Thousands to rally against Michigan right-to-work

UPDATED: The Republican-majority House passes both union-busting bills and Gov. Snyder defends his support VIDEO

Topics: Video, Michigan, Right-to-work, GOP, Koch Brothers, Unions, union busting, Labor Rights,

Thousands to rally against Michigan right-to-workUnion members stand outside the capitol in Lansing, Friday (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) (Credit: AP)

UPDATE 2.30 p.m. (EST): Gov. Rick Snyder spoke to MSNBC following the House votes and reiterated his vow to sigh right-to-work bills into law. Host Andrea Mitchell pushed the Republican governor on the fact that right-to-work had not been a campaign issue. He responded that his decision to back the union-busting legislation followed a failed attempt by labor leaders in the state to extend collective bargaining rights through a bill called Proposal 2. Snyder told Mitchell:

Well, the voters spoke in November and dramatically voted down Proposal 2, but then this right to work discussion just continued to escalate and was becoming very divisive. So the way I viewed it is, it’s on the table. It’s a hot issue. Let’s show some leadership. So I stepped up to say when I review it, I think it’s a good thing. It’s about being pro-worker. It’s about giving freedom of choice to workers.

Watch a clip of the interview via MSNBC below.

UPDATE 1.50 p.m. (EST): The Michigan House has approved both right-to-work bills, pertaining to both public and private sector workers, and the legislation will now be sent to Gov. Rick Snyder, who vowed he would sing the bills into law.

UPDATE 12.50 p.m. (EST): The Michigan House has approved one out of two right-to-work bills Tuesday. According to the AP, “The Republican-dominated chamber passed a measure dealing with public-sector workers 58-51 as protesters shouted ‘shame on you’ from the gallery and huge crowds of union backers massed in the state Capitol halls and on the grounds.”

A vote is still to come today on a second bill focusing on private sector workers.

08.50 a.m. (EST): The conclusion is foregone that Michigan will become the 24th state to pass right-to-work legislation, but unions and labor rights supporters are not taking it lying down. On Tuesday,  as the state Legislature reconvenes for likely the final vote on union-busting bills, as many as 10,000 people are expected to converge at the Capitol in Lansing in protest.

In a sneak move last Thursday, GOP lawmakers with Koch brother backing pushed right-to-work bills through the state House and Senate. Republican Gov. Rick Snyder has vowed to sign into law the measure, which would prohibit unions from collecting fees from non-union workers. Although Democratic lawmakers — a minority in both Michigan’s House and Senate — can do little to stop the legislation, activists aim to highlight that Michigan, a historic heartland for organized labor, is the new battleground in the fight over union rights.

As Allison Kilkenny noted at the Nation, hundreds of union members took part in civil disobedience training sessions over the weekend to prepare for Tuesday’s protests. The union hall at the United Auto Workers Local 600 reportedly could not hold all the “nurses, autoworkers, Teamsters, teachers, members of SEIU, AFSCME, UFCW, ISO and other unions who attended the meeting.”

Michigan has the fifth-highest percentage of unionized workers in the country at 17.5 percent and the Detroit area is headquarters for General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler, as well as United Auto Workers, the country’s richest union.

Meanwhile, state police were already in place around the Capitol building early Tuesday. “No doubt, the anticipatory police presence is related to the huge backlash to similar anti-worker legislation signed by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker that led to union activists occupying the Capitol building in February and March of 2011,” noted Kilkenny.

President Barack Obama gave his support to the union activists during his visit to the Daimler Detroit Diesel plant in Michigan on Monday, criticizing the right-to-work effort. “What they’re really talking about is giving you the right to work for less money,” he said. A study last year by the Economic Policy Institute found that wages in right-to-work states are on average 3.2 percent lower than states without the legislation.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Continue Reading Close

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.

Next Article

Featured Slide Shows

What To Read Awards: Top 10 Books of 2012 slide show

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 10
  • 10. "The Guardians" by Sarah Manguso: "Though Sarah Manguso’s 'The Guardians' is specifically about losing a dear friend to suicide, she pries open her intelligent heart to describe our strange, sad modern lives. I think about the small resonating moments of Manguso’s narrative every day." -- M. Rebekah Otto, The Rumpus

  • 9. "Beautiful Ruins" by Jess Walter: "'Beautiful Ruins' leads my list because it's set on the coast of Italy in 1962 and Richard Burton makes an entirely convincing cameo appearance. What more could you want?" -- Maureen Corrigan, NPR's "Fresh Air"

  • 8. "Arcadia" by Lauren Groff: "'Arcadia' captures our painful nostalgia for an idyllic past we never really had." -- Ron Charles, Washington Post

  • 7. "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn: "When a young wife disappears on the morning of her fifth wedding anniversary, her husband becomes the automatic suspect in this compulsively readable thriller, which is as rich with sardonic humor and social satire as it is unexpected plot twists." -- Marjorie Kehe, Christian Science Monitor

  • 6. "How Should a Person Be" by Sheila Heti: "There was a reason this book was so talked about, and it’s because Heti has tapped into something great." -- Jason Diamond, Vol. 1 Brooklyn

  • 4. TIE "NW" by Zadie Smith and "Far From the Tree" by Andrew Solomon: "Zadie Smith’s 'NW' is going to enter the canon for the sheer audacity of the book’s project." -- Roxane Gay, New York Times "'Far From the Tree' by Andrew Solomon is, to my mind, a life-changing book, one that's capable of overturning long-standing ideas of identity, family and love." -- Laura Miller, Salon

  • 3. "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" by Ben Fountain: "'Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk' says a lot about where we are today," says Marjorie Kehe of the Christian Science Monitor. "Pretty much the whole point of that novel," adds Time's Lev Grossman.

  • 2. "Bring Up the Bodies" by Hilary Mantel: "Even more accomplished than the preceding novel in this sequence, 'Wolf Hall,' Mantel's new installment in the fictionalized life of Thomas Cromwell -- master secretary and chief fixer to Henry VIII -- is a high-wire act, a feat of novelistic derring-do." -- Laura Miller, Salon

  • 1. "Behind the Beautiful Forevers" by Katherine Boo: "Like the most remarkable literary nonfiction, it reads with the bite of a novel and opens up a corner of the world that most of us know absolutely nothing about. It stuck with me all year." -- Eric Banks, president of the National Book Critics Circle

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 10

More Related Stories

Comments

12 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username ( profile | log out )

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