Free Republic

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...

Michigan has now become the 24th state to give workers the right to work without having to join a union. The event provoked more than vigorous debate. State police had to be on duty to guarantee the safety and the ability of Michigan legislators to actually go vote on the measure. So what is the controversy all about? I agree with folks on the left about the real issue. It's not about right to work. It's about unions themselves. Why do we have them? Why do we need them? What public purpose do they serve? There's no mystery here. A...

Last week, I wrote a blog post (”MEA Misleads on Oklahoma Right-to-Work Numbers”) about Michigan’s largest labor union claiming that since Oklahoma became a right-to-work state in 2001, “10 years later, jobs fell by 25 percent and the number of companies moving there dropped by 33 percent.” As I pointed out, this is false: Jobs in Oklahoma are up 3.8 percent since 2001 while Michigan, on the other hand, lost 13.8 percent of its jobs during the same time, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. After the piece was published, the MEA changed its website to offer a citation...

In 1958, Senate Minority Leader William Knowland, his eye on the 1960 GOP nomination coveted by fellow Californian Richard Nixon, went home and declared for governor. Knowland's plan: Ride to victory on the back of Proposition 18, the initiative to make right-to-work the law in the Golden Land. Prop. 18 was rejected 2 to 1. Knowland's career was over, and the Republicans were decimated nationally for backing right-to-work. Badly burned, the party for years ran away from the issue. This history makes what happened in Michigan, cradle of the United Auto Workers, astonishing. A GOP legislature passed and Gov....

Politics: The union mob that tore down that tent outside the Michigan state capitol was aiming at a free-market advocacy group on the president's enemies list promoting right-to-work and other pro-growth measures. In an editorial headlined "Drinking the Kochs' Kool-Aid," the Detroit Free Press, a newspaper in a decaying city with 18.9% unemployment, opined it was pressure from the Koch brothers, David H. and Charles G., who head a Kansas-based conglomerate with 50,000 U.S.-based employees, that moved Michigan Republicans to make the state adopt right-to-work legislation. Randy Richardville, majority leader of the state Senate, and Gov. Rick Snyder may have...