Michigan Becomes A Right To Work State

I'm Pro Choice when it comes to a worker's rights to decide whether or not they MUST pay union dues. Are you Pro Choice too?

The right-to-work dilemma

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ ... story.html

For all the fury and fistfights outside the Lansing Capitol, what happened in Michigan this week was a simple accommodation to reality. The most famously unionized state, birthplace of the United Auto Workers, royalty of the American working class, became right-to-work.

It’s shocking, except that it was inevitable. Indiana went that way earlier this year. The entire Rust Belt will eventually follow because the heyday of the sovereign private-sector union is gone. Globalization has made splendid isolation impossible.

The nostalgics look back to the immediate postwar years when the UAW was all-powerful, the auto companies were highly profitable and the world was flooded with American cars. In that Golden Age, the UAW won wages, benefits and protections that were the envy of the world.

Today’s angry protesters demand a return to that norm. Except that it was not a norm but a historical anomaly. America, alone among the great industrial powers, emerged unscathed from World War II.

There’s a reason Detroit went bankrupt while the southern auto transplants did not. This is not to exonerate incompetent overpaid management that contributed to the fall. But clearly the wage, benefit and work-rule gap between the unionized North and the right-to-work South was a major factor.

President Obama railed against the Michigan legislation, calling right-to-work “giving you the right to work for less money.” Well, there is a principle at stake here: A free country should allow its workers to choose whether to join a union. Moreover, it is more than slightly ironic that Democrats, the fiercely pro-choice party, reserve free choice for aborting a fetus while denying it for such matters as choosing your child’s school or joining a union.

Obama calls this a race to the bottom. No, it’s a race to a new equilibrium that tries to maintain employment levels, albeit at the price of some modest wage decline. It is a choice not to be despised.

I think Charles Krauthammer nails it

Charles Krauthammer hasn't nailed anything but Republican Jello for decades...

LadyJazzer wrote: Charles Krauthammer hasn't nailed anything but Republican Jello for decades...

Brilliant retort, not!!!!

Best part about Right To Work in Michigan? Union lose dues which they just add to Democratic coffers. Brilliant move by this governor, a political novice.
Guess Obama will have to spend more time in Hollywood and Wall Street drinking champagne and eating caviar with the 1%'rs begging for funds.

Best part about Michigan?... After the next gubernatorial election, there won't be a Republican in the office.... (Same for Wisconsin, Ohio and probably Florida...)

Y'all jus' keep doin' what yer doin'....

LadyJazzer wrote: Best part about Michigan?... After the next gubernatorial election, there won't be a Republican in the office.... (Same for Wisconsin, Ohio and probably Florida...)

Y'all jus' keep doin' what yer doin'....

Republicans gained governorships this election. For some reason, people like a responsible hand at the helm of their states despite them choosing the king of debtors as a president.

Yes, and 17 of the wacko teabagger House members, and three of the Senators got thrown out. And the people are going to remember the governors that tried the voter-suppression crap, and the anti-union crap, and the suppression of health-care exchanges, and the cuts in Medicaid for the poor...

Y'all jus' keep doin' what yer doin'....

What amazes me is that after the stomping you got in November, you still think this silly crap is going to win over the electorate?

It was only two years ago Obama got a shellacking. The problem with low information, low concern Dem voters is that they tend to not show up for the midterms and non-presidential elections. A couple key places to look for the Dem trend to continue? See if Massachussets replaces Kerry with a Dem. And see if Virginia elects a Dem gov. next year.
If both these happen, I think it will show the GOP needs to re-align.

Yeah, well, two years ago is ancient history... and 17 of the wacko teabagger House members, and three of the Senators got thrown out. And the people are going to remember the governors that tried the voter-suppression crap, and the anti-union crap, and the suppression of health-care exchanges, and the cuts in Medicaid for the poor...

Scott Walker already got beat by 8 points... If he thinks he's going to run again...and win...I think he's in the same dream-world as the rest of the neo-cons.

Y'all jus' keep doin' what yer doin'.... The GOTP should have already figured out that it needs to realign... The snake-oil they're selling isn't selling any more... And, as Lindsey Graham said, "Y'all are running out of angry white guys."

The Week publication just did a piece on how tough second terms can be for Presidents. But you keep dreaming your happy thoughts and don't prepare. Hopefully Obama will do the same.

Yeah... "Some people say...."

Forbes just did an article on "Republicans are stupid". But you keep dreaming your right-wing fantasies, talking-points and party platforms that lost you the last election. After you've alienated all of the women, the blacks, the Asians, the Hispanics, the LGBT's, the seniors, and a good number of the veterans, you're still running out of "angry white guys."