aGameOfThrones
12-09-2012, 09:26 PM
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — With defeat in the Michigan Legislature virtually certain, Democrats and organized labor intend to make enactment of right-to-work laws as uncomfortable as possible for Gov. Rick Snyder and his Republican allies while laying the groundwork to seek payback at the polls.
Shellshocked opponents of the laws spent the weekend mapping strategy for protests and acts of civil disobedience, while acknowledging the cold reality that Republican majorities in the House and Senate cannot be stopped — or even delayed for long by parliamentary maneuvers. Leaders vowed to resist to the end, and then set their sights on winning control of the Legislature and defeating Snyder when he seeks re-election in 2014.
"They've awakened a sleeping giant," United Auto Workers President Bob King told The Associated Press on Saturday at a Detroit-area union hall, where about 200 activists were attending a planning session. "Not just union members. A lot of regular citizens, non-union households, realize this is a negative thing."
Right-to-work laws prohibit requiring employees to join a union or pay fees similar to union dues as a condition of employment. Supporters say it's about freedom of association for workers and a better business climate. Critics contend the real intent is to bleed unions of money and bargaining power.
State law forbids repealing spending bills through referendums, and Republicans made the right-to-work measures immune by attaching a $1 million appropriation. So the only apparent way to nullify the policy, once enacted, will be to seize statehouse control through the ballot box.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Sander Levin, who as a state legislator in the 1960s sponsored the labor law that right-to-work measures would overturn, called for a "massive education campaign" to remind voters of unions' role in building the middle class and explain how the new policy will weaken their ability to bargain for good wages and benefits.
"What's at stake is the cooperative, constructive labor-management relations that have ripened over the last 15 to 20 years," Levin said. "This governor is essentially saying that instead of collaboration, it's going to be dog-eat-dog."
http://news.yahoo.com/unions-vow-political-payback-law-181241116.html
Shellshocked opponents of the laws spent the weekend mapping strategy for protests and acts of civil disobedience, while acknowledging the cold reality that Republican majorities in the House and Senate cannot be stopped — or even delayed for long by parliamentary maneuvers. Leaders vowed to resist to the end, and then set their sights on winning control of the Legislature and defeating Snyder when he seeks re-election in 2014.
"They've awakened a sleeping giant," United Auto Workers President Bob King told The Associated Press on Saturday at a Detroit-area union hall, where about 200 activists were attending a planning session. "Not just union members. A lot of regular citizens, non-union households, realize this is a negative thing."
Right-to-work laws prohibit requiring employees to join a union or pay fees similar to union dues as a condition of employment. Supporters say it's about freedom of association for workers and a better business climate. Critics contend the real intent is to bleed unions of money and bargaining power.
State law forbids repealing spending bills through referendums, and Republicans made the right-to-work measures immune by attaching a $1 million appropriation. So the only apparent way to nullify the policy, once enacted, will be to seize statehouse control through the ballot box.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Sander Levin, who as a state legislator in the 1960s sponsored the labor law that right-to-work measures would overturn, called for a "massive education campaign" to remind voters of unions' role in building the middle class and explain how the new policy will weaken their ability to bargain for good wages and benefits.
"What's at stake is the cooperative, constructive labor-management relations that have ripened over the last 15 to 20 years," Levin said. "This governor is essentially saying that instead of collaboration, it's going to be dog-eat-dog."
http://news.yahoo.com/unions-vow-political-payback-law-181241116.html