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Michigan Legislature OKs separate 'right-to-work' bills to curb unions


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sns-rt-us-usa-unions-michiganbre8b5150-20121206,0,1003663,full.storyReuters:

 

Andrea King Collier

December 6, 2012

 

LANSING, Michigan (Reuters) - Michigan's Republican-controlled Legislature passed separate bills on Thursday aimed at making the home of the U.S. auto industry the 24th "right-to-work" state banning mandatory union dues, igniting raucous demonstrations that led to eight arrests.

 

The Michigan House of Representatives voted 58-52 to approve a measure that would make payment of union dues voluntary in the private sector, after Democrats walked out in protest at the public being kept out of the Capitol.

 

A few hours later, the state Senate passed two "right-to-work" bills for private- and public-sector workers on 22-16 and 22-4 votes. Each measure must be sent for consideration to the other chamber before receiving final legislative approval.

 

(Snip)

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Michigan Seems Like a Dream to Me Now

Paul A. Rahe

12/10/12

 

(Snip)

I live in an obscure, impoverished corner of Michigan -- in a county with the highest unemployment in a state which has had very high unemployment now for nearly a decade -- but I am not a Michigander born and bred. I can describe the political geography of the state, using a broad brush. But I do not know its nooks and crannies, and I am very much puzzled by what I see. In November, Barack Obama won the state handily, and Debbie Stabenow was re-elected to the Senate without any difficulty at all. In the same election, two conservative justices on the Michigan Supreme Court were re-elected, and a third conservative very nearly won a seat on the court that was being vacated by a liberal Democrat. Moreover, the left made a valiant attempt to secure the passage of a series of referenda designed to entrench union privilege in the state constitution, and they lost on each and every measure. What is one to make of this?

 

Michigan was once a union stronghold -- the capital of an empire controlled by the United Auto Workers. The private-sector unions are now, however, no longer what they were. They have strangled industry. Wherever I have gone in Michigan, I have heard stories of plants closing and of jobs disappearing. The collapse of the auto industry was merely the final coup de grace. Other industries -- and there were many of them -- withdrew or simply disappeared long before the arrival of the Great Recession. The unions and the Democratic machine associated with them have also destroyed Detroit. It was once the fourth largest city in the United States; it was once the nation's wealthiest city per capita. Now the median price of a house is $10,000, and, where there were once two million residents, there are now fewer than seven hundred thousand. The state is changing character. In the last decade, it has lost 10-15% of its population.

 

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I do not know. But this I do know. If Snyder and the Republicans succeed, if they are as successful with their endeavor as Scott Walker and the Republicans in Wisconsin have been with theirs, it will shift the national balance. The unions may be entrenched in California, Illinois, and New York. Those states may be lost. They may have to face bankruptcy before they can make a comeback. But if Michigan can free itself from this albatross by its own efforts in the current environment, then, there is hope almost everywhere else. Things are going to get hot in Michigan. It is a state that bears close watching.

 

(Snip)

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Michigan Schools to Close as Teachers Leave to Protest Right-to-Work

Lachlan Markay

December 10, 2012

 

Two Michigan school districts will close Tuesday after hosts of teachers called out sick, apparently to join protests against efforts to pass right-to-work legislation in the state.

 

The school district superintendent in Taylor, MI, a Detroit suburb, said the district would not have enough teachers to fill the district’s classrooms, according to local news reports. The Taylor Federation of Teachers is reportedly helping to organize the protests.

 

A Taylor school official apparently told the district’s superintendent that teachers were calling in “sick” to head to Lansing for the protests.

 

(Snip)

 

 

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Democrats Are In Full-Scale Panic About Michigan Right To Work Law

 

 

December 11, 2012 | Filed under Economics,Liberals,Unions | Posted by Doug Johnson

 

RTW23_NRTWC.gif

Image via National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation

 

The level of panic is evident in the headlines…

 

“Right to work” push guarantees all out war in Michigan [Washington Post]

 

Obama slams Michigan bill as ‘right to work for less money’ [MSNBC]

 

Michigan schools close so teachers can protest right to work law… [Drudge]

 

Mackinac Center for Public Policy released their analysis of the Michigan right-to-work bill, that indicates that it would do the following:

 

· Right-to-work means that unions can’t require an employee be fired for declining to pay union dues or agency fees, while maintaining a union’s ability to collectively bargain.

 

· Right-to-work offers in-state opportunities for young workers

 

 

If President Obama and the unions are against this bill, then you’ll probably want to hear the other side of the argument. Scissors-32x32.pnghttp://wizbangblog.c...ht-to-work-law/

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@Draggingtree

 

Democrats Are In Full-Scale Panic About Michigan Right To Work Law

 

 

As well they should be. Back in the late 70's I saw a show on PBS about Unions and the Union movement. A high level member of the Steel workers union was being interviewed, and he let out the dirty little secret. (I paraphrase) There are union people and union workers. A union person believes in the movement and works for unions, a union worker is a member because he wants the job....and most of my membership are union workers, if they could get the job without joining and paying dues, they would.

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Michigan protesters tear down conservative group’s tent, with people inside

 

Pro-union protesters tore down a tent belonging to the conservative organization Americans For Prosperity outside the state capitol building in Lansing, Michigan on Tuesday.

 

A video posted by the MacIver Institute claims to depict several protesters in hardhats tearing down the tent, followed by cheers and whoops from the crowd.

 

“Our tent was ripped down by union activists actually tearing it down with knives, with people inside it,” Americans for Prosperity communications director Levi Russell told the Daily Caller.

 

(Snip)

 

 

Assault

unionthug_slugged_scrowder.jpg

 

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"There will be blood, there will be repercussions," State Democratic Rep. Douglas Geiss, speaking on the House floor on Tuesday, warned ahead of the votes.

 

I'm guessing he is warning about the celebration getting out of hand by non-union supporters?

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Michigan Gov. Signs Right-to-Work Bills

 

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has signed right-to-work legislation, dealing a devastating and once-unthinkable defeat to organized labor in a state that has been a cradle of the movement for generations.

 

He put his signatures on the bills Tuesday, hours after the state House passed the measures as the chants of thousands of angry pro-union protesters filled the Capitol.

 

Snyder says a failed ballot proposal to enshrine collective bargaining rights in the constitution triggered the discussion that led to the passage and signing of right-to-work.

 

(Snip)

 

 

BTW

 

Canada could be next for right-to-work legislation, opposition parties warn

 

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I think right up there with regret at damage to our economy Obama will do, is not having Chris totally collapse at the election loss of the O .

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I think right up there with regret at damage to our economy Obama will do, is not having Chris totally collapse at the election loss of the O .

 

Have no fear there are plenty of things for tingles to collapse over.

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Michigan’s Modest Labor Reform

12/12/12

 

Michigan has passed a modest labor reform, and the result has been threats and violence from Democratic elected officials and their union henchmen. While this is deplorable, it is not surprising: Organized labor’s business model is mechanically identical to extortion, and it is in the nature of the extortionist’s trade to resort to violence when frustrated.

 

To hear the Democrats tell the tale, you would think that Governor Rick Snyder and Michigan’s Republican-controlled legislature had abolished unions. In fact, the legislation merely prohibits unions from forcing workers to pay dues to them as a condition of employment, which is why such measures are called “right-to-work laws.” The law imposes no limitation on unions’ ability to organize, to engage in collective bargaining, or to strike. It merely forbids them to take money out of the pockets of workers who do not wish to join them.

 

(Snip)

 

 

Language Alert

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzOirDbImdk

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