Free Press columnist Stephen Henderson writes that he wants to avoid unprintable words in his column, but notes that the campaign to push right-to-work legislation in Michigan is total nonsense.
He writes:
Republican Gov. Rick Snyder and the state’s top legislative leaders said Thursday they would pursue legislation to prohibit “closed shop” union rules, arguing that it would unleash a new era of economic freedom for the state.
It won’t. And simple math — the consistent foil for GOP narratives these days — exposes the great fallacy at the core of what Republicans in Lansing are trying to do.
This is about politics — about punishing unions for their failed bid to enshrine collective bargaining in the state constitution, and about wiping them out as a formidable political base for the state’s Democrats.
Things were crazy on Thursday. The lame duck session of the House and Senate passed right-to-work legislation. There's still more votes that need to take place and the governor needs to sign into law.
But the passage of those bills did not come without some resistance from labor activists, including UAW president Bob King, who came to the Capitol to protest.
Henderson also notes:
By the most telling economic indicators, right-to-work states trail states where unions retain the right to make union membership a condition of employment — if the employees they represent vote to do so. There has been significant job growth in many right-to-work states, which have become magnets for companies that want to avoid the kind of wage and benefits that collective bargaining helps assure for working people. Such companies create jobs, alright — just not the kind Michigan legislators would want to see their own kids reduced to.
