This is the week that Michigan’s workers will finally be freed from forced unionization.
After decades of United Auto Workers control over the struggling American auto industry, the Michigan legislature’s passing of a right-to-work law is historic. Governor Rick Snyder (R) is expected to sign the law as early as tomorrow.
Regardless of news reports, the people of Michigan are behind this. A recent poll showed that 51 percent of Michigan voters support right-to-work. Only 41 percent are opposed. In fact, 40 percent of union households supported it. In November, Michigan voters rejected a ballot proposal that would have amended the state constitution to prevent the legislature from passing a right-to-work law and elevated union contracts above state law. The New York Times called it “a test case on enshrining the rights of unions,” and unions spent more than $23 million campaigning for the initiative. It lost by 15 points.
Of course President Obama is in Detroit campaigning against the law. Read more.
But according to Governor Corbett, don’t expect it to happen in PA. From Capitolwire’s Under the Dome: As Michigan state lawmakers are poised to vote on legislation to make the Wolverine State a right-to-work state, Gov. Tom Corbett says it’s not something that is likely to happen in Pennsylvania anytime soon. There simply isn’t the push in Pennsylvania to prohibit unionized workplaces from requiring employees to become members of the union as a condition of employment, Corbett said on a Philadelphia radio show. “There is not much of a movement to do it and lot of it has to do with the politics at the local level, at the county level and at the state level,” Corbett said during a regular appearance on WPHT-AM’s Dom Giordano Program. “Until I see a strong will to get legislation passed, we have a lot of other things that we have to get passed.” Others told The Associated Press that a right-to-work bill would be a “heavy lift” politically in Pennsylvania, particularly given the strength of labor unions in the commonwealth.