Even getting their way on their anti-union right to work free rider bill, Indiana House Republicans found a way to be ungracious scumbags:
Following more than three hours of debate, House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, rushed into the final vote to block a Democratic request for a live roll call vote.
Bosma then shut down the electronic voting machine before every member could vote, recording some lawmakers as voting for the measure when they wanted to vote no, while others didn't get to vote at all.
For five minutes, confusion reigned on the House floor as lawmakers huddled over printouts of the vote record and demanded recognition from the speaker to change their vote.
The votes were ultimately corrected, so we know that the vote was 54-44, with five Republicans joining Democrats in opposition to the bill, which will force union members to pay the costs of union representation for their coworkers who choose not to join the union, a change from current law in which nobody has to join the union, but those who do not pay a fair share of the costs of bargaining contracts, handling grievances and other services.
During the debate and vote, as every day the legislature has been in session this month, workers crowded the halls of the statehouse protesting the bill. A glass workers union member told the Indianapolis Star that:
"We'll fight it over in the Senate. If we lose, we'll fight it at the ballot polls this November," he said. "It's a race toward the bottom is what it is. I'm from Tennessee and been up here 26 years. I came up here because Tennessee's a 'right to work' state. When there's $5,000 difference in total wages and benefits from a 'right to work' state to a non-'right to work' state, these Republicans, they need their head examined. It's completely crazy to lower someone's wages."
His children, Vitatoe said, would have to find a new state to call home if "right to work" becomes law.
On continuing the fight, Stand Up for Hoosiers called it halftime in the legislature:
While we will continue to monitor Senate Bill 269's movement in the House, our fight now shifts to the State Senate with House Bill 1001, where the process starts over again. A committee hearing will be held, amendments will be debated and a final vote will take place - sometime after the Super Bowl break. That means we've got more time to raise public awareness and to win votes in the State Senate.
Last week the State Senate voted on its own right to work bill. In addition to the 13 Democratic votes, we garnered 9 Republican votes. This round we need to keep those 9 Republican votes and pick up 4 more to defeat this bill.
That's probably an optimistic take. The two bills are identical, and flipping four Republicans on a bill they voted on very recently is a huge task. Still, you keep fighting until it's done. If there's a shot at stopping something like this, you go for it. And if you don't stop it, you at least give them pause about pushing the next move in the race to the bottom.