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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.
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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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Voters in WI, IN, OH, PA and IA pay attention. See what the GOP stands for - the 1% and only the 1%. By destroying the right to unionize and bargain collectively you are playing right into the hands of the GOP and big business. Elections have consequences so vote the GOP out of office. Don't listen to their spin, regardless of what they say they always and only support the 1% - every single time.
You may be dumber than a rock. This in no ways ends the right to unionize or end collective bargaining. It ends mandating people join a union and gives them freedom to make their own choice. Grow up man.
This is only the start of ending unions. When the unions lose the right to control fees of the membership, the unions are on their death bed. It is much like a democracy losing its right to charge fees or tax, which are then spent for the good of all. Employers know, if they can get their foot into the union door they will be able to control and eventually end unions.
I'm 66 years old and never been in a union in my life. God knows they need reform. But if unions disappear, within a generation the 40 hour work week will disappear, time and a half will disappear, vacations will disappear, minimum wage will disappear and child labor will be back. The only reason Walmart isn't paying 12 year old kids $2.00 per hour and working them 90 hours a week is because it's illegal. If unions go away, it soon won't be illegal.
Charlie spoken like a true union stooge. Never in a Union. Right!!!!
Charlie. were does walmart in USA employ 12 year olds at 2 bucks per hour.????? and work them 90 hrs per week>????
About 30 years ago, my neighbor, who was in a union factory, was gloating about how much money he made, and how little he had to work. He didn't know what my salary was, but he told me his. He was making about 25% more than I was making at that time. He had a high school diploma, with no extra training, and I had a college diploma and was working in IT, which has paid well for me all these years. He said he only had to work for 15 minutes out of every hour - and he was so please with himself. That company has since gone under. I don't know wat that fella is doing, now. Up to that point, I had always been told how great unions are, and I believed it. I think they did well for the common worker for a number of years, but I think they have outlived their usefulness.
Today's demonstration by teachers of skipping school to protest was a huge black eye for unions. If those people are not terminated, it will be a complete injustice to every tax payer in Michigan. Great example you set today for our children to follow. You just lost all respect from any student with a brain.
It is really a joke to call this type of legislation right to work. It has nothing to do with anybody's right to work. What it is, is a right to pay less wages, slash benefits, and basically castrate unions. Anyone who is a working American has to only look at what has happened to the American Crystal workers in the Red River Valley of North Dakota/Minnesota to see what companies are doing to the union working force of this country. When this law passes employers will tell the workers "take what I wish to pay you or leave". It has taken hundreds of years for the American worker to gain some human rights and a decent living wage. With a stroke of a pen, all this will be buried and the American worker will have fallen to the level of Chinese workers. If you don't like it, go look somewhere else and when meeting at the next employer, that worker will hear the same thing. The chasm between the rich and poor will expand again. And society will be a bit sicker.
I have worked in both Union and non-union shops. Unions are worthless. If you go to work for a company you do it on their terms. Don't come back later and complain about wages and benefits. If you don't like it find another job.
UAW stands for "U AIN'T WORKING!!!!!!!!"
If not for unions, your wages would be equal to the chinese worker. Maybe their will be more jobs, because companies will no longer have to go to China to find basically slave labor. Good luck with your next job.
John: That is the same excuse that all union stooges have. I never had a union protect me and have earned my money. An education and hard work gets you more than crying to a union.
What do you call the unemployment line in Detroit? Answer: A picket line.
It's absolutely ironic Obama was in Detroit claiming unions are good for America and the economy. Unions are good for unions and leave destruction and a waste land behind them.
This is is the best EConomic news MI had in years... stand by and watch as more jobs are added....
and Dems and Union thugs going to be upset by it..
Charger: You are correct! There will be more jobs if we get rid of the unions.
Search on the internet for Chrysler workers drinking and smoking pot on their lunch breaks.
They got their jobs back because of the unions protecting lazy worthless scum.
I am pro union, but I think this is a non event. There is not a single person out there who will want to be a "scab" in Michigan...would you want to work with everyone else knowing you are a "scab"? Would you want to work for 50% of the pay the guy next to you is making? I think this will take care of itself...
This guy will neeeeeevvvvvvvvverr get elected to public office in Michigan..he is the sacrificial lamb of the RNC....
Yea, tell me that again when Union collection go down to near zero when the law goes into effect.
When Republicans are the majority in the House and Senate, this is what happens. They could care less what's best for the people, it's all about party. Michigan is in dire straits as it is. Bankrupt and if the Governor thinks paying folks ghetto wages, he's mistaken. He's not helping Michiganders by doing this. And to put a clause in this legislation making it impossible to rescind, is beyond hypocritical and tells you just how much power the Koch Bros et al have. Republicans are plutocrats and this is what they do when they lose. Shameful. Just shameful. And what's even sadder, is they/Nelson doesn't care what anybody in this country thinks of him or what he's doing. Not one iota. Just like Scott Walker and Kasich. Collective Bargaining was created to prevent just what's happening, from happening. This is a complete abuse of power. And what it does to turn the clock back a gazillion years ago.
