Shame on Big Labor Bosses! For years they have used the tactic of “shame” in an effort to pressure, bully and demonize employers who might stand against their efforts. They have used “shame” in their efforts to misinform the public – to create a misperception that their target is guilty of an unconscionable act and should bear the scarlet letter of these acts. These attacks have been not just against the targeted employer, but against anyone who might oppose them, including the employer’s customers and advertisers, non-union employees, even their own membership if it suits their purposes. Recently, Big Labor has taken the weapon of “shame” to the political arena, both in Wisconsin and now in Indiana.

“Shame” was the word of the day when the SEIU ran one of its Corporate Campaigns against EMS across the Midwest in 2005-2007. The Big Labor bosses never shirked from using the phrase to intimidate loyal EMS employees and customers as they attempted to cross SEIU picket lines. With banners in hand they would publicly attack EMS with incorrect statements and half-truths.

“Shame” was on display constantly last year when Big Labor bosses poured millions of dollars and thousands of foot soldiers into Madison, Wisconsin in an attempt to intimidate Governor Walker and the General Assembly into withdrawing the needed measures to restore fiscal responsibility to a state deeply in debt (see America at a Crossroads! As Wisconsin Goes, So Goes America!). Now, as we approach The Most Important Non-Presidential Election of the Decade, Big Labor bosses are at it again, attempting to “shame” the electorate into replacing Governor Walker via a recall election and then reversing the bills that have arguably put Wisconsin on a path to solvency.

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On Wednesday, after Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels signed into the Right To Work law, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow squirmed in her chair with excitement as she showed the Super Bowl Village being invaded by Big Labor activists. [see update at bottom of post]

Rather than seeing the Super Bowl as a big event for Indiana, Maddow’s guest, Indiana State Rep. Scott Pelath, sees it as a “national platform” for Big Labor “education” through disruption.

Indiana AFL-CIO union boss Nancy Guyott pulls no punches describing the chaos she intends to create; she has declared war on Super Bowl spectators. From Sterling Wong at Minyanville.com:

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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Lawmakers put Indiana on the verge of becoming the Rust Belt’s first right-to-work state, passing legislation Wednesday that prohibits labor contracts requiring workers to pay union representation fees.

Hundreds of union members gathered at the Statehouse chanted “Shame on you!” and “See you at the Super Bowl!” as the vote was announced. As the streets of Indianapolis bustled with Super Bowl festivities, protesters planned a downtown rally that they hoped would point a national spotlight on the state.

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Recently, former-SEIU Radio Voice, current-MSNBC Host Rachel Maddow and Indiana State Rep. Scott Pelath appeared eager to see Big Labor’s anticipated disruption of Super Bowl Week in Indianapolis, site of the 2012 event.  Threats of using the Super Bowl to intimidate lawmakers have been increasing over the past weeks.  From the Associate Press:

Facing a legislative vote that would make Indiana a right-to-work state … Labor activists are deciding whether to go ahead with protests that could include Teamsters clogging city streets with trucks and electricians staging a slowdown at the convention center site of the NFL village.

“The last thing the city needs is a black eye,” said Jeff Combs, organizing director for Teamsters Local 135.  [But, apparently Combs is willing to give it one.]

“You can tell them we’ll take the Super Bowl and shove it,” said Combs, the Teamsters organizer. Teamsters gathered at the Statehouse Wednesday wearing T-shirts with the roman numerals 46, referring to the Super Bowl, crossed out on the back.  He said truckers would be willing to risk arrest by causing traffic jams.

Why does Big Labor from across the USA plan to converge on Indianapolis?  Union bosses fear ‘Voluntary Unionism’ and the freedom that Right To Work will bring to Hoosiers.  Without ‘Compulsory Unionism,’ currently imposed in Indiana, union bosses will have to create reasons for employees to join their union; and, that is a lot more work that state-sanctioned compulsion. (more…)

When it was announced that Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniel’s would give the response to the State of the Union address, hopes were high that he might take it to Obama–that he might meet the rhetoric of class warfare with an exposition of free markets, personal responsibility, smaller government, etc. But instead, what we heard last night from Daniels was more class warfare aimed at the rich.

