Free Republic

West Ottawa Public Schools teacher Dan Dennis bemoans “life in a right-to-work state” in a story in the recent issue of the Michigan Education Association magazine. In the story, Dennis wrote about how in 1999 he went from making $40,000 a year in Michigan to $30,000 a year when he moved to and taught at a high school in North Carolina, which already was a right-to-work state. Dennis lamented in the story about the cost of living, which he said was slightly higher in North Carolina and complained about not having an all-encompassing health care plan. He wrote: I was...

In another blow to the nation's dwindling labor unions, an appeals court on Tuesday struck down a federal rule that would have required millions of businesses to put up posters informing workers of their right to form a union.

Municipalities throughout the state that signed contracts with their unions to avoid the state's right-to-work law may trigger it anyway if they renegotiate contracts before they expire. And at least one is committed to doing just that. Southgate Community School District Superintendent William Grusecki said the administration and teachers' union have already agreed to reopen their five-year deal, which was signed a day before the March 27 deadline for the right-to-work law to take effect. "We will be reopening the contract each year for wages and insurance," Grusecki said in an email. However, that will allow right-to-work to be enacted,...

Elkhart County in northern Indiana, which borders Michigan to the south of Cass County, increased its employment 6.9 percent in the third quarter of 2012, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That growth is more than any other large county in the country for that quarter, and it far outpaces the national average for employment growth of just 1.6 percent. Elkhart also increased its jobs by 5.6 percent in the second quarter of 2012, the third-fastest growing large county that quarter. Senior Investigative Analyst Anne Schieber recently reported on Elkhart’s economic recovery. Indiana passed a right-to-work law in 2012...

According to a new poll, 59 percent of Michigan adults believe the new right-to-work law will either help Michigan's economy or have no impact on it. But the survey wasn't interpreted like that when the press release for Michigan State University’s State of the State Survey (SOSS) was released Thursday, the same day that state's right-to-work law officially took effect. Instead, the theme was that the right-to-work law "sharply divided" the state. The survey asked respondents to speculate whether the new law would hurt or help the economy. Roughly two out of five, 42.7 percent, of those surveyed said they...

The Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners may have violated state law when it approved 10-year contracts with 15 unions to beat a March 27 deadline to avoid the impact of the state's right-to-work law. The union contracts allowed Washtenaw County employees to switch from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan. However, a state law says that when a pension is changed, an actuarial analysis needs to be provided at least seven days before the plan is adopted. The law reads: "'[P]roposed pension benefit change' means a proposal to change the amount of pension benefits received by persons...

Maryland lawmakers agreed this week to require public school teachers to pay union fees – a move that bolsters the state’s connection to organized labor as others move toward a right-to-work status. The bill passed Thursday in the General Assembly and is headed to the desk of Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley for signing after Monday, the final day of Maryland’s 2013 legislative session. The bill is also part of a larger progressive agenda put fourth this year by leaders of the Democrat-controlled Assembly that includes the approval of tax increases and one of the toughest gun-control proposals in the country.

March 28, 2013 is a day that will be marked in Michigan history. Worker freedom officially takes effect today. Soon, most workers in Michigan will have the choice of whether they want to financially support their union or not. Right-to-work simply means that a union no longer can get a worker fired for not paying them. Despite claims by unions, collective bargaining largely will remain the same. Unions still can negotiate with employers over wages, hours, working conditions and almost anything except for the requirement that workers pay them simply to keep their jobs. Now unions need to prove their...

Just days before the state's right-to-work law goes into effect, a union representing Kroger workers in Michigan pushed through a new contract that locks its members into paying dues or fees to the union for four years. Grocery employees represented by the United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local 876 ratified the agreement March 22, according to the union's website. The previous union contract was supposed to expire June 15, 2013, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The weeks leading up to the law's start date on March 28 have been filled with public sector unions rushing to approve...

