The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 has filed a lawsuit against Indiana’s governor, attorney general and labor commissioner contending that forcing union workers to work alongside non-union workers is slavery.
In the lawsuit, the union says Indiana’s right-to-work law is a violation of the Thirteenth Amendment under the U.S. Constitution because union members are forced to work with those who are not members of the union. For those who need a brush up civics lesson, the Thirteenth Amendment outlawed “slavery” and “involuntary servitude.”
Indiana is a newly minted right-to-work state, which protects workers from forced union membership. This means workers themselves can decide whether to join a union and pay its dues—union membership cannot be a requirement of employment. In comparison, Washington does not have a right-to-work law, so many workers are forced to join a union as a condition of getting or keeping a job.
The union claims Indiana’s right-to-work protections result in non-union workers reaping the benefits of the union’s hard work negotiating higher pay and better benefits for its dues-paying members. The union says it has been forced to work for free (the lawsuit calls it “involuntary servitude”) for the non-union workers because those workers don’t pay union dues. This “involuntary servitude” is slavery.
The lawsuit filed also argues the right-to-work law violates their free speech rights because the worker protections deprive them of the dues that fund their political activities.
According to the union brief:
"In this case, the state of Indiana restricted a channel of speech-supporting finance. The Union legitimately utilizes dues money collected through the agency shop provisions in its collective bargaining agreements, in part, to finance political speech The Indiana Right to Work law prohibits agency shop agreements, and that prohibition restricts a channel through which speech-supporting finance might flow."
So the union is arguing their free speech rights are not just the right for them to speak, but include the right to force others to pay for that speech.
Based on these arguments the union lawsuit demands that Indiana’s new right-to-work law be stuck down. Twenty-three states have right-to-work protections for workers. Unions have unsuccessfully challenged right-to-work laws in several of these states, with their most recent defeat in Oklahoma.
I don’t think the union’s far-fetched new legal interpretation of slavery is going to work. If I was a betting woman, I would put my money on Indiana’s right-to-work law being upheld.
