INDIANAPOLIS | A chant of "no more benefit cuts" roared through the Statehouse on Monday morning as thousands of union construction workers -- many from the region -- rallied against a Republican plan to fix Indiana's bankrupt unemployment system.
The GOP plan calls for reclassifying construction and manufacturing workers as seasonal employees, meaning they could not collect unemployment during off-season layoffs. Democrats pledged to block that proposal.
"You worked too hard, and you earned those benefits," said House Speaker Pat Bauer, D-South Bend. "And you will keep those benefits."
Dale Johnsen, a Merrillville bricklayer and board member of the Indiana State Building and Construction Trades Council, said organizers rented 82 buses to carry tradesmen to the Capitol. Thirty-nine of those buses came from Northwest Indiana.
"I'm not a seasonal worker," said Tony Fabian, a laid-off union carpenter from Crown Point. He boarded a bus in Griffith early Monday morning.
Indiana State Police Lt. Troy McElfresh said organizers pegged the rally crowd at roughly 4,000, an estimate with which he agreed.
Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, a key negotiator on the unemployment fix, said he understands the labor concerns, but "it's important we make calculated decisions and not decisions based on the emotion of rallies."
The seasonal worker change, projected to save $129 million a year, is among $544 million in annual savings eyed in a GOP plan, which also includes a $328 million employer tax hike. Democrats offered a plan that calls for a $1 billion tax hike and no worker benefit cuts.
Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels has said Indiana cannot afford to maintain its "Rolls Royce" unemployment benefits without imposing "job-killing" tax hikes.
"I would say that's kind of insulting, isn't it?" said Lake County Councilman Ted Bilski, a Teamster who brought his 16-year-old son to the rally. "Maybe (the governor) wouldn't have that opinion if he were out of work."
Indiana's unemployment fund went broke in December after eight years of deficits sparked by legislative decisions to cut employer taxes while raising maximum worker benefits from $236 to $390 a week. The state continues to pay out unemployment checks, however, having borrowed more than $725 million from the federal government.
