Michigan's Battle Over The Right To Work

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Corporations, and the people associated with managing these large business entities, have been labeled “fat cats.”  The executives are depicted as overweight, cigar-smoking plutocrats whose greed outranks any concern for the precious feelings and “rights” of the workers.  This view is nothing new, either.  A hundred years ago the same attitude towards the owners of big business ran rampant through the United States, as well as throughout the 1800s.  There is no doubt that a problem existed, and something needed to be done about it.

During the founding of this nation among the difficulties freedom faced was the political establishment colluding with big business.  Mercantilism was a way for the merchants to earn favor with governments, and a way for politicians to line their pockets.  As a result, the concept of the existence of different classes was perpetuated in a nation where the yearning for a land where all people are created equal was sought.

The large business owners were a massive obstacle in the drive for equality, and fairness, in this nation, so the labor unions emerged.  The unions fought for the workers, gaining for the laborers fair wages, benefits, and improved working conditions.  Laws were passed thanks to those early labor union efforts, and America’s industries became better for it. After all, a happy employee is a good employee.

The usefulness of the unions has faded, and like anything else that gains any semblance of power, the powerful union leadership became who they defeated, and corruption accompanied the new greed for power, and political favor.  Today, the larger unions are steeped in corrupt lobbying activities and electioneering at the state and federal level.  As a result, a push-back against the power of the unions has risen, and in some States a movement called “Right to Work” has emerged.

Everyone has a right to work, and the freedom to choose that employment, without being required to join a labor union if they so choose – or at least that is the way the concept reads.  Right-to-work laws exist in twenty-three States, and in those States, one cannot be compelled to be a member of a union at any workplace as a condition of employment.  The laws find their roots in the constitutional concept of the right to the freedom of association.

Though wages and benefits are slightly lower in right-to-work States, the economic conditions in those States, as well as the employment rates, tend to be better.  Overall, right-to-work States fair better in the economic storms than unionized States.

Michigan is not a right-to-work State. . . yet.

Rick Snyder, The governor of the State of Michigan, did not enter office with a right-to-work law on his agenda, but his recent change of mind has caused the big unions to rise up in massive protest.  The issue kept rearing its head, and Snyder felt he had no other choice. The State is losing population, and cities like Detroit and Flint are shriveling up, largely because of the stranglehold the unions have on the State’s industries.  Corporations are losing their ability to compete, and ultimately survive, faced with the massive drain of benefits that include destructive pension plans.  In this country, the failure of Hostess as a result of the labor union’s destructive power was just the beginning.  The auto industry, once the driving force behind Michigan’s prosperity, is fleeing the State, and they are fleeing from the oppressive unions, going to places like nearby financially thriving Indiana; a right-to-work State.

Governor Snyder says his call for right-to-work legislation is a move towards “Workplace fairness and equity.”  He has been calling for the legislature to create the legislation, and has said repeatedly that when it arrives on his desk, he will sign it – big union demonstrations, or not.