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Subscribe to RSSGov. Rick Snyder, R-Mich., tells NBC's Andrea Mitchell that the Right to Work legislation will bring more work to his state and may be a "positive" to unions over time.
Michigan will become the nation’s 24th right-to-work state after Republicans in the state legislature approved historic changes to the state’s labor laws over the strenuous objections of Democrats and union members.
The state House, which is controlled by Republicans, voted to bar workplaces from making union membership a condition of employment. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, has said he would sign the law – a symbolically important strike at the organized labor movement in Michigan, a traditional union stronghold.
Paul Sancya / AP
Protesters gather for a rally at the State Capitol in Lansing, Mich., Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2012. The crowd is protesting right-to-work legislation passed last week. Michigan could become the 24th state with a right-to-work law next week.
The House voted 58-41, largely upon party lines, to approve a Senate version of the right-to-work law. The bill will head to Synder for signature.
Related: Michigan passes anti-union measure amid protests
As state lawmakers debated and voted upon the new law, thousands of union members rallied outside the state capitol in Lansing in an ultimately futile show of opposition to the proposal.
Michigan joins Ohio and Wisconsin – two other industrial Midwestern strongholds governed by Republicans in the statehouse – in advancing laws intended to weaken labor rights over the past two years. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, R, led an effort in 2011 to strip public employees of collective bargaining rights, which prompted massive protests and a legislative standoff. It also prompted an effort to recall Walker, which the governor survived this past June. Ohio’s Republican governor, John Kasich, led the effort to pass similar legislation in his state, though it was undone by a subsequent ballot initiative.
President Obama tells an enthusiastic crowd his plan to raise taxes on the wealthy at the Daimler diesel plant in Detroit. Watch the entire speech.
Republican lawmakers had sought to ward off a similar ballot initiative by attaching the bill to an appropriations measure, a procedural tactic making the right-to-work law ineligible from a direct challenge at the polls.
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But union members believe they might have a chance to put the right-to-work law before voters as soon as 2014, though the changes to the law would be allowed to take effect in the meanwhile. And opponents of the right-to-work law would have to also meet a higher-than-usual threshold of support to put the question on the ballot.
Democrats vocally criticized the law in the debate preceding the vote, one lawmaker, Douglass Geiss, said there would be “blood” as a result of the law. State Rep. Shanelle Jackson, D, said the law guaranteed Snyder’s defeat in 2014, when he would be up for re-election.
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Tuesday’s action makes Michigan the 24th right-to-work state, but only the second state in the Industrial Midwest to pass such a law. Michigan follows Indiana, which passed its right-to-work law in early 2012. Most other right-to-work states are located in the South and Plains states. Proponents of the laws argue that right-to-work laws have allowed those states to attract new jobs and industries, while labor advocates argue that workers in those states are forced to accept lower wages than they might enjoy in states where union membership in workplaces is compulsory.
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hey obama??....go back to DC and try handle the responsibilities of your job you ass......the right to work issue belongs to the state..........how in the hell did this clown get re-elected?......pathetic...hey obama you won already......quit campaigning and quit pandering if you can......
Paddy is a sick wack!!!!
mcp: By the majority of voters?
Good for the Republicans in Mich, at last they stand for something for the real people and not just the chosen ones from the Obama commie unions. Obama is helpless and hapless in doing anything on the State Level. AFter Granholm who almost killed off the state, this is a breath of fresh air in a stinking cesspool of big labor and demonrat corruption.
Hey Demonrats, The Republicans won the house, Gov. office and Senate? so elections have consequences, negotiate this AH's
buf: I'm convinced, I'm convinced. Your mastery of prose and reason are non-existent. Hate? Got that down, I must admit. Anything constructive? I thought not.
somehow we need to impeach obama and force him to resign.....i hate to say this but even biden would be a better president and he is totally off his rocker!!...one can hope!!
Well Michigan, if this isn't what you wanted then maybe you should ask yourselves why you handed all three branches of your state government over to Republicans and try to use better judgment the next time you go to the polls.
No, the voters used great judgement. It is the union lackeys who have none.
So what the Democrats are saying is that people don't have a right to work unless they belong to a union. That is pathetic and should show all Democrats what kind of people the Democratic party has at the helm. No one has any rights unless the Democratic party says they do. And it all starts with unions.
Not only the democrats but our very own Commander in Grief as well. I love his coment yesterday. Something to the effect of "You only have to look to Michigan to see what unions do for the middle class" Maybe Obama should take an evening walk through downtown Detroit and see how far he gets...
