INDIANAPOLIS | If Indiana history is a guide, the Republican legislative leaders pushing for a right-to-work law may not be in their positions of power much longer.
House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, and Senate President David Long, R-Fort Wayne, have said enacting right-to-work is their top priority when the General Assembly convenes Wednesday. A right-to-work law would allow nonunion employees at a union workplace to receive union services without paying for them.
They claim a right-to-work law will bring more jobs to Indiana. Democrats and union leaders opposed to right-to-work cite studies showing the labor policy lowers wages for all workers and does not reduce unemployment.
The right-to-work fight is nothing new for Indiana, which once had a right-to-work law — and is the only state ever to repeal it.
In 1957, House Speaker George Diener, an Indianapolis Republican like Bosma, believed the most important legislation he could champion was right-to-work, according to "A Centennial History of the Indiana General Assembly," by Justin Walsh.
Using every legislative tool in his arsenal, Diener squeaked right-to-work through the House, 54-42. At least 21 of Diener's fellow House Republicans voted against right-to-work or did not vote.
Republican Lt. Gov. Crawford Parker similarly pushed right-to-work through the Republican-controlled Senate, 27-23.
Passage of right-to-work brought thousands of union protesters to the Statehouse urging Republican Gov. Harold Handley to veto the measure. A similar reaction from union members is expected at the Statehouse in 2012.
Handley, a LaPorte native, did not sign or veto right-to-work. It became law after seven days without action by the governor.
But union members took action — organizing across Indiana to vote out the Republican leaders that enacted right-to-work.
Diener lost his job as speaker when the 75-24 Republican House majority of 1957 flipped to a 79-21 Democratic majority in 1959.
Republicans won back the House in 1961 and kept it in 1963, but Democrats won a 78-22 majority in 1965 after a presidential election in which Republicans listened to their conservative base and nominated Arizona U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater, who got clobbered in the general election by Democratic President Lyndon Johnson.
Handley, who could not run for a second term as governor, lost a U.S. Senate bid, and Democrats won the governor's office in 1960 and 1964.
Democrats and Republicans traded control of the Indiana Senate between 1959 and 1963, but the Democrats won a commanding 35-15 majority in 1965.
After gaining control of the House, Senate and governor's office just seven years after Republicans enjoyed total control, the new Hoosier Democratic leadership passed Senate Bill 1, repealing right-to-work.