Less than a year and a half after the privatization of the Indiana Toll Road, toll booth operators will be voting on joining the Teamsters union.

Teamsters Local 142 wants to bring toll-takers wages in line with Teamster toll-takers in other states who average $20.67 per hour, according to Teamster organizer Russel Ryan.

"When you come into our country to run something, you have to treat our workers right," Ryan said.

Indiana Toll Road Concession Co. beat one Teamster effort earlier this year, when road maintenance workers voted 62-42 against the union, company spokesman Matt Pierce said.

"They have already been licked in one union election this past summer and they are coming back to try again with a small number of employees," Pierce said.

A Spanish-Australian consortium paid the state $3.8 billion in June 2006, securing the right to collect tolls on the roadway for the next 75 years. It formed ITR Concession Co. to operate it day-to-day.

If Toll Road employees vote for the Teamsters, it will be the first time they have had union representation since January 2005, when Gov. Mitch Daniels snuffed the collective bargaining rights of all state employees by executive order.

The Teamsters have registered the required 30 percent of toll-takers, which triggered the National Labor Board certified election, Ryan said. The vote will take place Dec. 14 at four locations along the Toll Road. There are 245 workers eligible to vote.

Toll-takers on the Ohio Turnpike, Pennsylvania Turnpike and New York State Thruway are represented by the Teamsters, Ryan said.

ITR Concession Co. in the past has said toll-takers make between $10.35 per hour to more than $14 per hour.

Pierce would not comment directly on the wage situation Monday, but said ITR Concession wants to deal directly with its employees.

"Our stand is pretty straightforward," Pierce said. "We are working with our employees to build on our first year of operations and we don't see a need to inject a third party into that process."

In addition to wages, toll-takers are concerned about layoffs that could result from electronic tolling, health insurance costs and security in toll booths, Ryan said.

The vote will not include 82 temporary employees hired to implement electronic tolling, both Pierce and Ryan said.