A memo from a community college president clearly spells out that unions suggested having their contracts reopened expressly to circumvent Michigan's right-to-work law. In addition, the memo states that Macomb County Community College (MCCC) offered to cooperate with the unions in that effort. This week, the community college made good on its offer. It approved four renegotiated contracts, including one contract that had been approved just four months ago. In a memo, dated Feb. 15, 2013, MCCC president Jim Jacobs wrote: "Many unions are asking that public employees extend existing contracts for 10 years so as to avoid the impact...

Two state universities have rejected union deals that would have averted the state's new right-to-work law. The Ferris State University Board of Trustees and the Central Michigan University Board of Trustees rejected contracts from unions that included union security agreements. Such agreements prohibit union members from exercising their right to decide if they want to pay dues or fees to be in a union, which is their option beginning March 28 thanks to the state becoming the nation's 24th right-to-work state late last year. Some school districts and some state universities have approved deals that allow unions to forcibly collect...

Wayne State University officials say the state's right-to-work law helped the university get a better deal from its faculty union. However, university officials don't specify what they actually got in return. Last month, WSU reached an agreement with the union on an unprecedented eight-year contract. The deal was struck as the clock was ticking toward the state's right-to-work law going into effect. At stake for the American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers was the ability to keep collecting dues and fees from all members through 2021. The state's right-to-work law goes into effect March 28 and gives union...

Negotiating right-to-work-dodging contract extensions could cost Michigan universities millions in state funding. Michigan's new right-to-work law prohibits contracts that require employees pay dues or fees to unions as a condition of employment. However the law doesn’t go into effect until March 28. That means unions have a brief opportunity to try and dodge the law by getting employers to extend existing contracts or agree to clauses that extend the forced dues/fees collection for longer than the contract. Michigan’s 15 public universities are considered prime targets for these union efforts. But some state lawmakers are taking steps to head-off such contract...

On Dec. 11, the Taylor School District closed because so many of its teachers skipped school to go to Lansing to protest right-to-work legislation. As a result, about 7,500 students in Taylor were forced to miss classes that day. For organizing that "sick out" protest, the American Federation of Teachers-Michigan gave Taylor teachers' union president Linda Moore an award for "outstanding organizing." Public Act 112 in Michigan makes public school employees strikes and/or lockouts illegal. In a Jan. 28 announcement posted on Facebook, AFT Michigan boasted that so many union members took Dec. 11 off "that Taylor schools shut down."...

On Dec. 11, the Taylor School District closed because so many of its teachers skipped school to go to Lansing to protest right-to-work legislation. As a result, about 7,500 students in Taylor were forced to miss classes that day. For organizing that "sick out" protest, the American Federation of Teachers-Michigan gave Taylor teachers' union president Linda Moore an award for "outstanding organizing." Public Act 112 in Michigan makes public school employees strikes and/or lockouts illegal. In a Jan. 28 announcement posted on Facebook, AFT Michigan boasted that so many union members took Dec. 11 off "that Taylor schools shut down."...

Then there is the recent news that Big Labor may now be feeling buyer’s remorse regarding the very bill that they were most responsible for inflicting on the innocent public: ObamaCare! So what are unions now going to push for? Perhaps for repealing this stupid law and replacing it with something more sensible? Quit dreaming! No, the unions are now pushing to get their lower-paid workers covered by the subsidies the law intended for just those who have no health care insurance at all. In other words, the unions are once again trying to rip off the taxpayer to cover...

A constant claim by opponents of right-to-work, whether it be from the AFL-CIO, state Democratic legislators or the president, is that income is lower in right-to-work states. But these naysayers are blinded to a paycheck reality: the cost of living. Having a larger paycheck doesn’t matter much if you can’t purchase as much with it. Adjusting for per-capita personal income — a standard measure of a state’s wealth — the difference between right-to-work and non-right-to-work states disappears. Consider Connecticut, the state with the highest per-capita personal income. A dollar just doesn’t buy as much in Connecticut as it does in...

