SALON

Friday, Dec 7, 2012 5:19 PM UTC

Labor rights in Michigan blindsided by GOP

On Thursday night, GOP lawmakers backed by Koch brothers voted through a Right-to-Work bill announced that morning VIDEO

By

Topics: Video, Michigan, Right-to-work, Unions, Rick Snyder, GOP, Republican Party, Labor Rights, union busting, Wisconsin,

Labor rights in Michigan blindsided by GOPA right-to-work supporter, receives a thumbs down sign from a union worker during a rally in Lansing, Mich(AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Last night Republican legislators backed by the Koch brothers delivered a harsh blow to the union heartland of Michigan. Right-to-work legislation was pushed through both the state House and Senate by Republican majorities, while powerless and furious protesters looked on.

It was a sneak move — GOP lawmakers only announced Thursday morning that they intended to enact the so-called right-to-work bill (aptly described by its opponents as the “no-rights-at-work” bill). Right-to-work laws ban requirements to pay dues or fees to a union as a condition of employment —  studies have consistently shown that states with right-to-work laws have lower wages for union and non-union workers.

As a study by Elise Gould and Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute found:

[O]ur findings — that “right-to-work” laws are associated with significantly lower wages and reduced chances of receiving employer-sponsored health insurance and pensions — are based on the most rigorous statistical analysis currently possible. These findings should discourage right-to-work policy initiatives. The fact is, while RTW legislation misleadingly sounds like a positive change in this weak economy, in reality the opportunity it gives workers is only that to work for lower wages and fewer benefits.

Yet the Koch brothers’ messaging machine was well-prepared to drown out any voices from the thousands of  labor allies who rushed to the state capitol to decry the RTW push. As The Nation’s John Nichols noted:

As the Republicans launched the attack on unions and their members, Americans for Prosperity — a group developed and funded by right-wing industrialists and billionaire campaign donors Charles and David Koch — was in the thick of things. AFP recruited conservatives to show up at the state Capitol in Lansing to counter union protests and prepared materials supporting the Michigan initiative, including a fifteen-page booklet titled “Unions: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: How Forced Unionization Has Harmed Workers and Michigan.” Within minutes of the announcement by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder that Republicans would ram through the “Right-to-Work” legislation, AFP was hailing the move in formal statements “as the shot heard around the world for workplace freedom.”

The push through of RTW in Michigan could be a more serious, sinister blow to organized labor than even Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s public worker union-busting legislation. As Nichols noted, the legislation in Michigan “goes much further than proposals advanced last year by Republican governors in Wisconsin and Ohio, which targeted public employees. Under the Michigan legislation, basic labor rights are stripped away from both public and private-sector workers.”

Gov. Snyder’s eleventh-hour change of heart on the issue has riled critics. As the AP reported, the Republican governor “had said repeatedly since his election two years ago that the topic was divisive and not on his agenda. Thursday morning, however, the governor called a news conference to announce that not only would right-to-work legislation be considered, it would be placed on a fast track. By sundown, bills had been introduced and passed without committee votes or public hearings.” Unlike in Wisconsin, “where votes to curb union rights followed weeks or months of pitched battles, Michigan acted in the blink of an eye. ”

There is some hope that the GOP’s sneak moves will end up preventing implementation of the law because “Michigan legislators bent the rules of their chambers to rush the law to Snyder’s desk,” according to Nichols. However, it seems a fait accompli that Michigan, a crucible of union activity, will become the twenty-fourth RTW state.

Meanwhile, Fox News has already declared the right-to-work results in Michigan a “victory for Capitalism,” once again trotting out the absurd suggestion that retrenched U.S. unions,  a living wage and basic benefits constitute a socialist threat to capitalist hegemony.

Natasha Lennard is an assistant news editor at Salon, covering non-electoral politics, general news and rabble-rousing. Follow her on Twitter @natashalennard, email nlennard@salon.com. More Natasha Lennard.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • This photo. President Barack Obama has a laugh during the unveiling of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Tx., Thursday. Former first lady Barbara Bush, who candidly admitted this week we've had enough Bushes in the White House, is unamused.
    Reuters/Jason Reed

  • Rescue workers converge Wednesday in Savar, Bangladesh, where the collapse of a garment building killed more than 300. Factory owners had ignored police orders to vacate the work site the day before.
    AP/A.M. Ahad

  • Police gather Wednesday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to honor campus officer Sean Collier, who was allegedly killed in a shootout with the Boston Marathon bombing suspects last week.
    AP/Elise Amendola

  • Police tape closes the site of a car bomb that targeted the French embassy in Libya Tuesday. The explosion wounded two French guards and caused extensive damage to Tripoli's upscale al-Andalus neighborhood.
    AP/Abdul Majeed Forjani

  • Protestors rage outside the residence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday following the rape of a 5-year-old girl in New Delhi. The girl was allegedly kidnapped and tortured before being abandoned in a locked room for two days.
    AP/Manish Swarup

  • Clarksville, Mo., residents sit in a life boat Monday after a Mississippi River flooding, the 13th worst on record.
    AP/Jeff Roberson

  • Workers pause Wednesday for a memorial service at the site of the West, Tx., fertilizer plant explosion, which killed 14 people and left a crater more than 90 feet wide.
    AP/The San Antonio Express-News, Tom Reel

  • Aerial footage of the devastation following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake in China's Sichuan province last Saturday. At least 180 people were killed and as many as 11,000 injured in the quake.
    AP/Liu Yinghua

  • On Wednesday, Hazmat-suited federal authorities search a martial arts studio in Tupelo, Miss., once operated by Everett Dutschke, the newest lead in the increasingly twisty ricin case. Last week, President Barack Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker, R.-Miss., and a Mississippi judge were each sent letters laced with the deadly poison.
    AP/Rogelio V. Solis

  • The lighting of Freedom Hall at the George W. Bush Presidential Center Thursday is celebrated with (what else but) red, white and blue fireworks.
    AP/David J. Phillip

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 48 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Facebook has been used to find ex-lovers, childhood BFFs or the one who got away. He used it to find the guy who, without his consent, made him his drug mule.
253 points254 points | 24 comments
vote
“This could be a career ender for Michele Bachmann”
173 points174 points | 77 comments
vote
Poll: 3 in 10 voters say “armed revolution might be necessary” - 29% say they believe they'll have to act "in order to protect our liberties" in the next few years
48 points49 points | 18 comments
vote
"New evidence reveals big banks still illegally foreclosing on thousands of homes – and weak settlement allows it."
27 points28 points | comment
vote
Are millennials delusional? New research suggests that members of "Generation Me" are warped by a profound sense of entitlement
24 points25 points | 19 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: "The Shelter Cycle": Raised in a cult

Recommendations