(The following appeared on the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette website on March 11, 2011.)
INDIANAPOLIS — Fort Wayne union member Jeremy Penrod, 21, gave up a paycheck Thursday to protest what he calls an anti-union movement alongside thousands of other Hoosier workers who came to the Indiana Statehouse.
“This is more important than a day of work,” he said. “This is our future.”
Penrod has been a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 305 in Fort Wayne for three years.
He and about 1,000 workers from Fort Wayne made the trip on 20 buses Thursday to fight against bills being pushed in the Republican-controlled legislature.
The union members oppose several bills introduced in the General Assembly. The most distasteful, they say, is the right-to-work legislation, which could affect union effectiveness by prohibiting employees from being required to pay union dues or fees as a condition of a contract bargained with the employer. Another bill would affect project labor agreements and the common construction wage, possibly leading to pay cuts for union workers.
And there are also efforts to weaken collective bargaining rights for teachers.
Many also pointed to similar efforts in other states as a reason for concern.
The full story is on the Journal Gazette website.