No Longer Right to Work
We were living in Michigan when Engler and the Republican Legislature passed Right to Work Laws. The effort was meant to undercut Unions and saving costs for the Big Three automakers. Supposedly cars would be lower in costs to with the reductions reflected in prices to consumers. Never happened.
Michigan reversed Right to Work Laws just recently.
Michigan becomes 1st state in decades to repeal ‘right-to-work’ law, PBS NewsHour, Paula Gardner
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan, long known as a mainstay of organized labor, on Friday became the first state in decades to repeal a union-restricting law known as “right-to-work” that was passed over a decade ago by a Republican-controlled Legislature.
The state’s “right-to-work” law had allowed those in unionized workplaces to opt out of paying union dues and fees. Its repeal is seen as a major victory for organized labor with union membership reaching an all-time low last year.
“Today, we are coming together to restore workers’ rights, protect Michiganders on the job, and grow Michigan’s middle class,” Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement Friday after signing the legislation.
The second-term governor also signed legislation restoring a prevailing wage law that had been repealed by Republicans in 2018. It requires contractors hired for state projects to pay union-level wages.
Repealing the “right-to-work” law, enacted in 2012, had long been listed as a top priority for Democrats, who took control of the full state government this year for the first time in 40 years.
Supporters of the repeal poured into the state Capitol in Lansing earlier this month as the House and Senate took up the legislation before approving it along party lines after limited deliberations.
Democrats had argued that the law allowed for “free riders” that received union representation without having to pay fees or dues. Without it, unions can now require all workers in a unionized workplace to pay fees for the cost of representation in bargaining.
Michigan had the nation’s seventh-highest percentage of unionized workers when the “right-to-work” law was enacted in 2012, but that dropped to 11th in 2022. Over the past decade, union membership in Michigan has fallen by 2.6 percentage points as overall U.S. union membership has been falling steadily for decades, reaching an all-time low last year of 10.1%.
(From out on the web…)
“The 28 states having ‘Right-to-Work’ laws include Arizona, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Missouri, Nevada, North Dakota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. West Virginia legislation is pending.”
Make tah 27,
Looks like Michigan no longer belongs on that list.
Michigan Just Became the First State in 6 Decades to Scrap an Infamous Anti-Union Law
The Nation – February 16
@Fred,
Of the 26 states you listed (not counting Michigan), 17 are in the bottom half of states for poverty rate. Including Michigan, which just left, it would be 18/27. If right-to-work was such a boon to employment, you wouldn’t think that nearly 2/3 would be in the poorest half. Right-to-work looks like the road to serfdom to me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_poverty_rate#:~:text=Poverty%20rates%20were%20highest%20in,%25)%2C%20Hawaii%20(9.26%25).
Back in the day (1958 or so)
it seemed to me that “right to work” was simply “freedom”
it took me a while to realize that in practice it meant “freedom to exploit workers.”
moral: things aren’t always what they seem.
moral 2: people can change their minds. keep that in mind before hating on them.
moral 3: even you.
Unions have long labeled “Right to work” laws as “Right to work for less” laws. Statistics say they are correct. No one has to pay for the “political” activities of a union, just the part that actually goes to negotiating contracts.
Union contracts should benefit their workers, but union contracts ratified by their members can also eliminate benefits provided under state law. The company I worked for was a union shop, but they went out of business and were eventually bought by a new company which wanted to be non union, was and is today actually. They hired some of the old staff and everyone went back to doing what they had done before, including requiring uniforms in the plant. In the union days the guys would take them home and they would be laundered in the family laundry. But it turned out that barring a union contract specifying otherwise, any mandatory uniforms had to be provided and cared for by the company. So they now have uniform service, once a week. At the time of the change there were an awful lot of guys whose wives were overjoyed by the change, and more than a little angry that the union had let them do the dirty work of laundering uniforms for decades – although no one knew what that law went into effect.
william
yes, and you should see how happy the workers in Vietnam making sneakers for a dollar a day.
jane
yes, i think part…only part…is that union leaders are subject to becoming corrupt just like congress and employers themselves.
it’s always something
I guess more manufacturing will be leaving Michigan and few new manufacturing coming in now. When you drive through Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina on the Interstates you’ll see massive NEW Kia BMW MB Boeing and Hyundai plants with supporting industrial plants for miles. Stop and talk to the happy workers as well. These States all have right to work laws.