Right after Michigan legislators heeded their freedom-loving constituents and defied Big Labor by passing private- and public-sector Right to Work measures in 2012, and Gov. Rick Snyder promptly signed both bills into law, union bosses vowed to exact their political revenge at the polls.
On the very evening of the day Snyder approved the Right to Work legislation, Teamster don Jim Hoffa warned on CNN, “We’re going to have a civil war” over the new law prohibiting forced union dues and fees. A few days later, the two top bosses of Detroit-based Council 25 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME/AFL-CIO) laid out their strategy to destroy the Right to Work law and get “retribution” against supporters in a taped conference call.
As Election Day 2014 approaches, Big Labor’s determination to obliterate Michigan’s Right to Work law is surely as strong as ever. But union bosses and their handpicked candidate to unseat Snyder as governor, Mark Schauer, aren’t even talking about the compulsory-unionism in public. As Nolan Finley of the Detroit News pointed out in a commentary last week (see the link below), even “Democratic insiders” admit that union bosses “have made a calculated decision not to trumpet right to work for fear it will . . . motivate” the vast numbers of Michigan citizens who are passionately opposed to coercive unionism to go to the polls.
At the October 12 gubernatorial candidate debate, Finley noted, Schauer “never challenged” the governor for signing the Right to Work law, “even when a question was raised about bills passed by the Legislature that the governor may have rather not signed.” Finley continued:
It was the perfect opening to hammer Snyder on right to work. But Schauer passed.
Nor has the Democratic campaign advertising in this election focused on the affront to organized labor by the governor and Republican legislators.
Have Democrats forgotten their days of rage in December of 2012, when they staged near riots in the capitol in an attempt to block passage of right to work? Or do they realize that it’s a loser issue with Michigan voters?
Big Labor obviously hopes that, even though Wolverine State voters overwhelmingly support their Right to Work law, which took effect just a year and a half ago, the union political machine can still defeat Snyder and a number of legislators who voted against forced unionism this fall by shifting the public focus to other issues. Otherwise, the union hierarchy fears, with good reason, that the momentum will grow for enactment of Right to Work laws in more and more states:
If big labor can’t use its muscle to punish [anti-forced unionism] legislators in Michigan, of all places, why would legislators anywhere be afraid to take up similar measures?
Worker effort prompted by Michigan Legislature’s Right to Work repeal, which subjects workers to pay-up-or-be-fired threats from UGSOA union
Legal Notice: Though forced dues will again be legal in the private sector, Michigan workers can still reject union boss demands to join union and fund union political activities
With Michigan Right to Work repeal law passed, workers seek to escape mandatory payments