For example, after saying some good things, even some great things, about the debt President Obama’s reckless spending has put us in—“an unprecedented explosion of spending has added trillions to an already unaffordable national debt”—Daniels went after the wealthy in this county in much the same way we’d expect Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid to do.

Consider the way he spoke of reviving Medicare and social security:

We must unite to save the safety net. Medicare and social security have served us well [and] we can preserve them unchanged and untouched for those in or near retirement, but we must fashion a new safety net so future Americans are protected too.

Decades ago we could afford to send millionaires pension checks and pay medical bills for even the wealthiest among us, now we can’t. So the dollars we have should be devoted to those who need them most.

Do you see that? According to Daniels, people who are wealthy shouldn’t receive social security “pension” checks or Medicare benefits. And what’s the difference between what Daniels is saying and what Obama says when he tells the wealthy to “pay their fair share”? It’s like Daniels took a page straight out of Class Warfare 101.

And what’s worse, Daniels is completely overlooking the fact that “the wealthy” receive social security checks because they paid into social security: it’s not like they’re receiving checks for something they didn’t earn. So in a real sense, Daniels is saying that the money the wealthy paid into social security should go to others instead. It’s like a whole new entitlement.

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For the second time in a session that is only weeks old, Indiana House Democrats refused to show up for work on Tuesday, effectively delaying the passage of right-to-work legislation. The first delay was a three-day boycott that finished with Democrats coming back to the table to continue other legislative business. House Republicans expected to have a vote on the contentious right to-work bill after Democrat leader B. Patrick Bauer (known for vainly sporting a toupee) made public and private promises that his caucus would show up and participate in the legislative process.

But while Bauer and his fellow Democrats have been throwing temper tantrums and obstructing legislative business, other opponents of right-to-work legislation have been busy producing and distributing studies that purport to show how the reform would hurt Indiana’s economy. The several studies and reports reach a variety of conclusions. Some say that right-to-work would undermine private sector pension plans and others say that the reform will not have any meaningful impact on drawing job creators – especially those in the manufacturing sector – to the state. South Carolina’s success in attracting a new Boeing plant seems to go unmentioned.

Leading the way among those providing intellectual firepower and talking points for pro-union right to-work opponents is the Economic Policy Institute. EPI, a D.C. based think-tank that specializes in state-based research, has released a steady stream of information and research allegedly debunking the benefits of the reform and calling on Indiana policymakers to bend to union demands by killing the legislation.

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State Rep Craig R. Fry (D-5)

William Voll was stunned to receive a rude e-mail from his state representative, Democrat Craig R. Fry, after sending him an email of the sort that elected officials receive every single day–and which it is their duty to consider.

Mr. Voll runs a manufacturing business in Mishawaka, Indiana. He supports the right-to-work legislation that is currently moving through the state legislature over vehement Democrat, labor, and leftist objections.

So Mr. Voll wrote a polite email to his state representative, Democrat Craig R. Fry, who has served in that office since 1988, urging him to back the right-to-work bill (addresses redacted):

Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2012 8:39 AM
To: Craig Fry
Subject: Please support right-to-work

As a constituent of yours, I am writing to ask you to support right-to-work.

Opponents claim that the passage of Right to Work Legislation will reduce the overall wages in the state. Is this argument really a smokescreen hiding their real concern?

The RTW law will expose the services provided by union organizations to the same free market forces that all other goods and services are subject to. It will allow members to ask themselves “Am I receiving a service worth paying for?” If they are then unions have nothing to fear from RTW laws.

A contractor should be able to cost justify “union wages” by using a highly skilled electrician because of faster completion, better quality, fewer reworks, etc. With the huge skills gap in this country a skilled electrician should always be employed.

The IBEW advertises that they train their members to be Class A Electricians, If that is so and the union can keep its member’s skills current in a fast changing environment, as a union member I think it would be a service well worth paying for in the form of union dues.

If the service has no value, then the provider should go out of business like any other service provider or if necessary can the unions reinvent themselves and provide a service their members are willing to pay for.

If RTW passes, it will be interesting to see if the services offered by union organizations are actually worth paying for or have they been living off of another form of welfare “forced dues”

Sincerely,

Mr William Voll

Mr. Voll told Big Government: “I have sent emails to Rep Fry before and have always received the standard form email response back that you get from all politicians.”

