Mitch Daniels sticks it to the Indiana unions

Today Gov. Mitch Daniels signed into law a bill that makes Indiana a right-to-work state. It allows any worker to opt out of union membership and coerced union dues. There has been an exodus of manufacturing jobs from rust-belt states that have coerced union membership, to right-to-work states, because unions extort ridiculous contracts agreements from employers that make the cost of doing business unacceptable.

This means that Indiana joins Wisconsin and Arizona as battle-ground states for union influence this election year. Hopefully that will spread thin the money with which unions intimidate and threaten state legislators. 23 states are now right-to-work states and when the statistics show net manufacturing job increases in these states while union states lose those same jobs, other right-to-work bills will be swiftly introduced out of sheer self preservation.

Unions are a bad and unnecessary drain on the economic health of any state. Getting rid of their influence and thuggery is a step in the direction of sound fiscal policy.