Indiana Becomes First Rust Belt State to Enact Right-to-Work Law

Employment Law

This week, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels signed a right-to-work law, enacted with the goal of making the state more attractive to businesses.  Gov. Daniels asserted: "It won’t be a magic answer, but we’ll be far better off with it."  Senate President Pro Tempore David Long indicated that at least one company is planning now to remain in Indiana instead of going to Alabama, though he would not identify the company.  He also stated that: “[A] company from Michigan was planning to go to a ‘right to work’ state in the South.  When they saw what was happening here, (they) invited the state to bid. . . . We are now in consideration for those jobs.”  Senate Minority Leader Vi Simpson disputed this, saying the bill was being passed on “anecdotes and myths” and “there is no empirical evidence, if you take the time to read the studies, that ‘right to work’ creates one job."  Meanwhile, there was marginal good news for organized labaor this week as the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the national rate of private sector union membership rate remained at 6.9 percent in 2011, the same rate as 2010, after a sharp drop from 7.2 percent in 2009.