I lived in Michigan for 4 years and while the upper peninsula is gorgeous Detroit is the antithesis. Sorry all of you great hard working Detroit people out there but your city is a complete hell hole.
Good for Michigan. Maybe that state will become less of a depressing sh!thole now that people are permitted to get jobs without union intimidation.
This is a big win for worker's choice! I live in a right-to-work state also where union membership is voluntary. I was a member up until 12 years ago. Paying 1% of my wages so that lawyers, lobbyists,& other clandestine characters could go on golf outings in Hawaii was more than enough to convince me to drop out. 12 years union-free!
Not totally against unions but firmly believe that membership should be a worker's choice without fear of persecution!
Well Michigan, when you give all (3) branches of State government to the 1% suck ups / liars, these are the results. Pay attention next time and I recommend actually casting a vote in 2014.
If Unions are the way to go how come Obama had to bail them out?
I was a union worker for 7 years and watched a bunch of uneducated babies drive the company out of business. Then they all had a melt down when it dissapeared.
I also worked for a company where the shop was union and one guy was retiring at 49 cecause he had his 30 years in. So if he lives to be 80 that's 30 years of paying in and 30 years of taking out. Do the math. It can't sustain itself.
Bottom line is that $80 an hour (wage and benefits) auto workers cannot be sustained in this global economy.
AND... most of all. I though the left was about choice? Now the workers can choose to be in the union or not.
The Michigan House of "Teabegger Hoodlum's" has passed the "Right To Be Whipped Legislation." The "Bosses" are now cracking their "Economic Whips" around the work place. The workers have the right to be 'whipped' daily, and they better not speak out! The workers need to be smiling when being 'whipped.' The workers must smile and sing with joy for less wages. Retirement is out of the question because, they will be 'whipped' to death on their very low paying job. The workers will 'slave' for less wages, and no benefits will be given. That is considered "Socialism." If the workers become sick? To bad! Get back to work or you will be 'whipped.' If a worker does not have to use an Emergency Room? Then it is not a real emergency! Hear the "Whipping Noise" yet America??
Gee dude, were the heck do you work? Sounds like a tough gig. So let me get this straight... If you're non-union then you get whipped every day? So a surgeon takes a beating every day and gets minimum wages? A bank teller? A chef? Don't unions only represent about 11% of the workforce now? The rest of the 89% get whipped?
Lol...a progressive-forward with backward thinking. Let me guess. Your next move is to "strike" yourself out of a job, period.
Hey progressive loser, workers in Michigan now have the CHOICE to join the union. People CHOOSE where they want to work! If the see that the union is better, they'll join!
rwn: the "period" thing is - what can I say? Convincing, compelling, persuasive, critically gained? None of the above? Are you aware that stasis does not exist in the Universe (that would, necessarily, include our little planet)? Conservative? Does "resistant to change" make any sense at all in an utterly dynamic universe?
AD: Perhaps they just don't recognize it.
The unions have aligned themselves with communists and socialists and the majority of Americans despise this. You are ruining state and local governments just like you ruined almost every industry you have infiltrated. Your days are numbered in this great country and were sick of your gimmie it all attitude. Its to bad Joe Mccarthy isn't here to root the communists out of the union establishment.
Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. - Winston Churchill
cgent: Are you aware of Senator Mccarthy's legacy? He is the poster boy for un-American activity.
The only thing unions stand to accomplish in today's global free-trade economy is to create a higher unemployment rate here in the USA. Our wages and benefit packages are no longer competitive up against the emerging economies. Just stating a fact.
Word of advice to anyone thinking about striking:don't. Come to work as scheduled and voice your grievances on your own time!
Lockstep, anyone? Jobs outsourced overseas pay what, $1.50/hour? We can have them back at the same price. Interested?
Why do you want to drag American workers down to Third-world wages? Do you really think that would be a good thing?
jock,.......I have no desire to see American wages sink lower. But global competition will continue to exert downward pressure on them. Just stating a fact.
Congrats Michigan All I can hope for is it comes to Missouri soon
It's always good to check in at Fox News for the latest fair and balanced view of the new. I managed to catch four segments in one evening and one morning of viewing. Here's the pitch.
