Koch-funded, union-busting group pushing RTW in IN

Pants on fire.

Indiana Senate President Pro Tem David Long claims his push for right-to-work for less isn't about union busting. He's lying.

Look who's behind the bill: the Benedict Arnold Koch brothers. The Koch brothers fund the American Legislative Exchange Council (along with other anti-union groups). Reports State Impact, a joint project with NPR,

ALEC is working closely with Indiana legislators interested in drafting and backing controversial right-to-work bills.

The story, "Meet the Influencers," explains how ALEC is behind much of the Republicans' radical agenda in Indiana:

The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, is not a lobbying firm, but it has quite a bit of influence at the capitol. It’s an organization that brings together right-leaning businesses and legislators from statehouses all over the country. They meet at a series of annual conferences to, among other things, hammer out model bills to be introduced into state legislatures...

Many ALEC members are lawmakers. Indiana House Education Committee Chair Robert Behning’s resumé boasts of having held leadership positions within the group. And several organizations reported on Indiana State Superintendent Tony Bennett’s keynote address at a ALEC convention in Phoenix, AZ earlier this year. At the same conference, Indiana State Representative Dave Frizzell was appointed national chairman of the organization. The Evansville Courier Journal has a specific list of other Indiana legislators either working on or leading ALEC task forces.

State Sen. Jim Buck, R-Kokomo, meanwhile, chairs ALEC’s tax and fiscal policy committee. State Rep. David Wolkins, R-Winona Lake, chairs its energy, environment and agriculture committee.

In all, nine of the 150 members of the Indiana General Assembly attended the summit. About 20 more Indiana Republican legislators are members of ALEC but did not attend.

Read the whole thing here.

The "summit" was held at a luxurious resort, and we'd be quite interested to know how many Hoosier lawmakers paid the full boat for the trip out of their own pockets.

The Koch brothers have been trying to dismantle unions for years. To suggest that right-to-work for less is about anything else is flat-out wrong.