From: Craig Fry
Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2012 10:09 AM
To: William Voll Jr.
Cc: Marilyn Cage
Subject: RE: Please support right-to-work

Sorry, but you are wrong and please stop with the “free market” bull.  Please don’t write to me again….I am a 40 year member of the Carpenters Union.

Rep. Craig Fry

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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – A Republican-dominated Indiana Senate committee endorsed the right-to-work bill that has prompted a three-day standstill in the Indiana House.

The Senate labor committee voted 6-4 to send the bill to the full Senate, where the GOP holds a 37-13 majority and the party’s leader has made its passage a top priority. The bill would prohibit contracts between companies and unions that require workers to pay representation fees.

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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Indiana’s Republican House leader on Tuesday promised swift movement on a push to make his state the first in more than a decade to ban labor contracts that require employees to pay union fees.

Speaker Brian Bosma of Indianapolis told the Associated Press he is confident he can push the “right-to-work” bill through his chamber during the 2012 session that begins Wednesday and is spending a lot “personal capital” to do so.

“We assume nothing,” Bosma said. “I don’t assume we have all the Republicans votes, in fact I know I don’t and I don’t presume we don’t have some Democrat votes either.”

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Eric Holder’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has launched an all-out war on voter-ID laws and other measures to safeguard to the electoral process. Although Holder’s actions are purportedly to prevent African-Americans from being disenfranchised, the reality is that they serve the crass political purpose of ensuring that Holder’s boss gets reelected next year.

In the past several years states have increasingly focused on measures to protect the vote. After years of the federal government loosening voting regulations, such as through the Motor Voter Act and HAVA (Help America Vote Act), the pendulum started swinging back at the state level.

The clearest example of this trend is through voter-ID laws. In 2008 the Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s landmark law requiring citizens to show that they are the person they claim to be by showing government-issued ID before casting a ballot. But to ensure that those without driver’s licenses or passports are not disenfranchised, Indiana provides free ID’s to everyone who applies for one. The Court upheld this law, with the primary opinion written by no one less than liberal lion Justice John Paul Stevens.

Such laws combat voter fraud that we see on Election Day, especially in certain parts of the nation. In Washington State, King County suddenly “discovered” enough previously “unnoticed” votes for Democrat Christine Gregoire to edge out Republican Dino Rossi for Washington’s governorship in 2004. There are also examples from Wisconsin, Missouri, and other states.

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FORT WAYNE, Ind. – Board members at Fort Wayne Community Schools have found a crafty way of preventing charter schools from moving in on their territory, despite new laws designed to help the schools acquire underutilized public school buildings.

They voted to simply transfer the title of their closed elementary school, Pleasant Center, to the Fort Wayne Allen County Airport Authority, which is expected to vote on a resolution to acquire the school building next week.

Unfortunately, it’s the area’s low-income students and their parents who will ultimately pay the price.

Last month, officials at Timothy L. Johnson Academy – a charter school that serves primarily low-income students in southeast Fort Wayne – expressed interest to FWCS officials in moving to Pleasant Center under new laws that allow charters to lease or buy underutilized public school buildings for $1.

Johnson Academy currently operates out of a church and another former school downtown, but enrollment has continued to increase and school officials are looking for room to grow.

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INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana state lawmakers reviewing the issue of superintendent compensation can learn a lot from the recent Wayne Township lawsuit filed against former superintendent Terry Thompson.

The district alleges Thompson and his attorneys schemed to defraud the district through a series of complicated contract changes that were never discussed in detail with board members.

Those changes allegedly boosted his income from $218,000 in 2003 to $2.2 million in 2010, according to the IndyChannel.com, which broke the news of Thompson’s $1 million severance that ultimately led to the lawsuit.

The issue centers on payments to employees for unused sick days, an issue we’ve pointed to repeatedly as an example of unnecessary school spending.

The lawsuit alleges that Thompson changed his payments for unused sick days from the standard $57 per day rate the district pays other administrators to 50 percent of his per diem pay, which was $413 in 2005 and increased each year.

He also allegedly removed a cap on the number of unused days he could accumulate, the IndyChannel.com reports.

We’re unsure about the specific circumstances in Thompson’s case, but several superintendent contracts we’ve reviewed in the past allow administrators to convert unused personal or vacation days to unused sick days, as well.

