Free Republic

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...