The Taylor School District reached a five-year tentative agreement with the Taylor Federation of Teachers that would prevent its union employees from having the option of leaving the teacher’s union, the superintendent confirmed. The contract is expected to be approved by the school board at a special school board meeting tonight. The contract will prohibit union members from exercising their right to not pay dues or fees to the union as a condition of employment thanks to Michigan becoming the nation's 24th right-to-work state late last year. Schools boards have to agree to contracts with these types of restrictive provisions...

Scores of right-to-work critics ranging from politicians to economists have cited lower per-capita incomes in right-to-work states as why the new law is not good for Michigan. However, not factoring in cost-of-living exposes a flaw in that analysis, said Mackinac Center for Public Policy Fiscal Analyst James Hohman. Once that is considered, Hohman said the per-capita income is higher in right-to-work states than non-right-to-work states. For example, Texas per-capita income was $37,098 but would have a purchasing power of $49,700 in the state of New York in 2007, according to Hohman’s analysis. New York’s per-capita income was $47,852. Hohman found...

Republicans in the Michigan House widely supported giving workers the freedom to choose whether they wanted to financially support a union as a condition of employment. But six GOP members voted against legislation (House Bill 4003 and Senate Bill 116) that made Michigan the nation's 24th right-to-work state. On both bills, 58 Republicans voted “yes” and six Republicans joined the Democrats in voting “no.” These six were: Reps: Anthony Forlini, R-Harrison Township; Ken Goike, R-Ray Township; Ken Horn, R-Frankenmuth; Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan; Pat Somerville, R-New Boston; and Dale Zorn, R-Ida. Five of the GOP House members who voted against right-to-work...

Gov. Rick Snyder said he wasn't interested in a right-to-work bill, but when labor unions pushed the Proposal 2 ballot initiative, his stance on the issue changed. Prop 2 would have guaranteed public employee collective bargaining and overridden state laws that conflict with local contracts. And, as union leaders noted at the time, it would have prevented a right-to-work law from ever happening. One of the main effects of right-to-work laws is that they lessen the abilities of unions to wage expensive and economically harmful ballot campaigns. In fact, that may be the main outcome of the legislation. Despite the...

The Civil War ended nearly 150 years ago, but one college professor is bringing the era up in the debate over right-to-work in Michigan. Michigan State University Economics Professor Charles Ballard said that states that embraced slavery with a "long history of strong hierarchy and inequality in race relations" would naturally be supportive of right-to-work laws. "All of the states that seceded from the union in 1861, plus a stripe in the Midwest, in the plains and in the Rocky Mountains, those states are the poorest in the country," he said in an Mlive article based on comments he made...

Michigan Education Association President Steve Cook said his union will use “any legal means at our disposal” to combat members who want to leave the union. Cook made his statement in a letter he sent to MEA local presidents, board members and staff. MEA Spokesman Doug Pratt didn’t respond to a request for comment. The MEA said if members want to resign, they have to do so in August, "and only August,” Cook wrote. "We are sticking to that," Cook wrote. "Members who indicate they wish to resign membership in March, or whenever, will be told they can only do...

The historic December 2012 passage of a right-to-work law in Michigan was filled with drama, not least of which was unions behaving badly outside the state Capitol on the day of the vote. Media reports were filled with images of the vandalism and violence in front of the building, but less attention was paid to the histrionics and bad economics displayed by anti-right-to-work politicians on the inside. The House and Senate chambers resounded with economically faulty and/or misleading claims about the economic effects of right-to-work laws, some of which warrant rebuttal. For example, Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing,...

For nearly two years, many doubted a right-to-work bill had enough support in the State Senate for passage. In December, the measure passed easily. Republicans, led by Gov. Rick Snyder, resoundingly approved the bill, which became a reality after unions in Michigan tried to pass Proposal 2 in November. Four Republican State Senators, however, voted against giving workers the freedom to choose whether they want to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment. They were: Sen. Tory Rocca, R-Sterling Heights; Sen. Mike Green, R-Mayville; Sen. Mike Nofs, R-Battle Creek; and Sen. Tom Casperson, R-Escanaba. Michigan becoming the...

