Hundreds of Illinois IBEW Members Protest Indiana Governor, Right-to-Work
April 24, 2012
When trade unionists in Illinois heard that Ind. Gov. Mitch Daniels was invited to attend the Republican Party’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner in Champaign as the keynote speaker, the state’s AFL-CIO made immediate plans to hold a rally to voice their disapproval.
Daniels recently pushed through legislation to make Indiana the latest state to adopt right-to-work legislation, infuriating union members and others in his and neighboring states.
Five thousand people showed up outside of the Lincoln Day Dinner on April 19. They included IBEW members from across the state.
Business Rep. Tate Wright, West Frankfort Local 702, located three hours from Champaign, accompanied 200 members to the rally. They met IBEW members there from Chicago, also a three-hour drive. Says Tate:
Local 702 represents 400 workers in Indiana. Mitch Daniels and right-to-work hit pretty close to home with our members. They know the damage this legislation does and are fired up about what is going on. It was a long day. We left at 8 a.m. and didn’t get home until midnight. Most of our guys took a day off without pay to attend the rally. But they were energized when they saw how many others showed up.
The rally received widespread coverage in the local news media. The Daily Illini, a newspaper at the University of Illinois, quoted Michael Carrigan, president of the Illinois AFL-CIO and former business manager of Decatur Local 146:
The message from the 1 million working men and women of organized labor in Illinois to Mitch Daniels is we don’t want, and we don’t need, your extreme anti-middle class agenda here in Illinois.
Wright said is hopeful that the activism that drew members to Champaign will continue to grow. He said that most signatory electrical contractors understood why members needed to go to Champaign and make their voices heard, despite the lost man-hours. Says Wright:
As long as we continue to educate our membership about issues important to working people and encourage them to keep their eye on the ball and not get sidetracked by peripheral issues, they will continue to turn out and make a difference.
On April 13, more than 3,000 people, including many IBEW members, attended a rally in Springfield protesting an appearance by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who signed legislation that restricts bargaining rights of public workers. Walker is now facing a June recall election.
Rev. T. Ray McJunkins, pastor of Union Baptist Church in Springfield, told the State Journal-Register:
This nation was built on blood, sweat and tears. Since 1870, one of the forces behind the blood, sweat and tears was labor unions. The voice of the labor union, the strength of the labor union, is the ability to sit down at the conference table and collectively bargain for fairness and equality.
International President Edwin D. Hill says:
All members should be proud of our Illinois brothers and sisters. In November, anti-labor legislators in several districts will be up for re-election in closely contested races. The turnout in Champaign and Springfield signals that our members will be mobilizing at the grassroots to put friends of labor in office.
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