Earlier this afternoon, lawmakers in Michigan approved right-to-work legislation for public employees 58-51, sending the bill to the Republican governor, Rick Snyder, who has been promoting the legislation and is expected to sign the bill into law. Opponents of the legislation have accused Snyder of attempting to “bust the unions.” Today on Fox News Snyder answered his critics, explaining:
If you look at unions in Michigan, they’ve done a lot of great things in our state. We’re the center of the labor movement going back in the last century. In the ’20s, ’30s, ’40s, people flocked to join the unions, because they were helping with working conditions, wages, all those things. And people chose to join a union… People used to choose to join a union. Now, I don’t believe it’s appropriate to say ‘just to keep your job, you have to pay dues and be a union member.’ So basically this creates an environment where people can say they’re choosing to join a union because the unions put a value proposition to make it worth while. And if the union’s not providing a value, someone should be forced to choose. So I view this as pro-worker legislation.
As they did in Wisconsin, teachers have decided to prioritize their union over the well-being of the children in their classrooms, deciding to “sick-out” enough to warrant the closure of entire school districts. Predictably, given the likelihood that this bill could seriously hamper unions’ ability to function, the battle in Lansing is getting nasty. On the floor of the Michigan House of Representatives, State Representative Douglas Geiss threatened “there will be blood.” The Twitter account for the Michigan Democrats tweeted the quote, and a few hours later, after actual violence started to unfold, the tweet was deleted. A screen shot is visible below:
The atmosphere in Lansing is tense, as right-to-work friendly organizations like Americans for Prosperity have been targeted by groups of yelling union members, many clad in boots and hardhats, tearing down tents and reportedly punching a conservative activist. The actions of these union members and their supporters didn’t stop the Michigan House from passing the bill, nor are they likely to stop Snyder from signing it, but they may give Michiganders pause.
Will Michiganders with a long history in the labor movement decide that the government freeing workers from mandated union dues is akin to the Battle of the Overpass? In the battle, guards for the Ford Motor Company violently beat UAW leafleters attempting to organize car factories in the Detroit area. Michigan voters may not be familiar with the 1937 incident, but it’s easy to see who in the 2012 labor movement have devolved into violence out of a desire to hamper the rights of their opponents.
It's ironic that Michigan, a state that went for Obama by an 8% margin despite Romney's roots there, has a Republican legislative majority and Governor who are passing a right to work act. How many of the voters who installed this relatively conservative government also voted for Obama this year? n n
Obama's victory margin is due primarily to black inner city voters. These people are overall politically indifferent.
Don't forget the 56K in Florida and 30K in SC dead voters….plus illegals and felons…and in Chicago, it's Mickey, Minnie and Goofy too!
Wouldn't it be great to have hundreds of thousands of freedom-loving workingmen and women go to Lansing and give these Democrat-lackeys who call themselves union workers a little frontier justice? n nThere will be blood. Indeed. The pot-bellied fascists who think they can force free Americans to tithe the Democrat Party in order to work need to learn the same lesson so many other little dictators have discovered in the past. n n"You ain't so tough." n nLet 'em attract members with the quality of their services – if they dare.
Right-to-work is just an anti-union maneuver that says even though a majority of workers voted to be represented, free riders now get the services of the union, including collective bargaining, without paying for it. The fascistic action was all on the side of the legislature.(Totalitarians always attack unions first.) n nAnd unions don't "force ree Americans to tithe the Democrat Party." Workers can choose agency fee, where they don't pay for a union's political activity.
Of course if the left's entire argument that companies pay as little as they can get away with, was actually true; these "free riders" wouldn't be free riders at all, as companies would pay those workers who are not union members less. nThe employer is under no circumstances obligated to provide the salary and benefits negotiated by the union to non-members, isn't that true?
"isn't that true? " nIf you wait for HillelA and the other trools to admit to the truth or to be moved by logic, you are going to be waiting a long time. You'd better pack a lunch.
“The fascistic action was all on the side of the legislature.” n nCentral to fascism is forcing everybody to abide by the dictates of rulers and a demand for the suppression of individual freedom and individuality. n nForcing workers to be “represented” by people they don’t like or agree with and to forcing them to pay for it to boot: that is fascistic. It is the unions that are being fascistic. Thank God the legislature is putting an end to union fascism. n
There you go again, using the wrong definitions of words. Don't you realize that fascism has no meaning except doing something that a progressive, a communist or a fool does not like?
"majority" means a whole lot of things, like the 56,000 dead people who vote in Florida, the 33,000 dead in SC, the dead in Illinois, California and New Jersey…or the illegals or felons. If those are included in any vote how can you have a majority?
Lame duck weasels acting like lame duck weasels, doing what they didn't dare do before the election. Well, at least this demonstrates once and for all that the GOP contention that they're only against public unions is a lie. Unions brought working people into the middle class; the GOPers seem intent on keeping workers down at the same time they go to the mat to protect tax breaks for the wealthy.
"Unions brought working people into the middle class." Perhaps they did. And today they are bringing them into the class of the unemployed. Ask the Hostess bakery employees about the benefits of a union, why don't you?
"Unions brought working people into the middle class." n nWhat an argument! If unions could do that why did their ranks shrink even as the middle class grew in the 70s, 80s and 90s? n nYou ought to give more credit to the American workingman, whose PRODUCTIVITY makes this a middle class nation. n nDitch-diggers and earthmoving equipment operators can both be unionized. Which one will earn a middle class living, the one who digs a ditch or the one who digs a trench? n nUnions increase featherbedding, not productivity, which is why they've declined into irrelevancy, save for their political function.
Just once I would really love to read a post from a progressive aka democrat nee Marxist that used his own thoughts and not the "talking' points given him by his union, school, professor, MSNBC and the other 95% of the self admitted progressive media! HilleIA show me a union that "creates" jobs? If there were no businesses, no workers and hey!! no unions…which of your jobs did a poor person hire you for? Blind, deaf and dumb with it too! n
Does preserving the job of an elevator at a plant that no longer has an elevator count as creating a job? How about at a plant that now has only self-service elevators?
What are you talking about? Makes sense….
“Unions brought working people into the middle class.”r nr nWhat an argument! If unions could do that why did their ranks shrink even as the middle class grew in the 70s, 80s and 90s?r nr nYou ought to give more credit to the American workingman, whose PRODUCTIVITY makes this a middle class nation. r nr nDitch-diggers and earthmoving equipment operators can both be unionized. Which one will earn a middle class living? The one who digs one ditch or the one who digs a trench?
You're wrong….union members have always been and are thugs…criminal behavior is acceptable to these morons and it is a shame that the Michigan police suck up to them because, hey, they're union too!
Non-unionised workers will be pressured, with violence too. A Mob-Union symbiosis is what made unions into what are essentially fascist leagues. The irony is that those who opt out of the unions will defensively form associations. They may "collectively" retain labour law firms to represent them to the employer and the old union. Or they may decide to join another union, one which has become competitive by jettisoning the fixed-for-life tyrants and deadwood at the at the top and improving services and effectiveness. The Mob-Union interests know this and fear it more than anything and as is their nature, will attempt to tip the scale with violence and corruption. Caution; culture wars can be dangerous.