Brent Graves, a biology professor at Northern Michigan University, sarcastically promotes in MLive a “right-to-live” law to balance right-to-work laws in Michigan. But the attempt to make worker freedom proponents look silly comes up short. Graves proposes that his “right-to-live” law would allow Michigan residents to choose whether to opt out of paying taxes while still receiving benefits from state government. Graves’s main point is that there are similarities between union representation and an elected government: “Unions exist only where a majority of those represented vote for them; they are democratically elected, just like governors and legislators,” he writes. “Every...

Michigan made national headlines when it became the 24th right-to-work state: Employers will no longer be able to fire employees who do not join or financially support unions, and this will certainly impact heavily unionized public school districts and their employees. But, depending on how districts respond in the short term, it could be either beneficial for both or neither. This new law won’t affect districts for several months or maybe even a few years, since it only applies to new contracts signed after March. Unions, however, likely will try to deny or at least delay this new freedom for...

Watching the reaction of some union members you would have thought a mass murder had occurred in the state of Michigan. But what simply happened was a law was changed that exists in 23 others states and may soon be enacted in others. Right-to-work laws makes sense and it is as clear as the sky on a cloudless summer day. The unions are particularly outraged about the turn of events in Michigan because they had just attempted a power play of their own during the November 6th election. They tried to ensconce in the state constitution their right to...

A week after Gov. Rick Snyder signed legislation making Michigan the nation's 24th right-to-work state, some polls show Gov. Snyder's popularity down and the law suddenly unpopular. However, John Truscott, who was press secretary for former Gov. John Engler 20 years ago, said that pattern has become familiar. "I wouldn't worry about it," Truscott, also of Lansing-based Truscott Rossman Group, said. "In October of John Engler's first year the polls showed his re-elect number at just 17 percent. If anybody is using these poll results to plan what to do in the next election; I'd say they're making a big...

LANSING — While at the union right-to-work protests this past month, there was no shortage of references in signs and chants to Gov. Rick Snyder and Republican legislators as “Hitler” or “Nazis.” Comparing political opponents to one of the world’s greatest monsters is nothing new, and in fact so common that there is a logical fallacy named for it: Reductio ad Hitlerum — “trying to refute an opponent's view by comparing it to a view that would be held by Adolf Hitler or the Nazi Party … a tactic often used to derail arguments because such comparisons tend to distract...

Michigan is now the 24th state to outlaw firing employees for not financially supporting unions, making it a right-to-work state. While this concept is not new, bills making it possible moved quickly through the Legislature. School officials unfamiliar with the policy might be asking: “What now?” It boils down to this: Districts may no longer sign union contracts that contain “union security” clauses — agreements to fire or extract union dues from non-union members. But nothing will change in the immediate short term. The law does not go into effect until the end of March, and even after that, the...

Many opponents of a Michigan right-to-work law cite figures generated by a union-funded entity called the “Economic Policy Institute.” EPI President Lawrence Mishel is a "longtime member of the Democratic Socialists of America," according to an article posted on that organization’s website (go to page 15). Also, unions are heavily represented on EPI’s board of directors, including the presidents of the SEIU, AFSCME, the machinists union, the communications workers union; the food and commercial workers union; UAW President Bob King; AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and others. Most of these unions' money comes from dues and fees involuntarily extracted from workers'...

The site where Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting is building a new meetinghouse was damaged by arsonists during Christmas week, and police are now "absolutely" sure the attack was the result of a dispute between members of a Philadelphia construction union and the project's nonunion contractor.

In the Detroit Free Press, Stephen Henderson expresses concern that right-to-work states are doing worse than forced unionism states in a number of social trends. This past decade has not done well for decreasing poverty rates around the nation, and there’s likewise been an increasing rate of people that lack health insurance. The data is not entirely clear on whether these trends are in favor of right-to-work or forced unionism states, however. The Census Bureau's American Community Survey has the most up to date information on poverty rates. Using the one-year estimates for 2004 through 2011 — the earliest available...