This bill does not forbid Unions or collective bargaining it simply states that membership and dues are voluntary.
If the unions would quit ripping off members and do what they are supposed to do, look out for members rights, they will have plenty of voluntary members.
Alas we know that will not happen as the unions have become thugs and rip off artists paying huge salaries to officials and PACs for politicians.
Lets see what was it the Dems were screaming on Nov. 7th.
"WE WON GET OVER IT"
Enjoy your empty jobless victory.. I am a federal employee looking forward to my entitlements under OUR President...TOO FUNNY..SO WORK HARD.. I need your money!! LOL... MORE ME AND FOR THOSE NEEDING GOVERNMENT WELFARE.. I AM ALL IN!! THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
The good news is that most federal employees pass away very soon after if not just before retirement.
Some of them pass away at a very young age. Pussies like you forget that our military are Government Employees.
Great! but how do you except Police and Firefighters? Sounds like Obamacare waivers.
Taxes filled with loopholes and exceptions, Obamacare with 100s if not 1000s of waivers, Union workers having higher wages and benefits for doing the job.
unions....garbage
nuff said
MICHIGAN UNION WORKERS..You may not be happy, but you got nothing from Obama but another useless speech..LOL. Meanwhile college educated kids with MBAs and no job future under Obama can compete for your jobs..TOO FUNNY AS YOU HELPED RE-ELECT THIS MORON!
Before this economy recovers the sheeple are going to have to figure out that there is no right to work...don't take my word for it, take a read through the Constitution and all the amendments...find that clause that says people have a right to work...
The difference between the recovery from the "Great Depression" and the current recovery, or lack thereof, is that the great depression era workers thought of getting a job as a privilege...
Sometimes it takes some really hard lessons for people to get in touch with reality...
Hmmm, I wonder where that story is of the union goons toppling tents on women and children, stomping on them, and their assault and battery on people who disagree or even just question them? Why does MSLSD refuse to tell the WHOLE story?
Unions will be there and meet behind closed doors and make fearful decisions against those who don't support the unions. EEOC does not protect employees but unions can and be turned to for help when needed. Someone lined the governors pockets to do what he did, he just made the GOP look worse and heading to a downfall. If the GOP was so great how did they lose to Obama?
Much of the support for union busting is from working class folks without union jobs, who support it out of envy. What folks need to remember is that the bargaining efforts of unions benefit ALL workers. Holding up the average wage in areas where they operate is just one example. Remember that the next time you ask your boss for a raise.
This is a massive power grab for the corporate elites at the expense of the working class. Folks who say 'this is just so folks can choose not to join a union' need to do some research. Folks can already opt out of the union, and a little research into conditions for workers (wages, retirements, etc.) of 'right to work' states will reveal just how bad things can get for the common folk. I live next door to Idaho, where minimum wage is approx. 5.80/hr. Still, it's good to see the GOP continue to self-destruct. They are in denial if they think that the Scott Walker/Wisconsin debacle didn't contribute to their poor showing in the presidential election. America is wising up.
@Alec Peterson: If the "Scott Walker/Wisconsin debacle" was an example of a poor showing for republicans, how do you explain the people of Wisconsin giving control of the State Assembly and State Senate back to the republicans in the same election?
Walker/Wisconsin showcased the agenda of the Republicans and their tactics on the national stage. Walker and the other teaparty fellow may have won, but at what cost? It was a polarizing, devisive, no compromise power play; it was ugly, the kind of move that incites Democrats and Republicans to behave like Israelis vs. Palestinians when what this country needs are solutions.
When things are changed that take away something from someone else, there will always be a perception of the other side being polarizing, devisive, no compromise power play.
Republicans looked at the PPACA as a power play.
But, if the thought was that this would "turn off" Wisconsin voters, it didn't. Although the Wisconsin voters overwhelmingly re-elected Obama and voted for a democrat senator, they gave majorities to the republicans in the State Assembly and the State Senate.
If Wisconsin voters were against the "power play" of Scott Walker and the republicans regarding the removal of collective bargaining rights by state workers, they wouldn't have given them a majority in both state houses.
This is why the TeaPublicon Party will never win another national election. Obama will select at least two new SC Justices and turn the next 8 years over to Hillary. You stupid fuks that drink the Koch Brothers cream are History . I can hardly wait.
So you agree it is okay for union thugs to be violent to those who disagree?
I think that you are a fat arse that sits behind a desk and is jealous because the Koch Cream that you suck on makes you think it's okay to attack real working people. That's what I think.
Wille: Better quit smoking that stuff. The unions are soon to be finished in this country Thank God!
What do you call the unemployment line in Detroit? Answer: A picket line.
Looky Looky, Another Koch cream sucker. Hey Dougi from MI. Go fuk yourself.
Wille: Spoken like a true union stooge!! There has never been a union employee that has worked a hard day in their life.
Sticks and stones little boy!!
