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As expected, Michigan Republicans rolled out right to work legislation today, which Governor Rick Snyder, previously seen trying to court a moderate pose, said he would sign into law.
The legislation would impact public and private employees except for police and fire unions. Republicans will attempt to pass it by the end of the month through both houses of the legislature, which they control. If they have the votes among their own members, there really isn’t a whole lot Democrats have at their disposal to stop it.
Protesters flooded the state capitol in Lansing today, and had trouble getting inside:
Union activists demonstrated outside and inside the Romney Building, which houses Snyder’s offices, and poured into the Capitol across the street. At about 12:30 p.m., State Police said no one was being allowed into the Capitol — including employees — because it was at capacity. Even UAW President Bob King was having trouble attempting to get inside.
Pictures from inside the Capitol building show it to be almost empty in many places, actually. Meanwhile, protesters who have managed to gain access have been arrested and pepper sprayed:
Michigan State Police say several protestors have been arrested for disobeying lawful command, trying to push their way into Senate chambers.
Police sprayed chemical munitions into a crowd when it tried to rush the Senate floor, said Michigan State Police Inspector Gene Adamczyk.
“When several of the individuals rushed the troopers, they used chemical munitions to disperse the crowd,” he said. “It would be a lot worse if someone gets hurt and I failed to act.”
I appreciate the proper use of “chemical munitions.” State Senate Democrats filed a lawsuit to re-open the Capitol. Reportedly, protesters number about 1,000 inside the building and 500 or so outside, though those reports have varied. Protesters have also blocked the door to the Senate.
This is eerily reminiscent of labor fights in other Midwest states like Indiana and Wisconsin, both of which ultimately ended in Republican lawmakers getting their way, and a consequent decline in unionization and labor power. Snyder basically stated that as an end goal today, saying that Indiana’s “economic activity has increased and business has grown” as a result of right to work.
The bills are slated to move to the floor of the legislature, without committee hearings, as soon as today, and certainly during the lame duck session, when Republicans have greater numbers (they lost five state House seats in November). They would not be given immediate effect, a notorious practice in Michigan. They would instead take effect April 1. So just as the emergency manager law in Michigan goes away, right to work could take its place.
More here.
…a clause entered into the legislation, underway in the Michigan House, would make it impossible to undo right to work by a referendum of the people.
14 Comments
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So what is Mark Brewer going to do now? The UAW?
DD how can the anti referendum clause be Constitutional?
Thugs.
(by which I mean the GOP)
He used chemical weapons on his own people… doesn’t that give us the right to invade?
An excuse for passing such a law is that unions use dues in ways that an
employee doesn’t approve. But in fairness-corporations-which are partly
OWNED by us (through our retirement accounts for example) are spending $$
to harm people in ways we object to. We should put pressure on them not
to do this. This could start by asking our retirement program to set
up accounts (like some do for “green” businesses) which contain only
“well behaved” businesses. Then we could choose to invest in just those
accounts. Let’s be FAIR here!
Michiganders should be able to overturn this right to work law by referendum regardless of the Legislatures attempt to close the back door.
It is my understanding that a union shop is a union shop because the business and a union signed a private contract with a clause saying all employees must be union members. This is a private contract between a business and a union and signed by both parties.
Right to work laws are written to make such a clause in a private contracts illegal.
So why is it the party of no government intrusion into private business affairs wanting to intervene into a legal private contract?
I know the answer, but why is this question never directly asked of the people who are pushing for it.
I wish the people of Michigan good luck. They’re going to need lots and lots of it.
I’ve been working in a “Right to Work” state for the last 12 years and here are some of the gifts we workers have received:
1. Pay cuts every year for the last 9 years, even during the “good” times, just because they could.
2. It’s illegal to strike or even talk about any action to protest working conditions so anything goes as long as it benefits management. Workers are told to accept it or look for work elsewhere. Nothing is ever done about hazardous working conditions or employer exploitation of working hours.
3. Massive benefit cuts for 6 straight years then massive increases in employee-share payments of the reduced and near useless benefits we managed to retain. Most employees avoid hospitalization and preventive care knowing that a serious illness will bankrupt them. It did me and at least 7 co-workers in the last 5 years, including my boss.
4. Despite year after year of productivity increases the first thing to go whenever there is a financial crisis (and management produces many of them) is employee pay, work days, and bonuses. Haven’t seen any of these three things for over a decade despite balance sheets in the black every single year.
5. Serfdom is the only option if you have to work. You put up with sadistic, stupid, cruel management and suffer abuse after abuse and barely making enough to survive is your reward for putting up with all this abuse. You are trapped because no one will hire senior, experienced workers and you don’t make enough money to move anyway.
6. Pension plans that were negotiated and paid in good faith by long-time employees shrink and then vanish and there’s absolutely nothing that you can legally do about it. Tough luck for you, worker!
Someday, before I die, I want to see the United States of America return to the days when workers are valued for keeping the country running and rewarded for their work. It won’t happen until we topple every single one of these ALEC-controlled governors and legislatures and elect a president and congress who aren’t totally owned by Wall Street and the banksters. I know, I know. I’m not holding my breath.
Regarding referendum…..this may mean little in the future…the people of Michigan worked hard and long to repeal PA4 “Emergency Manager Act” last month. This month, with absolute disregard of the people’s vote, the Michigan legislature is ready to implement a replacement Emergency Manager Law.
The Michigan legislature is working frantically this month to re-implement the Emergency Manager Act, further privatize our schools and to pass Right To Work…for less. The state legislature is not listening to the people. It is trying to ignore our votes on referendum, and now are trying to close the Capitol. Hard to know what to do but to keep working, talking, networking, trying…
Bill just passed first step, moments ago. I don’t see how – am I misreading this? It appears a bill must be printed and sit in both houses for 5 days before it can pass – maybe this means pass as a law versus pass from one chamber to the next -
http://www.michigan.gov/som/0,4669,7-192-29701_29704-2836–,00.html
But I’m ready to go crazy if this isn’t some stupid political ploy and actually becomes law. They plan on attaching money to it so we cannot ever vote it out.
They’re putting money on this bill so it cannot be voted out.
I will tell you I hope no Republican gets elected in Michigan next time.
Brewer is going to have a 112-ounce steak, medium rare, along with the parochial old bulls who run the UAW.
The Michigan Democratic Party is the equivalent of the Soviet Politburo: aging, inbred, averse to change, and hostile to outsiders.
The MI Constitution provides that referendum doesn’t apply to appropriations bills. Ten years ago, the lame-duck legislature passed a liberalized concealed-weapons law, and inserted an appropriation as part of the overall legislation. The Republican-dominated Michigan Supreme Court* ruled that the appropriation made the entire bill referendum-proof.
* Still is. Republicans control 4 of the 7 seats.
What about the People? This is a question I keep asking on every issue, whether it is about economic justice, social justice, environmental justice, it seems to me the question that is being ignored by so many legislators across the country.
Here is a Michigan Legislator who does ask the question. Thank you Gretchen Whitmer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqE7uy4g-Po&feature=youtu.be
Here is an update from Michigan Education Assoc. Facebook page, as of 5pm
Update – 5 p.m.: By a 58-52 vote, the House passed the first of the “right-to-work” bills, HB 4054, which impacts private sector employees. Six Republicans (Forlini, Goike, Horn, McBroom, Sommerville and Zorn) voted no along with all Democrats. Debate continues in the Senate. Citizens have finally been allowed back into the Capitol in compliance with a court order – only after Democrats walked out of the building and vowed not to re-enter until the public was able to join them inside.