1. The anti-union stance is thoroughly justified. Compulsory union membership is unfair to workers, and some unions have a history of corruption. There should be celebration throughout the land, so said the newscasters and guests. Nobody used the phrase, "throwing the baby out with the bathwater," and nobody pointed out that all the unorganized workers in the sweatshops of Singapore and China are free to work for 18 cents an hour -- in Singapore. I don't know what they make in China. Mexico now pays about $1.00 an hour and has an unemployment problem.
2. Solyndra. No more needs to be said. Everyone knows it was a payoff to Obama's big donors. Nobody compared the percentage of failures in green energy companies with the failure rate in other relatively new industries.
3. Benghazi. Yes, it will not go away. We don't know who did it or why they are free or why Obama and his minions lied about it FIVE DAYS LATER. One commentator: "Terrorists now feel free to attack us with impunity." Why has no one been punished?
4. We all know that Obama is being unreasonable on the fiscal cliff because he has failed to specify just what cuts he would make in government spending. Nobody questioned why Boehner -- and Romney before him -- have never told us what cuts they would make either.
Always an interesting news source. I wasn't able to hear Rush Limbaugh's take on these issues but I'm sure they were as perceptive as ever.
RM: I'm sure they were.
There truly is a weird parallel universe out there in Foxland.
obama is an ass.........
What you all fail to mention is that the 2 bills that will be passed were all passed behind closed doors, with no public hearings. It was all done quickly so that the lame ducks could pass it. If these 2 bills are so good for workers, why no public debate?
I had to leave my home state 30+ years ago after graduating from college. The exodus of jobs had already started, companies were getting a lot more savvy with operating costs and the jobs were going out of state and out of the country. The short sightedness of unions is akin to the goose with the golden egg. Unions have no problem with Delphi having to pay furloughed workers for not working right up until the company is dead. I would have loved to have had an opportunity to make maybe a $1-2 less per hour and raise my family in Michigan. The unions lose me when the consistently spend 80% of their resources saving the bottom 10%.
"Proponents of the laws argue that right-to-work laws have allowed those states to attract new jobs and industries, while labor advocates argue that workers in those states are forced to accept lower wages than they might enjoy in states where union membership in workplaces is copulsory."
The last sentence of the article says it all and both sides are right..But here's the problem..If workers are forced to accept lower wages it would seem that would be better than losing their job to a right to work state.
Does anybody with half a brain think any State can force a company to pay union wages and benefits and not risk losing that company to right to work State? And the jobs that go with it? And the taxes that disappear?
It's all about increasing the tax base and sadly noone seems to get that.
RJ, No Nation can either, but no Dems seem to get that. And thats why all our good paying industrial jobs have gone over seas.
NM: Sure, we can do them just as well here for $1.50/hour. No benefits, shut down OSHA - jobs, jobs, jobs.
Isn't it funny that Obama calls this a "political" decision when everything he says and every decision he makes is for political purposes!!???
Why the anti-union movement? See "Chrysler Rehires Drinking, Pot-Smoking Workers" The story not being run on MSNBC
I understand being against particular abuses. But I do not understand being against the right of workers to stand up for themselves.
ProBusiness: I've heard some rationalizations in my life, but some of yours are classics. How do you think "market wages" will be determined if the employees have no collective, or other, bargaining rights? Employers will set the rates utterly arbitrarily - without any limitations. Could become very much like the early 20th Century, where the workers in sweat shops were locked in. You remember, surely. That light at the end of the tunnel is a train.
If you've been conscious the past 12 years or so, you've seen corporate America very nearly destroy not only our economy, but our society and our ideals. I think Wall Street, banking, insurance, energy and others were the major players in the 2008 meltdown. Or was it unions, Occupy Whatever, or intellectual elitists that robbed investors and pension funds blind.
Seems that many of us didn't notice which person and policies were favored by the majority of American voters in the election just passed. I'm not sure how barking at the moon is in any way going to help this country out of this jam. JFK suggested that "you'r either part of the solution, or part of the problem". Some of us even suggest that we 'cleanse' the White House by any means possible. Some of us have convinced ourselves that racial epithets are the expression of patriotism. Yes, we have 'dumbed down' ourselves to a degree that is appalling.
Governor Snyder is toast. I hope the people of Michigan run all of the GOP right out of office and reinstate union rights ASAP.
It is one thing to be against public employee unions, and quite another to undermine union membership in the private sector. Right to Work? Who the hell coined that phrase? Next thing you know the republicans will seek to do away with the minimum wage altogether. What good is a job if it does not pay a decent wage?
The GOP always opposes minimum wages.