MICHIGAN—In the face of 12,000 protesters, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed a right-to-work bill December 11, 2012, making Michigan the 24th state to become right to work.
“I don’t view this as anti-union at all…I believe this is pro-worker,” Snyder said. Right to Work is pro-worker in the same way the Fugitive Slave Act was pro-labor. Right to Work means a person can work in a unionized workplace and receive all of the built up rights, entitlements and wage levels without paying dues.
Right-to-work laws exist in 23 other U.S. states. Such laws are allowed under the 1947 federal Taft–Hartley Act, Section 14b. All of the former core Southern slave states and a number of states in the Midwest, Plains, and Rocky Mountain regions have right-to-work laws (with five states—Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi and Oklahoma—going one step further and writing right-to-work laws in their state constitutions).
Labor, union and nonunion, view the initiative as a direct attack on unions and an indirect attack on all labor designed to make Michigan a low-wage state. Right to Work legislation comes as retribution for Proposal 2, a failed Nov. 6 union-backed ballot initiative that would have barred a right-to-work law in the state constitution.
On December 12, 2012, thousands of union and non-union members rallied and protested against Right to Work in the state capital. Groups as diverse as Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, Occupy “Michigan” groups, notably Detroit, church groups and transitional unions joined hands in united action against the whole corporate agenda to reduce the working class to the wage level of the lowest paid worker. This new level of united action is a wonderful follow up of activity of UAW members supporting the welfare rights agenda and protesting against Snyder’s actions to throw defenseless women and children off welfare and into the streets.
We can and must build upon united activity and grassroots organizing such as the November victory in recalling the Emergency Manager Act. Although there remains much to be done, the growing new class of unemployed, underemployed, and impoverished can learn basic organization, how to work together and behave as an organized group from our union brothers and sisters. The battle lines are drawn. Legislation to reintroduce the Emergency Manager Law, the transfer of Public Education into corporate hands via the notorious Education Achievement Authority (EAA) laws, attacks on Planned Parenthood coupled with the dismantling of the Safety net for poor women and children, the rip off of the Earned Income Tax Credit and the taxing of Retiree pensions, push the workers lower and lower. These laws are corporate sponsored with we the people on the losing end.
We must find ways to bring the struggles together. Only then can we beat back the fascist attacks and return Michigan to its rightful place as a leader in the causes of labor and humanity.
