Even in Michigan, Big Labor feels pushback
Michigan dials back Big Labor arrogance and power — at least slightly — the legislature passed a bill to prohibit public schools from automatically collecting union dues from the paychecks…
Caterpillar: Goodbye Illinois, Hello Indiana's Right To Work
Caterpillar digging into Indiana Caterpillar has been a mainstay Illinois-based company for generations but no longer. The power and influence of big labor has impacted the company for too long, damaging its bottom-line and hurting workers. Now that Illinois' neighbor, Indiana, has become a Right to Work state, Caterpillar is exploring their options, according to The Detroit News' Robert Laurie: Back in 2009, Barack Obama announced that Caterpillar had promised to rehire some of its laid-off workforce if his stimulus proposal passed. This week, the nation's largest manufacturer of mining and construction equipment announced that it would be moving a factory from Canada to Indiana. In the process, it will create 450 new jobs in the state. You'd think the president would be happy, but this is not quite what he had bargained for. Take note, Governor Snyder. Caterpillar's move came almost immediately after Indiana passed a right-to-work law, which will make union dues voluntary in the state. Labor officials claim Right To Work will deplete union funds, making it much more difficult for them to organize factories. Coincidence? Workers who were formerly employed at the London, Ontario factory have been locked out since the beginning of the year after their union refused to accept pay cuts which would have kept the operation profitable. As a result of Big Labor's obstinance, these jobs have been permanently eliminated and the plant relocated. The work will now be done in Muncie, [Indiana].
Caterpillar: Goodbye Illinois, Hello Indiana's Right To Work
Caterpillar digging into Indiana Caterpillar has been a mainstay Illinois-based company for generations but no longer. The power and influence of big labor has impacted the company for too long, damaging its bottom-line and hurting workers. Now that Illinois' neighbor, Indiana, has become a Right to Work state, Caterpillar is exploring their options, according to The Detroit News' Robert Laurie: Back in 2009, Barack Obama announced that Caterpillar had promised to rehire some of its laid-off workforce if his stimulus proposal passed. This week, the nation's largest manufacturer of mining and construction equipment announced that it would be moving a factory from Canada to Indiana. In the process, it will create 450 new jobs in the state. You'd think the president would be happy, but this is not quite what he had bargained for. Take note, Governor Snyder. Caterpillar's move came almost immediately after Indiana passed a right-to-work law, which will make union dues voluntary in the state. Labor officials claim Right To Work will deplete union funds, making it much more difficult for them to organize factories. Coincidence? Workers who were formerly employed at the London, Ontario factory have been locked out since the beginning of the year after their union refused to accept pay cuts which would have kept the operation profitable. As a result of Big Labor's obstinance, these jobs have been permanently eliminated and the plant relocated. The work will now be done in Muncie, [Indiana].
Indiana Law Turns Heat on Michigan
Time Magazine suggested that Indiana’s enactment of Right to Work protections for workers is a big deal primarily because of it is the first state in the “Rust Belt” to seek to attract jobs and business through Right to Work laws.
Attention MI Gov. Snyder: Right To Work Debate Worth Having
As Indiana soon becomes a haven for business in the "Rust Belt," an influential columnist in Michigan is imploring Gov. Rick Snyder to display leadership on Right To Work. Tom Walsh writes: By discouraging a right-to-work debate in Michigan, is Gov. Rick Snyder guilty of "kicking the can down the road" — and thereby perpetuating the stigma that Michigan has an unfriendly business climate dominated by militant labor unions? It's an interesting question, especially since the kick-the-can analogy has been used so often — by Snyder himself, among others — to assess blame for allowing Michigan's other economic woes to reach crisis proportions. Snyder has said that the state of Michigan, too, suffered from a kick-the-can refusal to face up to fiscal problems until he took office last year.So why do I raise the kick-the-can issue now in connection with right-to-work? Several reasons:
NRTW Attorneys file suit against MN Gov. Dayton's SEIU-AFSCME payback scheme
Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, like former governors Gray Davis (CA), Rod Blagojevich (IL), and Jennifer Granholm (MI) to name a few, knows how to payback the SEIU union bosses -- they all indentured parents and family members who take care of relatives to Big Labor. It is a shameless act of pure political power compelling people who are not even employees of the state to be required to pay union dues and fees. In Michigan, Governor Rick Snyder ended Granholm's SEIU payback scheme. But, in other states like Minnesota, parents and family members have not been so fortunate. That is why the National Right To Work Legal Defense is taking the case in an effort to expose the scheme and have the court system eventually rule against everyone of these schemes. Legal schemes that were in a large part a brainchild of Obama's former NLRB member Craig Becker. From The StarTribune article by Jim Ragsdale and Paul Walsh: Opponents of the drive to unionize in-home child care providers have filed a second suit aimed at blocking a union vote. A group of 12 child-care providers, aided by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, filed suit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis against Gov. Mark Dayton's executive order authorizing a union election. The group argues that the order is unconstitutional because it could ultimately require all providers to be represented