Highlights: Major rally planned for Thursday at Indiana State House against attacks on teachers/public sector; Union members in Ohio protest Kasich’s first State of the State, SB 5 debates all week; Missouri looks at Right to Work while students demonstrate in opposition; Union members in Iowa and Florida rally against damaging legislation; PA gears up for private sector fight

Full Scrooge Alert here: http://dailyscroogealert.blogspot.com/

Steelworker Union member cheesehead, Denny Lauer was on the Ed Shultz Show last night talking about Governor Walker’s plan to strip collective bargaining: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/41960378#41960378

Indiana

Others states' fights bring focus to Daniels
Boyer cited Daniels' unwillingness to push a so-called right to work law, which prohibits making membership or payment of union dues a condition of employment. And Democrats say Daniels' cuts and changes barely hide a human toll — and that he gets

Indiana unions plan big Statehouse rally Thursday Union groups plan to continue rallying at the Indiana Statehouse to protest several bills supported by Republicans. The Indiana AFL-CIO says it expects

Indiana House Democrats may be out for the long haul One House Democrat says his party will continue its standoff for "as long as it takes" to win concessions from Republicans on bills involving labor unions and public schools -- even if it means a government shutdown this summer.

Indiana House Democrats still refusing to work An Indiana House Democrat threatened Monday to continue the caucus's ongoing boycott "as long as it takes" to get changes made to Republican-backed proposals, even if their absence shuts down state government when the current budget expires in June.

Democrats serve by leaving
Indiana Daily Student
By preventing a vote on the right-to-work law, the Democrats are effectively ensuring that their constituents' voices are heard. If these Democrats did not voice their opposition, they wouldn't be doing their jobs. At least give them credit for

Wisconsin

WI: War of words escalates
A Democrat's offer to meet with Gov. Scott Walker to break the budget impasse produced no agreement or even progress Monday, only a burst of accusations on both sides that some said could set back negotiations.

Bargaining bills multiply
Milwaukee News Buzz
Missouri's legislature is debating right-to-work legislation (which would make membership in both private and public unions optional) and Kansas is considering a bill to prevent automatic deductions from public employee paychecks for political

Teachers' union, chamber at odds over rallies
Orlando Sentinel
Florida is a "right to work state" with laws that prohibit teachers from striking, noted Ron Meyer, a Tallahassee attorney who often represents the union. Florida teachers are upset about proposals to create a merit-pay law and to change their pensions

Ohio

S.B. 5 ready for House hearings Ohio's controversial collective bargaining legislation is set for hearings in the state House of Representatives after passing through the Senate in a narrow vote last week, the Associated Press reports.

OH: Protest to greet 'State of State'
Gov. John Kasich's first State of the State speech today will clash with thousands of Statehouse protesters who will urge the governor to abandon his efforts to weaken collective-bargaining power for public workers.

FIRST ON CNBC: CNBC INTERVIEW: OHIO GOVERNOR JOHN KASICH ON CNBC'S ...
KUDLOW: Governor, just in the last minute--OK, hear you on all this, and I appreciate it--is there any talk in Ohio to make Ohio a right-to-work state? ...

Elections have consequences
Youngstown Vindicator
Oh, this is just the beginning — his real objective is to make Ohio the next right-to-work state. Just watch the industries or companies chosen by the above mentioned tribunal. They will be nonunion type operations. He's already bad mouthing GM and

Michigan

Michigan's employment policies hinder job growth, says US Chamber of Commerce ...
MLive.com
North Dakota was among the states ranked as good in the survey due to positive factors including "minimum wage and overtime generally track federal requirements, right-to-work state, minimal restrictions on pre-employment screening, ...

Missouri

Youth Movement: Two Student Op-Eds Voice Opposition to Right-to-Work in Missouri As a labor supporter, there may be no sight more comforting than that of students piling into the state Capitols as has recently taken place in Madison, Wisconsin, Boise, Idaho and elsewhere. After all, knowing a fresh crop of Americans have grasped the benefits of unionization in the face of plummeting membership numbers is a ...

Right to work hurts worker
News-Leader.com
Missouri has switched to the ultra right wing agenda of attacking the unions just like Wisconsin. If the right to work agenda is passed the result will be not just whether you can have a closed shop but many other things go along with it.

Missouri Legislature Looks at 'Right to Work' Bill
KCUR
In 1978, Missouri voters turned down a referendum to become right-to-work. But in this year's legislative session, State Senator LuAnn Ridgeway, who represents Clay County, has sponsored a right-to-work bill, Senate Bill 1. She says it will encourage ...

Minnesota

Bemidji Tea Party talks Social Security, unions
Bemidji Pioneer
With Minnesota not being a right to work state, workers don't have an option to opt out of union membership in a union shop. “The bottom line is the states are broke, and they're broken primarily because of sweetheart contracts which have been given to ...

Pennyslvania

Pennsylvania needs a Right to Work law
The Mercury
Over a 16-year period, the Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research has asked Pennsylvania voters whether or not they support a Right to Work law

Pennsylvania Gears Up for Public, Private Sector Unionization ...
Analysts argue right-to-work will not mirror Wisconsin confrontations. On the heels of a U.S. Chamber of Commerce report ranking Pennsylvania as “poor” for ...

Iowa

IA: Labor supporters rally against bill in Iowa House
Teachers, prison guards, firefighters, union bosses and hundreds of other organized labor supporters met Monday at the Statehouse to cajole, plead and demand that Republican lawmakers back off their plans to change the way collective bargaining is handled in the state.

Maine

Tea party governors want to crush unions
Kennebec Journal
Maine has already seen the drastic Right to Work bill, a union-busting effort by Gov. Paul LePage. Leaders on both sides of the budgetary debate are seeing the state's fiscal conversation slip away from long-established practices and move into ...

Florida

Florida bill limiting union dues postponed as labor tries to stop it
Florida Times-Union
Ron Meyer said the bill fit into a "slavish adherence to a national agenda" rather than the realities of a right-to-work state. He also said unions reimburse the state for the costs associated with collecting union dues - and that the changes wouldn't ...