Republicans view it as a cost-cutting, job-creating tool. Democrats call it a union-busting tactic that will lower wages.
And if the measure passes in Indiana, it may energize the right-to-work movement in a region that has repeatedly beaten it back.
“Ohio, Michigan - if Indiana goes down, they’ll all have targets on them,’’ said Eckert, 52, who was outside protesting the bill as Governor Mitch Daniels, a Republican, promoted it in his State of the State speech last week.
While Republicans have the votes to pass the bill, Democrats can prevent a quorum by refusing to come to the floor.
That’s what they did for five weeks last year and for four of the six days during the session that started Jan. 4.
Daniels, who backed off a similar measure in 2011, supports it now, calling it a “bold stroke.’’
“We just cannot go on missing out on middle-class jobs our state needs just because of this one issue,’’ Daniels told lawmakers.
Almost half the House Democratic caucus stayed away from the speech, normally a polite and ceremonial annual event during which the political tools of combat are left under the desk.
Most of the Democrats who attended did not applaud.
Outside the House of Representatives chamber, hundreds of union members booed and chanted during Daniels’s speech, yelling, “No right-to-work,’’ “Shame on you,’’ and “Mitch is a liar.’’
Fighting the bill “is like having tanks roll in while you’re fighting with sticks,’’ House Democratic leader Patrick Bauer said in an interview.
He told reporters Jan. 6 that “we can’t stay out forever.’’
Twenty-two states, mostly in the Deep South and the Rocky Mountain West, have enacted right-to-work laws.
Republican state house gains in the 2010 election prompted legislation in states including Wisconsin and Ohio that was aimed at restricting bargaining rights for government workers’ unions.
Indiana’s bill, however, targets labor contracts with businesses.
In that state, union members were 10.9 percent of the workforce in 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s down from 15.4 percent in 2000.