The lawsuit alleges that Thompson told board members the changes to his contract were minor, and assured his attorneys that some changes were approved by the board, the IndyChannel.com reports.

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INDIANAPOLIS – The idea of a salary cap for Indiana school superintendents may have floundered this summer during a legislative study committee, but issues surrounding compensation for school leaders aren’t going away any time soon.

Recent studies are unveiling some interesting information about how superintendents are paid that has remained largely hush-hush for years. An unjustifiable $1 million severance package paid to former Wayne Township Superintendent Terry Thompson earlier this year sparked the issue, but a recent report by the Evansville Courier and Press shows there are other serious problems that need to be addressed.

The newspaper examined 275 Indiana superintendent contracts and found that districts are paying their top officials much more than people may realize. In an effort to keep published salaries low, school districts across the state are paying superintendents for their health insurance in cash – up to $20,000 in some cases – and are reporting the income as part of total compensation to boost their pensions through the Indiana State Teachers Retirement Fund, the paper reports.

Here are some examples: Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation Superintendent David Smith receives $160,000 per year, but also receives $20,000 per year, divided among his 26 paychecks. Adams Central Community Schools Superintendent Mike Pettibone is paid $94,320 in salary, and $15,012 to shop for his own health insurance. Linton-Stockton Superintendent Nick Karazsia is paid $97,460 in salary, plus cash in the amount equal to the cost of health, major medical, eye and dental insurance, the Courier and Press reports.

The newspaper couldn’t find out how much Karazsia is paid for his benefits.

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Big Labor has another opportunity to show employers and employees their level of control over the state of Indiana. And, apparently the show starts this week as union officials promise to bring union activists by forced-dues-financed busloads into Indianapolis to intimidate, disrupt, and generally throw a collective tantrum against the simple notion that Hoosiers should no longer be forced to pay tributes to union bosses in order to get or keep a job.

The nation will watch as Big Labor Democrats will likely flee to Illinois again in 2012 rather than allow their constituents the right to pay or not pay union fees without the threat of losing their jobs.

And employers from Illinois to Ohio will be watching to decide if they can stay in the Midwest or even remain in the U.S.

Indiana is located at one of the crossroads of America, and it has the opportunity to become a free state where workers can no longer be forced into union servitude. Indiana has the opportunity to become the anchor that saves Midwest economic viability.

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Last week, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels (R-IN) reviewed the reforms Indiana has instituted since he took office in a wide-ranging speech at The Heritage Foundation. From education reform to challenging public employee unions, Daniels has strived to make government work well. In an interview following his speech, Daniels discussed the reforms he made to state government, the Democrats’ walkout from the legislature this year, and what the federal government can learn from Indiana.

And the effort seems to have paid off. As we discussed in the interview, a recent Manhattan Institute poll revealed that 77 percent of Hoosiers rate Indiana’s government as “efficient.” That’s the highest percentage of any state surveyed and a stark contrast to neighboring Illinois’ 23 percent.

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This week, the 99th annual Wyoming State Fair hosted a swine show, a performance pork contest and even a “pig ‘n mud” wrestling championship. But the biggest hog of all? The fair itself.

The fair has become a pricey pork barrel project that uses Wyoming state tax dollars to subsidize more than three-quarters of the cost of operating the event each year.

In fact, state lawmakers snatched more than $1.4 million from taxpayers to bankroll this year’s fair, which ends its eight-day run on Saturday.

If the attendance figures hold steady this year, every time someone pays the fair’s $3 admission fee, taxpayers will spend $32.29 to subsidize the rest of the cost of the attendees’ visit to the fair.

So why is the Wyoming State Fair such a budgetary burden?