Michigan’s right-to-work law is expected to take effect April 1, but in that time unions could resort to at least two ploys to maintain the cash stream they get from dues. "You're probably going to see the union giving up the moon to get an extension of their union security clause," said F. Vincent Vernuccio, labor policy director at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. "They will put their own interests above the workers.” Under the state's new right-to-work law, workers must wait for a union contract to expire before opting out of paying dues or fees. In that time,...

Each December I gaze into my crystal ball and predict what I believe will be the top 10 stories of the coming year. I almost never get these right but they’re fun to speculate about nevertheless. A year from now we’ll take a look back and see how well I did, unless I didn’t do well at all. In that case we will pretend this never happened for the sake of preserving my fragile self-esteem. 10. The highest grossing movie of 2013 will be Iron Man 3. The year is shaping up to be one of the biggest in cinema...

LANSING — A speaker at a union protest against right-to-work legislation said if Gov. Rick Snyder signed the bill he would get "no rest" and that protesters would be at his "daughter's soccer game." (Video below). The Rev. Charles Williams II made the comments Tuesday to loud cheers before a group of thousands of union workers. After his promises to harass Gov. Snyder, he introduced Rep. Richard Hammel, D-Mt. Morris Township, and House Minority Leader Tim Greimel, D-Auburn Hills. Williams is a Detroit-area pastor and left-wing activist. Gov. Snyder later that day signed a bill into law making Michigan a...

Conservative comedian Steven Crowder on Thursday released unedited footage from the pro-union rally in Michigan where he was punched in the face. The 9-minute video, posted online, shows a chaotic scene in Michigan's capital earlier this month, before so-called "right-to-work" legislation was approved. Leading up to the incident, Crowder, a Fox News contributor, could be seen in a string of tense encounters and discussions with demonstrators. What actually instigated the physical confrontation is unclear. The protester in question could be seen falling to the ground as Crowder turned to him. He then got up and wailed on Crowder, who pushed...

“This is what democracy looks like!” That’s a popular protest chant among liberals. It could be heard at many “Occupy” gatherings. It’s a staple at union-backed protests. We all know that in a democracy, sometimes things go your way, and sometimes they don’t. The big question is, how will you react? For example, many conservatives were disappointed by the results of last month’s elections. Despite high unemployment, sluggish economic growth and an unpopular health care program, a majority of voters returned a staunchly liberal president to office. But just as there are no permanent victories, there are no permanent defeats....

Over at Michigan Radio, Rick Pluta makes an interesting observation: “The fact is union membership has typically dropped off in the other 23 states that have adopted ‘right-to-work’ laws.” The fact that unionization is down is true. But adopting a RTW law, counterintuitively, does not seem to impact the rates of unionization. Unionization across the country is down, and there seem to be no difference in these trends between right-to-work and non-right-to-work states. It makes intuitive sense that allowing a worker the option of whether or not to be in the union would result in more people choosing not to...

The passing of a right-to-work law in Michigan is a hugely significant development. In my mind, Michigan would have been the last state to pass legislation removing the requirement for workers to join a union as a condition of employment in unionized businesses. As welcome as this new law is for those of us who recognize how economically pernicious and ethically debased compulsory union membership is, the reporting of the story has been marred by sloppy, inaccurate usage of a key word: “rights.” Here’s a typical example from Reuters: “Michigan weakens union rights in home of auto industry.” Americans greatly...

AUBURN HILLS — When Michigan-based Android Industries needed a place to expand this year, it chose Ft. Wayne, Ind. "Indiana became a right-to-work state and (it) offers us a competitive location," Android Vice President of Human Resources David Donnay told the Indiana Economic Development Corp. Android added 4,000 square feet to a building and invested $7.3 million at the facility with a target of adding 70 employees. So did the pending right-to-work law come too late for the company to consider Michigan? "There are many factors that go into a decision on where to expand," Donnay said. He said Android...

