Labor has not really attempted to overturn the Indiana “right to work” law, where they had less options at their disposal. But there are tools available in Michigan, as well as a relatively dense unionized labor force ready to fight back.

Despite large protests and thousands of demonstrators, lawmakers in Michigan, as expected, granted final approval to right to work legislation, which will ban closed shop unions and allow workers to opt out of union dues despite having their employment covered by a collective bargaining agreement. The first of two bills, which installs right to work [...]

According to folks on the ground in Lansing, Michigan, today, the scene looks quite like Madison, Wisconsin from winter 2011. AFSCME reports over 10,000 protesters both outside and inside the capital right now. The state government has arrayed the normal series of law enforcement and security personnelthat seem to spring up whenever anyone wants to use their First Amendment rights to protest in 21st-century America.

The Democratic Congressional delegation in the state of Michigan met with Governor Rick Snyder for an hour today, calling on him to either veto right to work legislation making its way through a lame duck session, or to ask for a delay in the vote until the next general session, or to allow a vote [...]

Within a matter of hours, both houses of the Michigan legislature passed right to work legislation, while arrests and lockdowns occurred inside and outside the chamber. In the end, Michigan Democrats staged a walkout to protest the closed Capitol. But eventually, the votes were taken, through a gut-and-amend process with a substitute bill that was [...]

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 [...]

Looks like someone’s going to have to construct more protest signs. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, who previously said he would not take on the challenge of turning the home of the auto industry into a right to work state, now says it’s “on the agenda,” a passive statement that doesn’t actually make a determination as [...]

I’m sure we’ll have a lot of reports at FDL about the dissent outside the DNC convention in Charlotte. Some of the protests could prove interesting. There should be a bigger Occupy presence in Charlotte than there was in Tampa for the RNC convention, and the Undocubus, filled with undocumented immigrants who plan to challenge [...]

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, facing a recall election in a little over three weeks, was caught on tape telling a top donor that he has a strategy to turn Wisconsin into a right to work state: A filmmaker released a video Thursday that shows Gov. Scott Walker saying he would use “divide and conquer” as [...]

Before moving on to Arizona, let’s note that Indiana will soon become the nation’s 23rd right-to-work state, after the state Senate passed a revised bill to that effect. The bill now can go to Governor Mitch Daniels for his signature. Lawmakers voted Wednesday to make Indiana the Rust Belt’s first right-to-work state, passing legislation that [...]

I was very skeptical that the Indiana House Democrats could hold up on a boycott to deny quorum to Republicans, and indeed, they couldn’t. They returned to work late today and allowed the right-to-work legislation to pass. Indiana’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives cleared the way Wednesday to become the first right-to-work state in a traditionally [...]