For the third day in a row, Democrats prevented the House from doing business by staying off the floor.
The holdout is over Right to Work legislation, which bans union contracts from requiring non-union employees pay fees for representation. With their third consecutive day of absence, House Democrats could now be fined up to one thousand dollars each day under an anti-bolting statute passed last session. Speaker Brian Bosma says he hasn’t taken the necessary legal step to level the fines yet.
“I’m not prepared to move in that direction yet. It’s just my hope that common sense will prevail and that we’ll have people show up and do their job and move forward.”
More Democrats are leaving the holdout to sit in on the daily roll calls, and longtime caucus chair Dale Grubb resigned his post Friday. But minority leader Pat Bauer says his caucus is still resolved.
“We haven’t lost the fight. We’ve already gained or won the fight, if you will. And every day that we were able to stay out, more people knew what Right to Work was, and how bad it is.”
Bauer says his caucus will decide together Monday whether the holdout will continue.
