Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Ruh-roh. Right-to-work to destroy unions surfaces in MI

We've been worried about this. The Michigan Messenger reports Republican lawmakers plan to push a right-to-work bill to destroy unions this fall.

Two bills were fiiled earlier in February, but have seen no action so far. They would allow counties to pass their own right-to-work bills to dismantle their local unions. Gov. Rick Snyder hasn't advocated the bills, but that's not because he's against them. Reports the Messenger,
Last summer, Gov. Rick Snyder was asked if he would support turning Michigan into a Right to Work state and he replied, “I would sign it, but I wouldn’t put it on my agenda.”
Here's one analysis:
Jonathan Byrd works for the Michigan Laborers Council, an AFL-CIO affiliate, and said RTW is just another attack on organized labor by Republicans who have corporate interests in mind.
He said it’s not surprising to have Republicans be the main pushers for RTW.
“Look at who funds the two groups (Democrats and Republicans). It’s not really rocket science when you have people like the Koch brothers and very wealthy conservatives pushing a fundamentalist agenda, which is to weaken labor unions.”