INDIANAPOLIS | The Indiana House will try again Thursday to convene its first meeting of the 2012 session after House Democrats refused to enter the chamber Wednesday in protest over the speed at which right-to-work legislation is slated to move through the Legislature.
Nearly all of the 40 House Democrats remained in a Statehouse conference room Wednesday afternoon until House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, adjourned the body following three failed quorum calls.
Without 67 members in attendance the House is constitutionally prohibited from taking action.
That means House Bill 1001, the right-to-work measure, was not introduced Wednesday and not assigned to a committee. Senate Bill 269, an identical right-to-work proposal, was successfully introduced without incident in the Senate Wednesday.
The House is next scheduled to meet at 12:30 p.m. region time Thursday.
House Democratic Leader Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, said Democrats will continue to boycott session until Republicans give Hoosiers more time to learn about the right-to-work proposal.
That measure is slated to be reviewed Friday in a joint meeting of the House and Senate labor committees. If approved, each chamber could vote on right-to-work as soon as Tuesday.
Bosma said the Friday committee hearing will still be held even if the House doesn't convene Thursday.
But Bauer said instead of rushing right-to-work through committee, the Legislature should hold committee hearings all over the state this month before voting on whether to allow non-union employees at a union workplace to receive union services without paying for them.
"We refuse to let the most controversial public policy bill of the decade be railroaded though, with the public being denied fair and adequate input," Bauer said.
Speaking to reporters, Bosma characterized the Democrats as children who don't want to do what they're supposed to do, especially since House Democrats boycotted session for five weeks last year in part to stop a right-to-work proposal.
"We will do our very best to encourage them to do what is right, which is to show up and work and do what they were elected to do, even if they disagree with what they think the result might be," Bosma said. "Democracy is about participating, not obstructing."
But more participation in the right-to-work debate, especially from the public, is exactly what Democrats want and Republicans fear, said state Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon, D-Munster.
"They don't want the public input," Candelaria Reardon said. "They want to jam something through."
State Rep. Chuck Moseley, D-Portage, said if Bosma were really interested in participation, he'd make right-to-work a statewide referendum question and let voters decide whether it should be law.
"The Speaker claims their poll shows 70 percent in favor of right-to-work," Moseley said. "If that's true, why wouldn't he be agreeable to a referendum; and if he's not agreeable, what is he afraid of?" Moseley said.
State Rep. Linda Lawson, D-Hammond, said region residents have much to lose if right-to-work becomes law and labor unions are weakened.
"People have a had a good working, living wage, raising their families and their children, buying prom dresses and braces for their kids because they've lived in a community where unions are very popular," Lawson said.
Notwithstanding all that, state Rep. Tom Dermody, R-LaPorte, believes House Democrats need to show up.
"We're all elected to do a job and whatever side of the issue you're on, of whatever issue, you've got to be here to debate it, argue it, compromise and vote on it," Dermody said.