by the union, whether they want to or not. The federal complaint says that if either or both unions win the elections in their geographic areas, the union would become the "exclusive" representative of all providers. It said the providers who filed the suit do not want to associate with either union "in any way" and "wish to retain their individual right to choose with whom they associate to lobby the state.'' "In the order, the state is going to designate a representative of these providers for the purposes of petitioning the state,'' said William Messenger, an attorney for the foundation, based in Springfield, Va. "It infringes on the freedom of association -- the First Amendment protects to right to associate or not associate.'' After an organizing drive by the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Dayton issued an order setting a union election for those providers who care for children with state subsidies -- about 4,300 of the state's 11,000 licensed in-home providers. The foundation is focused on fighting what it considers "compulsory unionism,'' such as workplaces where employees are required to be members. It is providing legal work on the lawsuit for free, Messenger said. From the related National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation press release:
NRTW Attorneys file suit against MN Gov. Dayton's SEIU-AFSCME payback scheme
Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, like former governors Gray Davis (CA), Rod Blagojevich (IL), and Jennifer Granholm (MI) to name a few, knows how to payback the SEIU union bosses -- they all indentured parents and family members who take care of relatives to Big Labor. It is a shameless act of pure political power compelling people who are not even employees of the state to be required to pay union dues and fees. In Michigan, Governor Rick Snyder ended Granholm's SEIU payback scheme. But, in other states like Minnesota, parents and family members have not been so fortunate. That is why the National Right To Work Legal Defense is taking the case in an effort to expose the scheme and have the court system eventually rule against everyone of these schemes. Legal schemes that were in a large part a brainchild of Obama's former NLRB member Craig Becker. From The StarTribune article by Jim Ragsdale and Paul Walsh: Opponents of the drive to unionize in-home child care providers have filed a second suit aimed at blocking a union vote. A group of 12 child-care providers, aided by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, filed suit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis against Gov. Mark Dayton's executive order authorizing a union election. The group argues that the order is unconstitutional because it could ultimately require all providers to be represented by the union, whether they want to or not. The federal complaint says that if either or both unions win the elections in their geographic areas, the union would become the "exclusive" representative of all providers. It said the providers who filed the suit do not want to associate with either union "in any way" and "wish to retain their individual right to choose with whom they associate to lobby the state.'' "In the order, the state is going to designate a representative of these providers for the purposes of petitioning the state,'' said William Messenger, an attorney for the foundation, based in Springfield, Va. "It infringes on the freedom of association -- the First Amendment protects to right to associate or not associate.'' After an organizing drive by the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Dayton issued an order setting a union election for those providers who care for children with state subsidies -- about 4,300 of the state's 11,000 licensed in-home providers. The foundation is focused on fighting what it considers "compulsory unionism,'' such as workplaces where employees are required to be members. It is providing legal work on the lawsuit for free, Messenger said. From the related National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation press release:
Michigan Freedom Movement Begins
Despite lack of interest from Republican Governor Rick Snyder, Michigan Republicans are moving forward in an effort to save Michigan and break the economic stranglehold big labor has on the economy. “The climate is right and the chemistry in Lansing…
Michigan Renounces Day-Care Forced Unionism
Last year, Carrie Schlaud appeared on a Fox News broadcast along with Committee President Mark Mix to discuss her and other Michigan home day-care providers' efforts to defend their Right to Work. Credit: Fox News But Union Dons May Get to Keep $4.5 Million Wrung From Providers (Source: June 2011 NRTWC Newsletter) Five years ago, bosses of two AFL-CIO unions, the United Auto Workers (UAW) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), teamed up to acquire forced-unionism control over home-based day-care providers in Michigan. The UAW/AFSCME joint-venture union, known as "Child Care Providers Together Michigan" (CCPTM), was set up with the express aim of unionizing "all home-based child [day] care providers in Michigan." Then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Big Labor Democrat, was ready from the beginning to pull as many strings as necessary for the CCPTM union. In July 2006, Granholm-appointed bureaucrats helped establish a shell corporation known as the "Michigan Home Based Child Care Council" (MHBCC). The sole genuine purpose of this venture was to act as the entity against which the CCPTM union was supposedly organizing. Many of the 40,500 day-care providers targeted by CCPTM organizers report that they never even heard of this outfit until after it had prevailed in a low-turnout "mail ballot" election. In 2008, forced union fees began being siphoned out of the reimbursement checks day-care providers receive from the government for serving needy families who are unable to pay their own way. With Right to Work Attorneys' Help, Michigan Home Day-Care Providers Fought Back