With Michigan on track to become a right-to-work state, which would make it illegal to fire an employee for refusing to pay union dues or agency fees, some opponents of the law maintain that this is unfair because those who don't pay will still be covered by the union contract. They refer to those workers as "free riders." This argument is a distortion to shift attention from the benefits of worker freedom. "No one is forced to join a union," said House Democratic Caucus Leader Tim Greimel, D-Auburn Hills. "They're asked to pay their fair share of the collective bargaining...

News reports about the pending right-to-work legislation are filled with dire predictions and statistics that fit specific story lines. The Detroit Free Press, for example, ran a story after right-to-work legislation was introduced in the state House and Senate claiming that right-to-work states had lower-income residents than non-right-to-work states. "The data on wages tell a fairly clear story," the Free Press story said. "Of the top 10 states in per capita income in 2011, seven were not right-to-work states. Of the bottom 10 states with the lowest per capita income, seven were right-to work states.” However, Mackinac Center for Public...

As Michigan gets closer to becoming a right-to-work state, the focus often is on economics. There are plenty of reasons to support worker freedom based on that alone, but we should always remember the most important aspect: Allowing members the choice of whether to financially support a political organization is a moral one. In our state, right now, tens of thousands of people are being forced to send money to the Service Employees International Union, simply because they care for a friend or family member who receives a Medicaid stipend. The SEIU has taken over $33 million from the elderly...

Rick Snyder, who is hardly a human cactus, warned Michigan’s labor leaders. The state’s mild-mannered Republican governor, in his first term in his first public office, has rarely been accused of being, or praised for being, a fire-breathing conservative. When unions put on Michigan’s November ballot two measures that would have entrenched collective-bargaining rights in the state constitution, Snyder told them they were picking a fight they might regret. Both measures lost resoundingly in the state with the fifth-highest rate of unionization (17.5 percent, down from 28.4 percent in 1985) and, not coincidentally, the sixth-highest unemployment rate (9.1 percent). Republicans decided to build...

The Mob When we first arrived at the Capitol, it was a little after 8am. As we entered the Capitol building, college students and teachers were already chanting and stomping on all floors of the rotunda. When we reached the top of the stairs, a man in a yellow vest told me to keep moving, don’t block the walkway, so I obeyed. One of the guys with me, Rich, told me that the people in the neon yellow and orange security vests are union marshals, and have no authority at all. They control the crowds on behalf of the unions....

Democrats in Washington declare that they will absolutely, positively allow no changes whatever in the nation's unsustainable entitlement programs -- Social Security and Medicare. But out in the states, politicians of both parties aren't averting their gaze from impending fiscal crises. They are working to change policies that put state governments on an unsustainable trajectory. The most obvious example was the passage of a right-to-work law last week in Michigan, the birthplace of the United Auto Workers union. This was retaliation for a failed power grab by both the UAW and public sector unions -- Proposition 2, which would have...

What a disgrace to learn from statistics just released by the Department of Education that “…only 7 percent of the eighth graders in Detroit are grade-level proficient or better in reading.” And those same statistics show that “Detroit public-school eighth graders do even worse in math than they do in reading. Only 4 percent SCORED HIGHLY ENOUGH to be rated proficient or better in math. “State figures reveal [just] over 30 percent of public-school eighth graders were proficient or better in reading or math. “Sixty eight percent of Michigan public-school eighth graders are not proficient in reading and 69% are...

This week the Michigan legislature passed a “right-to-work” law making the state the 24th to allow workers to abstain from joining a union without losing their jobs. Opponents of the new law are incensed. Jimmy Hoffa, Jr., president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, predicted “civil war.” “What we have here is a betrayal of democracy,” Hoffa claimed. “This law will allow workers to decline becoming members of a union even if the majority of their fellow employees vote that they should join the union. It puts individual rights ahead of the collective right to compel everyone to participate.” Hoffa...