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Michigan is the new Wisconsin

Michigan is the new Wisconsin

I haven’t been following this closely, but it bears attention.  The Michigan legislature last week passed “right to work” legislation which would deprive unions of automatic union dues deductions, among other things.

Already protests similar to what took place in Wisconsin have started at the Capitol in Lansing.  Via my favorite progressive blogger, Allison Kilkenny:

Right to work legislation is a mortal threat to unions.  And the Democrats the unions helped elect are coming to the aid of the unions.  Harry Reid has termed the legislation an “assault.”

The Michigan congressional delegation has warned the Governor of the fight to come, according to Greg Sargent of WaPo who has good Democratic sources, “Right to work” push guarantees all out war in Michigan”:

Top Democrats in the Michigan Congressional delegation just wrapped up their meeting with Governor Rick Snyder, during which they urged him in no uncertain terms: If you go forward with “right to work” legislation, you’ll be consigning the state to years of discord and division. They urged him to consider vetoing the legislation or postponing it until the next session — or even agreeing subjecting it to referendum…..

The tenor of the meeting, which participants described as urgent and intense, underscores the gravity of the situation — not just for Democrats, but for the state itself. Dems told Snyder that forging ahead with “right to work” legislation risked undermining the progress in labor-management relations in the state and could create a situation similar to Wisconsin, where an ongoing battle over collective bargaining tore the state apart for over a year.

Michigan appears headed for the same long, strange trip Wisconsin experienced, assuming Gov. Snyder has the guts of Gov. Walker.

But as the economic experience in Wisconsin shows, it’s worth the effort.

Stay strong Gov. Snyder.

Update:  Byron York: Dems in all-out fight for union power in Michigan

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Comments

The raging left always continues to fight until it wins, no matter the destruction along the way. We have few statesmen who can withstand the constant onslaught. Perhaps Governor Snyder’s name will be added to that short list.

Threats Threats Threats. If they’ve got the power, step on their slimy throats.
Go ahead and protest. I’ll look forward to all the embarrassing videos on Breitbart etc.

We could use a hard fought victory… so could the economy in Michigan I’m sure.

Democrats and their unions (or is it the other way around?) to the American people:

“All we ever wanted from you is an unfair advantage. No fair in changing the rules.”

Don’t the citizens of Michigan realize that these leeches take that generous benefit they provided, retire early, and then move South where their money can go further, i.e., a right-to-work state? So, not only do they muck up the state they worked in, they move to another and muck up that one too. I think it’s the primary reason Obama won Michigan and Florida, and why North Carolina leans blue.

As a Michigander it’s very interesting to follow this. The unions put a proposal on our November ballot that basically enshrined the union model in the state constitution. It got royally beaten, but you probably didn’t read much about that in the national news. This right-to-work push is essentially a pay-back to the unions. Unfortunately, the Republicans bypassed most the standard operating procedure to get this done; but, to quote the liberal mindset “elections have consequences”.

    MI Question 2 lost 57%-43%. To me, that’s not being royally beaten. That distinction belongs to questions or candidates prevailing by more than 67%. Anything less is just too iffy to project future tactics.

      Steve_in_SoCal in reply to pfg. | December 10, 2012 at 1:55 pm

      57 – 43 may not be “royally beaten” but given the history of the state (lived there from by birth in 63 to 1983), that is being royally beaten.

      Second, there is no “referendum” process by the D’s, and with the election in 2 years, this will be old news. Let them protest, shut down the capital, etc. The state is only 20% union now, with the bulk in the gov’t. If I can do the job and the “hirer” wants to hire me, why should I have to pay the union to get the job?

      This, from the state that wants to unionize day care providers.

    KM from Detroit in reply to pianoman. | December 10, 2012 at 2:05 pm

    My sister-in-law was circulating the petition that got Prop 2 on the ballot. She’s a public-school teacher.

    I signed it only so I could watch it go down in flames. Mwahaha.

The Democrats sound like terrorists, promising all out war if the legislation passes. In a democracy, you make your argument to the electorate at the next election. I guess they know they won’t win (just like Wisconsin).

MaggotAtBroadAndWall | December 10, 2012 at 1:16 pm

I haven’t followed this closely either, but it’s my understanding this reform is very tame. I think the most significant change is that workers will have the right to decide if they want union dues automatically confiscated from their hard earned paychecks. I don’t think there are any changes to collective bargaining.

Democrats wake up every day trying to figure out new ways to use the coercive force of government to confiscate earnings and wealth from the private sector. So using force to confiscate earnings from workers paychecks to fund unions just comes naturally to them.

What’s the difference between democrats and the muslim brotherhood?

None.

KM from Detroit | December 10, 2012 at 1:57 pm

My favorite part of all this is watching all the people caterwauling about these laws having passed. All I hear (or see, in the case of Facebook) is laments over the “death of Democracy” because the bills were proposed and passed same-day, or how we have to go out and fight in support of collective bargaining (which these bills do not touch at all, from what I’ve been able to find).

After having Obamacare stuffed down our throats with the now-infamous “We have to pass it to find out what’s in it,” and these same people bending over and gleefully grabbing their ankles, I say: Shut. Up. It’s about time they get their comeuppance.

