INDIANAPOLIS —
Teamsters union leaders who endorsed Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’ re-election bid are feeling betrayed by what they see as his broken promise over the contentious right-to-work legislation he’s now pushing.
They’ve dug up video from a 2006 speech to Teamster leaders in which Daniels states his opposition to a right-to-work law that he now supports. And they’re using it to try to embarrass him when he’s on the national stage.
A short video clip of that speech is part of a new 30-second ad that will air after Daniels delivers the official Republican response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech. The ad, paid for by several labor unions, will run both statewide and nationally on CNN and MSNBC, two cable channels that will carry Obama’s speech and Daniels’ response live.
Jeff Combs, organizing director for the 16,000-member Teamsters Local 135 in Indianapolis, said Daniels “blatantly lied” to get the Teamsters union endorsement when he ran for his second term.
“We promised him we’d help get him elected and we did,” Combs said. “Now we’re paying for it.”
The clip is from a speech delivered to about 500 Teamsters union leaders who represent more than 16,000 Indiana workers who are Teamster members. In the speech, Daniels said he wanted to avoid the “super wars” fought over divisive labor issues and said he saw no need to change the state labor laws. He specifically mentions right-to-work as an issue he wouldn’t support.
Daniels’ had no official response to the news of the ad, but his press secretary repeated what he’s said frequently in recent weeks: That while Daniels acknowledges his long-standing opposition to a right-to-work bill, he’s had a change of heart.
“There are two things primarily that have changed his mind and led to his support of right-to-work legislation,” said Daniels’ spokeswoman, Jane Jankowski, in an email. “Indiana misses many job opportunities and the significant downturn in the national economy.”
Daniels’ decision to push hard for the legislation that outlaws mandatory union dues for private-sector workers has set off a divisive political battle in the Indiana Statehouse. One that’s being waged close to the arrival of the NFL Super Bowl and the estimated 150,000 people it will bring here.
On Monday, the Republican-controlled House voted to amend the bill to exempt the building and construction trades, which includes the Teamsters. The Senate voted on a similar plan. The law would prohibit employers from entering into labor agreements that require all workers to pay dues. As amended, the building and construction trades could continue to have such a contract.
Combs said he still opposes it. “Union is union,” he said. “We stand together or fall.”
Daniels’ turn on the national stage tonight puts the two-term governor back into the spotlight, just months after he stepped away from it when he opted out of a presidential bid.
Combs and other labor leaders want the spotlight to stay there for awhile longer. Teamsters who’ve joined the throngs of Statehouse protesters who’ve been showing up to rally against the right-to-work bill are donning T-shirts with the universal “no” symbol slashed across the Roman numerals of the Super Bowl, XLVI.
And the Teamsters paid to have a semi-tractor trailer wrapped with an anti- right-to-work message, as a kind of traveling billboard that cruises the “Super Bowl” street route though downtown Indianapolis.
Combs said the truck will keep going “as long as it takes to call attention to this issue.” He declined to say how long that may be, but hinted strongly that Teamsters and other union members are ready to upstage the Super Bowl, if needed.
“It’s not what we want do,” Combs said. “But we didn’t pick this fight or the timing of it. We all should be looking forward to having the Super Bowl here instead of having this fight.”
— Maureen Hayden covers the Statehouse for the CNHI newspapers in Indiana. She can be reached at maureen.hayden@indianamediagroup.com.
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