Weighing In (Over and Over) on RTW

What did you do Monday to honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King? With the holiday providing a day of respite from picketing the Statehouse, right-to-work opponents decided to focus in part on this blog and "influence" (we’re supposed to stay away from negative words) the poll question asking whether respondents support RTW.

Through Sunday, the "yes" votes were 65% with about 300 total votes cast. By 5 p.m. Monday, there were nearly 1,000 votes with 79% or so on the "no" side. Quite an amazing reversal of fortunes, huh?

Although the admittedly unscientific poll is supposed to be one vote per person, it’s no secret that one can work around that caveat without too much effort. Congratulations to union advocates for a strong social media campaign, driving large numbers of people to vote (early and often as they used to say in Chicago). Leading the way, however, was the person who either found an automated way to impact the results or had little else to do on a Monday afternoon, voting about 100 times himself or herself in a short period of time.

Ingenuity gets an A; democracy a failing grade. 

With the poll removed for obvious reasons, attention has turned to commenting on various blog posts that explain the good aspects of individuals having the choice of whether they wish to join a union, etc.

For those pushing that no business should have to pay dues to belong to the Indiana Chamber, about 5,000 companies each year voluntarily pay dues while many others throughout the state do not. All businesses benefit from many of our efforts. If we do our job well, many will retain their membership or become new supporters.

Thanks for contributing to the debate; let’s hope just that takes place at the Statehouse this week as lawmakers make the determination on whether Indiana should become the 23rd right-to-work state.

13 thoughts on “Weighing In (Over and Over) on RTW

  1. 2 things about the online world. #1, no matter how you stack it, it’s clear RTW doesn’t have much popular pull. This is just the latest manifestation of that. Stop whining. #2, you need to think through what you write, a frequent pitfall of online communications. Your vague backhanded swipe at the King holiday, set you up royally. To answer your question, “What did you do to honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King,” let’s start with what MLK said about RTW: “Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining by which unions have improved wages and working conditions of everyone…Wherever these laws have been passed, wages are lower, job opportunities are fewer and there are no civil rights. We do not intend to let them do this to us. We demand this fraud be stopped.”
    Anyone who voted no on your survey honored his memory splendidly.

  2. While you are correct, non Chamber members get some benefit without being a member, Right To Work says they will get ALL THE BENEFITS without paying dues. I will be knocking on your door for ALL of my benefits when this law passes.

  3. I like the people in my local Chamber, and my business might benefit by being a member. But I don’t want you to be able to “count” me as supporting laws that set my state back. RTW is a good example of why I am not a member of the Chamber, and I know other small business owners who feel the same. Your stated goal is to lower wages. When you lower the wages of the people in my community, they will have less to spend with me.

  4. I would like to see proof of these statements you are making against the people who took your poll. Doesn’t your poll keep track of who voted and only let them vote once. I’m quessing that nobody voted yes twice. If you can prove that the same person voted 100 times why did your system allow this. Where are the corrected polls. Are you sure it wasn’t 100 different people that seen a link to the poll at the same time.

  5. I read the article and figured i would give it a shot on the smoking ban poll. voted the first time , no big deal. voted a second time and it said my vote had already been counted. Ladies and Gentlemen I now present you with the usual lies from the Indiana Chamber!

  6. You keep saying that non-members enjoy benefits of the chamber this is true about Labor Unions to.
    Unions Gave Us The Weekend.
    Unions Gave Us Fair Wages And Relative Income Equality. Unions Helped End Child Labor.
    Unions Won Widespread Employer-Based Health Coverage.
    Unions Spearheaded The Fight For The Family And Medical Leave Act.

    I know none of these things benefit your members but they do benefit ALL WORKERS IN AMERICA. How exactly do all bussiness’s benefit from the COC?

  7. Joe, no swipe at the King holiday. In fact, we had Dr. King’s son as our Annual Dinner speaker a few years ago. Dr. King stood for individial freedoms, just as the right-to-work law promises in giving individual workers the choice to decided whether they wish to join a union.

    Brett, thanks for acknowledging partial correctness.

    Mercedes, our stated goal is actually to “cultivate a world-class environment which provides economic opportunity and prosperity for the people of Indiana and their enterprises.”

    Nick and “scam”, unfortunately it’s apparently not that difficult to get around the “vote once” principle. Something about deleting cookies, but I don’t claim to understand it. Many different individuals did vote “no,” but that crazy technology also allowed me to watch the same person casting a no vote every 10 seconds or so, quickly adding up to nearly 100.

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