Part of the problem is that Douglas, where the Wyoming State Fair is held, is just this side of East Jesus. The town has a population of only 6,120 and sits 50 miles from Casper and 125 miles from Cheyenne, the only two cities in the state with a population over 50,000.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Elizabeth Blackney are joined by Indiana State Treasurer and candidate for U.S. Senate Richard Mourdock to discuss the recent debt rating downgrade, how he would approach foreign policy matters in the Senate, and the need to replace long time Senator Dick Lugar who Barack Obama has called his favorite Republican.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

RichardMourdock.com
Richard Lugar Opponent Richard Mourdock Slams Indiana Senator As Clueless
Lugar vs. Mourdock on the Issues
Lugar trails Mourdock in Club for Growth poll
Mourdock favors Cut, Cap and Balance Act
Mourdock: Geithner Should Be Fired
77 percent of Ind. chairs backing Mourdock

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Planned Parenthood’s legal team has been extremely busy these days trying to stop various states from defunding their group. Texas, Wisconsin and New Hampshire joined Indiana, Kansas and North Carolina this week as they decided that taxpayer dollars should not fund the mega abortion chain.

But Indiana is Ground Zero in the fight to strip Planned Parenthood of its taxpayer dollars. After Indiana defunded the abortion group in May, President Obama has threatened to withhold billions of dollars in Medicaid funds from the state of Indiana if the state does not continue to funding Planned Parenthood. To make matters worse, an Obama-appointed judge ruled late last week that Indiana had to reinstate funding to Planned Parenthood because it would not be in the public interest if President Obama withheld billions of dollars from the state of Indiana and consequently hurt over a million patients on Medicaid. Forget the merits of that case!

Planned Parenthood emphatically defends its public funding by arguing that women have no other place to go for their healthcare needs.  According to an official Planned Parenthood press release, the legislation would “take away health care from thousands of women in Indiana, leaving them at greater risk for undetected cancers, untreated infections and unintended pregnancies.”

Oh really? Planned Parenthood in Indiana serves 9,300 Medicaid patients, which only accounts for less than 1% of the total Medicaid patients in the state. And in the counties with Planned Parenthood clinics alone, women can choose from over  800 other qualified Medicaid providers.

Live Action is releasing an undercover video today showing that Planned Parenthood’s claims of Medicaid women losing their healthcare if they are defunded are bogus and unfounded. View here:

Our undercover investigators called 16 of the 28 Indiana Planned Parenthood clinics posing as women on Medicaid concerned about where they could receive services if Planned Parenthood’s funding was not restored.

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I’ve seen this numerous times from the left but was genuinely shocked to see it occur from the right one of our own, a well-known tea party citizen journalist. Jeremy Segel of Rebel Pundit was asking a few questions of Mourdock at a tea party rally when Mourdock’s campaign manager Jim Holden – who also happens to be Indiana’s Deputy Treasurer and General Counsel – appears to make physical contact with Segel and shoves the camera down before later shouting “douchebag!”

I reached out to the Mourdock camp and spoke with his communications director, Chris Conner. I asked whether or not Mourdock felt Holden’s response was an appropriate action.

“The individual didn’t ID himself and there were other people there doing the same thing,” Conner replied. “We felt like he was being overly aggressive and when it was clear that Richard was going to talk to other supporters, the individual wouldn’t stop.”

Except Segel does identify himself and it’s heard on video at 1:36 in. I’m told he was also wearing a Gadsen Flag hat. I’m not exactly sure how a few calm and polite questions wound up being mischaracterized by Mourdock’s camp as “aggressive,” but judging by the video, the only aggression viewers can see is that from Mourdock’s campaign manager – who as General Counsel, should know the law better than he demonstrated.

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House Democrats in Indiana thought they were being clever by walking out on the legislative session in February, stealing a page out of the Wisconsin Democrats’ playbook.  Instead of having a debate on the serious issues of education reform, they decided to skip town to Urbana, Illinois and enjoy a break.

A break, by the way, that was completely paid for by labor unions.

According to Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma, the stunt actually backfired.

Bosma, in an interview with EAGtv and the Hoosier Report Card, revealed that some Republicans were wavering over the bold reforms, but when the Democrats refused to debate and skipped town, the GOP united and moved forward with its agenda.

“Our Democratic colleagues saw what was going to happen in the House, they knew that I was the co-author or author of a number of these bills.

“While they left the state for Urbana for 35 days, a record by the way in the nation’s history, not just Indiana’s, the guise was over labor issues, construction issues, collective bargaining issues for state employees. But the real fact of the matter is they knew these critical education reforms were going to pass despite the opposition of their key ally, the Indiana State Teachers Association. That is the primary reason they left the state.

“That actually helped my team … to get (reforms) through the House.

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