End Times for Michigan’s Big Labor Racket

[Geee]

Front Page Magazine:

“If you seek a pleasant peninsula,” Michigan’s state motto informs, “look about you.” This may have rung true when the state’s founding fathers settled on these words 177 years ago. It doesn’t now.

The Mayan 2012 prophecy came true for labor bosses Tuesday night. Rick Snyder, the governor of a state known for its powerful industrial trade unions, signed right-to-work legislation into law. The Wolverine state becomes the twenty-fourth in the union to bar compulsory unionization. The overtones of such a labor stronghold adopting right-to-work rules—the symbolic equivalent of Mississippi codifying gay marriage or Texas banning firearms—wasn’t lost on either side of the for-now-settled debate. The two new laws allow private- and public-sector workers to hold jobs without union honchos automatically siphoning off a portion of their paychecks.

 

The union honchos are not happy.

 

Frustrate a racket at the risk of inflaming the racketeers. Thousands of workers skipped work, including hooky-playing public school teachers whose absence closed several schools, to demonstrate against the legislation. Their behavior proved a fairly accurate reflection of the law they fought to keep on the books. The protestors relied on force in an attempt to intimidate politicians into imposing a law that compels workers to join a union as a condition of employment. But strong-arm tactics failed to hold up a strong-arm rule. They only illustrated the injustice of force over freedom.