Oh to be a fly on the wall in an Indiana union hall! 
Fox News is reporting that Indiana union locals are in a mad scramble to persuade as many members as possible to willingly pay for union representation after Right to Work legislation kicks in and grants workers the power and the freedom to withhold their union dues. “We’re gonna push them pretty hard and let them know this is what our services provide,” said Brett Voorhies, legislative director for the United Steelworkers District 7, which has 35,000 active members in steel mills along the Lake Michigan shore. It’s interesting that USW members need a “pretty hard” reminder of the value of their USW representation, especially after the avalanche of union propaganda triggered by the introduction of RtW legislation in the state over a year ago. Then again, just last year alone USW members in Indiana brought Board charges against their locals for poor representation an astonishing 24 times. It should thus come as no surprise that the president of USW Local 1999 told Fox she expects her local to lose “30 to 50 percent” of its dues paying members as the new law creeps into effect. According to a message from the president of SEIU Local 73, the state’s new Right to Work law only applies to collective bargaining agreements signed after March 14, 2012. So until their current CBAs expire, unionized Hoosiers are still out of luck. In the same letter local president Christine Boardman laments how difficult the new law will make it for unions to collect dues, inadvertently calling to mind all the charities, service providers and other organizations that somehow survive and even thrive on contributions not deducted straight out of their members’ paychecks. A quick LM-2 review shows President Boardman’s local spent a whopping $1.6 million in 2010 on officers’ compensation for a local of only 22,000 members. (We also assume President Boardman drives the union local’s $38K automobile.)