I belonged to a union once–the AFSCME. Membership and dues were compulsory. We got nothing out of it except more money, which just went into paying the dues that knocked our checks down to–le gasp!–what we would have earned without the union in the first place. In other words, their “fight for higher wages” is just a ploy to get more cash for the union itself.

Two points:

-Snyder did not ask for this fight. He avoided the RTW issue like the plague. He met with union officials this summer and had a deal that he would not push RTW if they didn’t push to put Prop. 2 on the November ballot. They agreed.

Next thing you know, not only is Prop 2 on the ballot, but 4 more union related proposals were also added.

Snyder is a soft spoken, seemingly wishy-washy kinda guy. Since this came to a head last week, I have never seen such termination and resolve in him.

-Snyder is no dummy. The Wisconsin model may be a template for union thuggery and legislative/judicial dirty tricks, but it is also akin to handing your enemy your battle plan. He knows what’s coming.

The only thing uncertain is what hotel the Michigan democrat delegation will holed up in down in Indiana.

    KM from Detroit in reply to Browndog. | December 10, 2012 at 2:07 pm

    Or they could run to Canada…

    “Snyder did not ask for this fight. He avoided the RTW issue like the plague. He met with union officials this summer and had a deal that he would not push RTW if they didn’t push to put Prop. 2 on the November ballot. They agreed.”

    Do you happen to have any links to this? I enjoy needling my pro-union inlaws (not my FIL, thankfully).

So MI is filled with little children threatening to hold their breath if they don’t get their own way? And this requires how much deep thought? At least the situation is a chance for Snyder to prove he’s smarter than a 5th grader – or not.

I am tied to my house for the next two days for family reasons or I would head up to the Capitol to check out the protests and take some photos. If the protests keep up past tomorrow I’m going to go up there and see what’s going on.

And yes, the bills are very basic from what I understand. The only issue is allowing workers to stop the forced payment of dues if they wish to work union jobs. Collective bargaining is NOT affected at all (Snyder claims he supports collective bargaining) and police and firefighters are exempted.

And yet some union members are freaking out. Yesterday I saw a facebook posts that claimed right to work “hurts women, families, and workers”. (Wtf? Why are women singled out? Why would it hurt women more than men? Are we that pathetic? Are they going for a “war on women” angle?) That’s the same tactic they took with Prop 2, that non-passage would “hurt families” and they lost.

I did see a poll the other day that showed MI residents supporting RTW 51-41, which isn’t anywhere near a large enough margin for me to be confident that it couldn’t quickly be swung the opposite way when the woefully ignorant hear the rhetoric from the left.

    Browndog in reply to angela. | December 10, 2012 at 2:26 pm

    For two months all we heard were blatantly false pro-Prop 2 adds every time you turned on the tv, and hardly anything against Prop 2.

    I’m personally surprised it didn’t pass, considering how dumb Michigan voters can be.

    jdkchem in reply to angela. | December 10, 2012 at 5:40 pm

    The crap we got here in Colorado in 2010 was that somehow if RTW was passed firefighters and cops would have to deal with unsafe working conditions. Because somehow the the single cell brains of the functionally stupid RTW invalidates OSHA. Sadly voters here bought that lame argument. Hopefully we can bring the issue up again in 2014.

    steveadams21 in reply to angela. | December 10, 2012 at 7:54 pm

    They are freaking out because it is so basic – money. If 1/3 of the members leave the leftists will lose $150 million a year they use to harass and payoff politicians. None of the bosses care about better pay for the employees over the long run or they wouldn’t have made the auto companies and other union shops so uncompetitive.

Let’s see…… violence or the threat of violence to achieve a political purpose…. terrorism anyone?

No, Michigan isn’t the new Wisconsin. Michigan is the new Indiana. As far as I know Wisconsin acted only on public sector unions, not private sector. Michigan has acted on both.

If there’s one thing I can get behind , it’s assaulting lefties…..

    Browndog in reply to paddy. | December 10, 2012 at 3:50 pm

    That’s why I won’t be there tomorrow.

    I got a ‘call to action’ email from my tea party group organizing a counter-protest, and I know the moment I see a union thug stick a bullhorn in an old lady’s ear, I know I’m going to jail.

    jdkchem in reply to paddy. | December 10, 2012 at 5:44 pm

    And peppering! It’s the new patchouli!

For a conglomerate of great articles and insights into the subject matter….from ground zero.

http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/pubs/mcc/

Good piece here…

http://www.qando.net/?p=14498&cpage=1#comment-156062

How does one oppose a “right to work?”

By being a BIG GOVERNMENT Collectivist.

You can’t blame people for wanting to be in the Unions, when you see that the men who got caught drinking and smoking pot on the job for Chrysler and got fired got their jobs back after an arbortrator claimed it was unconstitutional. I guess if your union is powerful enough…there isn’t anything you can do to get fired.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/12/08/chrysler-workers-canned-for-drinking-on-job-reinstated/

Actually, Michigan is the new Indiana. Hoosier GOP legislators and Governor Daniels put up with these same protests last year. We heard that the GOP didn’t campaign with a RTW platform and we would be sorry.

Michigan followed the Indiana model and passed it when the Jackasses could not play their quorum game.

I wonder when the Michigan union mobsters are going to figure out that their failed push for a constitutional change to establish collective bargaining and unionism as rights has now backfired.

Hats off to the good work done by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy to influence job-hungry Michiganders to get behind RTW.