Voters in Indiana and any other union state ought to pay attention to this story. We have a creaky national economy that is not creating enough jobs to sustain the official employment rate. We have state governments running out of ideas and money to deal with pressing spending obligations they should never have taken on, but to a great extent were forced on them by the union-Democrat alliance. Indiana’s elected representatives have tried freeing up their state’s economy by passing a right-to-work law. That law has been credited with attracting a Subaru parts manufacturer to move to Indiana.
One of Subaru of Indiana Automotive Inc.’s suppliers has decided to move to Richmond from Canada because of Indiana’s new right-to-work law, U.S. Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., said Friday morning when he stopped by the SIA plant.
“Since right-to-work, we’ve seen an increase in activity,” said Pence, who is running for governor against Democrat John Gregg and Libertarian Rupert Boneham.
Right to work legislation prohibits unions and companies from negotiating contracts which require non-members to pay for union representation. Gov. Mitch Daniels signed the measure into law in February.
Despite the fact that the law was passed and signed in accordance with the way laws are supposed to be passed and signed, Big Labor sued to stop it about five minutes after it became law.
The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 filed the lawsuit Wednesday [back in February 2012] in U.S. District Court in Hammond, said Marc Poulos, an attorney representing the union. The suit names Gov. Mitch Daniels, Attorney General Greg Zoeller and Labor Commissioner Lori Torres.
The right-to-work lawsuit is the latest filed over a wave of conservative legislation pushed through the Indiana General Assembly over the last two years. Indiana also faces lawsuits over 2011 legislation that cut Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood clinics because the group provides abortions, and the state is in court over tougher illegal immigration laws and the nation’s broadest use of school vouchers.
All of those laws are, in President Obama’s formulation, laws duly passed by strong majorities of the people’s representatives, though these laws enjoy stronger support than ObamaCare has ever had. Obama is silent as Big Labor sues to undo the expressed will of the people, though the law has already brought needed jobs to the state. But Obama was not silent when Boeing wanted to take advantage of South Carolina’s right-to-work laws; he packed the National Labor Relations Board with union hacks and unleashed them to stop Boeing. In both that case and the Indiana case, Obama and Big Labor clearly care less about creating jobs than about preserving Big Labor’s power and its ability to turn dues into money for the Democrats.
No, none of this is all that surprising given that history in South Carolina and Obama’s history with the labor movement. But it’s worth nothing whenever the subject of why Obama stirs such strong opposition come up. Racists at MSNBC and elsewhere in the liberal media blame that opposition on the president’s race, but the truth is, it’s his leftist policies that spark opposition, and his unfairness, dishonesty and obvious hypocrisy turn that opposition into outrage.
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