^^Spoken like a fat arse Koch cream sucker. I'll ALWAYS stand behind the Union workers unlike you the lil Koch Brothers butt boy.
willie- keep talking as your painting a pretty accurate picture of what it is to be a union cyborg.
well before if you worked in michigan you had no choice but to pay dues. At least now you can work and you have a choice, its all about freedom. As i believe it you can still join the union if you want.
^^Another fuking idiot that has head up the Kochs arse!
So much mis-information around here. In Michigan about 17% of the entire workforce is unionized. Dues (in the UAW) are 2 hours pay per month. I work for one of the large companies, in engineering(non-union). I have seen much in my years, there. I've never witnessed "thuggery" or intimidation except by some of the management toward employees. The union personnel are, on the whole a very good group and work hard for us. The company, for over fifteen years has hired ONLY degreed individuals, period. These are the last of the good-paying, or "living wage" jobs in the state, in any numbers. The people we have WANT to work, and they do. They LIKE their standard of living and aren't quick to jeopardize it. There are NO janitors in our UAW, let alone highly-paid janitors. Those "housekeeping" jobs were farmed out long ago to non-union companies with people making minimum wage. There are very few skilled tradesman in the union as well. Those jobs were farmed out to other companies, both union and non-union.
They do, indeed, fire union-represented employees, however, they must have cause. Michigan is an "at will" employment state. That means they can fire an employee for any or no cause. With that in mind, now the companies will have it both ways. No one in this country has a "right to work". Making dues paying and union membership optional only serves to de-fund the union and the ripple effect is to lower all wages, as the union sets the standard for a given field of work. The unions, while far from perfect, need not be destroyed. They've done a lot of good for a lot of (fewer now) people. OSHA is a joke, as demonstrated in the 23 "right-to-work" states records. Federal laws have been changed to make far fewer workers eligible for overtime pay (I became ineligible under the change). Why all the vitriol? What's wrong with having a better working life? While I can make money, I cannot make time. It's valuable enough for my employer to pay for. I have a finite quantity of it and value it highly. I would jump at the chance to be in a union as long as they improve my lot as they have for the people I work with. I would gladly pay 2 hours per month to at least have rules about how I can be treated or terminated and consistent pay-per-grade of work. Don't start with that garbage about "work somewhere else". There are about 11 million people out of work. Jobs are scarce, good jobs, like union shop, automotive jobs are hen's teeth. Why is it a bad thing to make a decent living ? Workers, to companies are "expenses" and successful companies keep a tight rein on those expenses. They will pay as little as they can and they are by NO means "your friend". Why is it OK for management to negotiate a good contract and benefits, but not the workers they manage? Why embrace "serfdom"?
One other point: at least in MIchigan, UAW people can elect to have their dues reduced by the amount the union uses to participate politically. That removes the false argument of the unions using dues for political purposes.
Seriously Teabaggers , Which one of the Kochs Brothers colons smell the best? Just asking.
for those of you who have failed to learn from history ....
First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.
Then they came for the trade UNIONISTS,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade UNIONIST.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.
attributed to pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)
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
The United States is a union. Perhaps a "right-to-live" law can be passed that will make tax (dues) paying "optional". Like this "right-to-work" law, those NOT paying their (dues) taxes would still be covered by the union of the states?
Yoshi 47% of the country doesn't pay taxes and are still covered by the union of the states.
This is a great day for Michigan ! Now the State of Michigan and Companies can start charging for deducting Union dues and I think $25 or better yet $50 per pay period would be just fine !
Hey Unions..........SUCK IT! Your best and brightest were captured on TV today. Nothing but a bunch of overpaid thugs.
There is a lot of hate in the posts I'm reading...too bad really. I would like to believe the majority of Americans (no matter their party) could debate with genuine thought and reply to a counter debate with dignity and respect.
I agree, thought, but unfortunately, our country is devolving in a European style socialist state, and there are many of us hate this direction that abandons the Founding Fathers' principles. So yes, there are many of us that hate what these Lib idiots are doing to our country. Especially when you see its not working in Europe and their failures are what we are headed for. Its like these Libs have no vision for what will happen to us when we become another entitlement society (like Greece). Very frustrating!
I applaud what the Michigan legislature is doing. Takes guts to do what is right, not just whats popular. The unions will never be honest and admit it is for the best of everyone.
Just a Thought: You mean like the republicons debated the killing of unions in Michigan????? Republicons are nothing but sorry A$$ losers and come 2014 they will be extinct in politics.......
I think the best approach would be to vote each and every member of the assembly and senate the following terms...Pay minimum wage, pension none, medical benefits none....Let's see how well they would work under these conditions. I believe that we need to take government back from the ideologs by instituting a pay and benefit practice that reflects their beliefs and see how many of them come to work.
Liberals at their best.
The only good thing that will come of this whole FUC job by the republicans is that come 2014, they (republi@!$%#S) will no longer exsist in politics. They will most definately get voted out of politics and hopefully it will be for EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I agree...they have just shown there true side...again....they are evil incarnated...