Michigan: Right to Work Push Designed to Bust Unions, Labor Says
According to the Michigan Messenger:
Organized labor says the push to make Michigan a so-called Right to Work state by conservative groups and individuals from out of state is designed to end collective bargaining, drive wages down, kill unions and damage the middle class.
"This is a standard-of-living issue more than a labor issue," said Brent Gillette, the national field director for the Michigan AFL-CIO. "They would take away the ability of trade unions to collective bargain and pool together to benefit the workers they represent."
RTW bills are before both the Michigan House and Senate, but are stuck in committee. In the House, Rep. Jacob Hoogendyk, R-Kalamazoo, introduced House Bill 4454, and Rep. Kevin Elsenheimer, R-Bellaire, introduced HB 4455, both to make Michigan an RTW state. In the Senate, Sen. Nancy Cassis, R-Novi, introduced companion bills, Senate Bills 607 and 608.
Some of those groups and individuals pushing RTW include the Michigan and U.S. chambers of commerce; the conservative National Right to Work Foundation; Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Payer Reform and the anti-union Alliance for Worker Freedom; Wal-Mart and Holland Coors of the Coors beer dynasty. In Michigan the effort is being pushed by the conservative Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop and Republican Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson...click to continue.
