MARK KIESLING: Right-to-work will be reality, like it or not

The right-to-work bill, which caused the lengthy Democratic walkout in the Indiana Legislature last year and intermittent interruptions this year, is back as expected and has been moved on to the state Senate.

I hate to keep writing about this issue over and over again, but the truth is that this is going to be a key in the economic development of the state and is a bitter partisan battleground.

States bordering Indiana are not so-called right-to-work states, in which workers entering a union shop have the right to decide whether to belong to the union.

On the face of it, it looks fair, but what it really does is allow folks who opt not to join the union the same benefits as those who are unionized, and whose union in many cases fought for those benefits.

They are in essence taking the fruits of someone else's labor and at no expense to themselves.

My readers, as might be expected, are divided.

"I am proud to work in a right-to-work state," writes Dan Gundzik, of Tennessee, who formerly lived in Wisconsin and says if Indiana does not mind its P's and Q's it will begin losing population to states such as Tennessee.

"Nothing speaks louder than the vote people have with their feet!"

Fair enough. If you are out of work or underemployed and can find work in one of the right-to-work states (mostly in the South) you are going to move to make a better life for you and your family.

But.

"Thanks for writing what I was thinking and for having the guts to write the article," said "Papa," who corresponds regularly.

What I'd said was let's go ahead and pass the controversial Republican-backed bill and see where it goes. It's going to pass anyhow, and we might as well view it as an experiment in a northern state.

I continue to find it ironic that the Republicans who have touted the ability of GOP Gov. Mitch Daniels to lure business to Indiana with incentives not tied to right to work now cry that we need this to remain economically competitive with our neighboring states.

Really? Daniels, whether you appreciate him or not, has managed to keep the Hoosier state in the black while all our neighbors are drowning in seas of red ink.

Sources say Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn goes to bed each night praying he will wake up as Mitch Daniels.

And well he should. His state is going bankrupt. And those around us are doing little better.

So do we need right-to-work? No. But we're going to have it, like it or not. Detractors call it the "right to work for less money" while proponents say it provides much-needed jobs at a time when the entire nation remains in the economic doldrums.

History will be the judge. Just hope we are not the ones who get the underemployment sentence.

The opinions are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at mark.kiesling@nwi.com or (219) 933-4170.