Daniels, stripped state workers of such rights back in 2005.

GOP legislators took control of both chambers this year - and they took their own swipe at organized labor. The first bill Republicans introduced this session would strip public school teachers of most collective bargaining rights. Another bill would make Indiana a so-called right to work state. Basically, companies would no longer require union membership as a condition of employment.

Republicans say this would make Indiana more economically competitive. Union member Pete Trinidad doesn't don't by it, so he took part in yesterday's demonstration, one of the largest in Indiana's history. Trinidad says the GOP's first bill targeted teachers - but it won't stop there. "They try to choose on spot and start a crack and the crack goes all the way across. We can't do that. We're all together in this."

Dozens of speakers addressed the crowd that lined up near the Indiana Statehouse. And despite the chilly temps, chanting continued for hours.

But inside the Capitol - things were quiet. One reason is that House Democrats have boycotted the past three weeks of this session. They don't have enough votes to stop the GOP's agenda, but without Democrats, the House can't do its work because there's no quorum.

But a Senate Democrat from was there - eager to take jabs at Republicans.

"What happened in Wisconsin yesterday was terrible," said Lonnie Randolph, a veteran Democratic state senator from East Chicago. "Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio. That's not by chance all this is happening. If they weaken labor, they weaken the biggest contributor and supporter of the Democratic party."

Randolph saw the crowd outside. He says Republicans are overreaching.

"They've waken up a sleeping giant in my opinion," Randolph continued. "The people that came down here today 20,000-plus, these are just average, everyday people with families. They're just barely making it from pay check to pay check. And what you're doing you're hitting them in the pocket. This is going to go on until the people get some relief."

It turns out the pro-union demonstrators were preaching to the converted Thursday, because Republican leaders weren't in the Indiana Capitol, either. They called the day off. Not because of the demonstration - but because the Big Ten basketball tournament is in town and they didn't want to deal with a congested downtown Indy.

Maybe it's a fitting demonstration of their confidence they'll prevail. Brian Bosma, the House Majority's Republican leader, said as much in recent days. "There's always room for compromise. I'm not going to concede to a list of demands. I'm not conceding to that. I'm never going to concede to that particularly when it's only 37 people telling the remaining 63 what to do."

Bosma said pro-union Democrats are missing something: Republicans have power - and they ought to. They got the most votes in this historically Republican-leaning state.

So, Bosma feels the GOP can wait things out, long after the union noise dies down.

Though ... that could take a while - unions plan more demonstrations for next week..

(Photo by Michael Puente/IPR)