President Obama Bashes Michigan's Right-To-Work Push

Says state legislature is trying to take away worker rights

President Barack Obama waded into a major labor dispute Monday, during a speech announcing a $120 million dollar deal for Michigan truck plant. The issue: Michigan Republicans are set to pass a right-to-work law during the state's lame-duck session. Local unions dislike that.

Right-to-work would bar unions from forcing workers to join a union, or force dues, as a condition of employment. Proponents of say the law makes states competitive and allows for free association while lowering the cost of living. Opposition to right-to-work claim it harms both unions and worker rights by creating a free-rider problem and lowers wages.

President Obama sided with the unions, decrying the legislation as an attempt to take away worker rights "to bargain for better wages and working conditions."

"What they are really talking about is giving you the right to work for less money," he said.

Governor Rick Snyder downplayed the possibility of right-to-work legislation prior to the 2012 election, but said last week he'd sign a bill if it were put on his desk. The law could pass as soon as Tuesday. If it does, then Michigan will be the 24th right-to-work state.

Via the Washington Examiner and the Washington Post.

Should Michigan pass right-to-work legislation?

[Neo_NtheMatrix]

I was initially disappointed in governor Snyder. He never campaigned for Romney, he never pushed conservative principles, was too close to that cesspool Detroit, but... with this RTW legislation he is pushing he is redeeming himself. I think obama should stick to worrying about driving the federal government over the cliff and let the state of Michigan manage Michigan.

[PoliticalSpice]

@neo_nthematrix are you saying you actually support moderate mitt, the man who created the template for obamacare and forced a healthcare mandate on an entire state. Are you feeling well today?

[Neo_NtheMatrix]

@PoliticalSpice - Mitt was a joke, but he had the potential to be 10x the president obama is. Why Snyder wouldn't try to help his party when the greatest danger to a generation of Americans was on the verge of being reelected I don't know.

[PoliticalSpice]

@Neo_NtheMatrix Sounds like you might be on the verge of understanding why someone who is not a liberal dem would vote obama.

[Neo_NtheMatrix]

@PoliticalSpice - Naw, I don't understand that. Maybe you might have to break it down to me why anyone would vote for obama.

[Jasonopolis]

@PoliticalSpice There is a HUGE difference in a state (with small population and high wage earners) choosing to implement a health care for its own citizens and a federal government doing so against large public support.

[PNWest]

Strong unions = strong middle class

[Jack-Black]

A strong Union is only strong if the members want to be members.

[mudzangandoro]

PNWest; Won't Unions demanding too many incentives (benefits & high wages) from companies & corporations leave them with no alternative but to shut down? I am also reminded about our education system...low student test scores higher wages for teachers in the union.

[PNWest]

@jzmhlanga This country built a strong middle class when unions were the most powerful. You can trace the decline in unions and the decline in the middle class on a graph and the curves are nearly identical. Yes unions can be corrupt. But do you have a better idea on how to build a strong middle class?

[mudzangandoro]

@PNWest Unions might have built a stronger middle class many years ago at a time in history when we had factories, few loose constraints on employers, children working in dangerous conditions. Maybe the decline in manufacturing led to the decline in middle class which led to the decline in Unions. Nowadays, um mm!!!! As laws changed don't you agree that the need has diminished? Now Unions are victimizing management, have become selfish and subversive. All said, you asked me if I have a better idea....I wish I did.

[PNWest]

@jzmhlanga I don't have a better idea either. With no better idea to replace them I think unions are better than not having unions. At least with unions the power lies with the many instead of the few.

[Neo_NtheMatrix]

Or Hostess going out of business.

[jessejaymes]

You know Hostess is something I studied because I have a friend who worked for Hostess. During the past 6 years they were in bankruptcy 3 times and every year they gave huge bonuses and salary tripling for their executives while getting concessions from the unions. They were bought and stripped by a venture capital company much like Bain Capital and that's exactly what happened. To claim otherwise is to deny reality.

[Bobolinsky]

@jessejaymes-- What I gather from your added information is that the "concessions" only had the effect of delaying the bankruptcy by four years.

[jessejaymes]

@Bobolinsky Pretty much. When your CEO gives himself a raise by triple and he's a guy that the Venture Capital company puts in to take it down stripped to the bone, it's pretty much futile to think that union concessions are going to do much of anything except line the pockets of the Wall street Vultures.

[Bobolinsky]

@jessejaymes-- Or it could be the other way around. It could be that the execs succeeded in getting enough concessions from the unions that the miniscule-in comparison-bonuses that the the shareholders gave the execs that saved Hostess was for saving Hostess from union-ensured-destruction.

You know? Sort of like the steel and auto industries.

[jessejaymes]

@Bobolinsky You call tripling the salary of a CEO during bankruptcy "miniscule"? Whatever.

[NO-BAMA]

Whys Barry getting involved in a state issue? That's right, it includes unions,(Democrat donors). Why is Barry so afraid of people having the "right to work" without thuggish pressure from the unions who don't support a majority of who they are suppose to represent? That sounds a lot like Barry and his regime also.

[scotta]

It is none of "The Bammer's" business. He needs to be worried about his job. And his multi vacations for his family.

[bsking]

it's more than the unions are Democrat donors... the unions are microcosm of how communism works.

and Obama is all about how communism works..
just look at what Jeffrey immelt said.

he's 1 of Obama's economic and jobs advisors.. hey had nothing but praise for China's communist government and I was fishin at works.

so I guess it's safe to say that 51 percent of the American voters may prefer communism to freedom

[Fitz]

Unions and government. Too much like organized crime.

[mimi57]

That's just way too much of a coincidence...a Community Organizer from Chicago, known as The Political Machine...and "organized crime"??? Wow, I just can't buy that one !!! LOL

[Thegrif]

Cause they are organized crime.

[MBernard]

@mimi57 yeah rich ppl is behind this move. Money makes laws. What chance does America have?

[paperdragons81]

I agree,doesn't obama look like an evil godfather type in this picture...

[Tralee]

@MBernard This doesn't make sense, you do understand Obama lied, again, right? This won't stop anyone from joining a union or engaging in collective bargaining, no matter the President said the opposite. He lies as a matter of course.

[marine1]

Everyone should have the right to employment without condition as long as they are qualified to do the job. Why isn't the ACLU defending the right to work for all americans?

[Zazziness]

As long as someone else took the effort and risks to ensure the employer is providing safe working conditions and a living wage?

[marine1]

The next thing that needs to go is the prevailing wage law and the davis bacon act.Doing away with these would save goverment millions.

[Zazziness]

@marine1 What's next in your plan to turn the American middle-class into beggars on the street?

[marine1]

@Zazziness We now have the NLRB,

[marine1]

@Zazziness Isn't our wonderful goverment looking out for us?

[texas_cutie75]

The federal government should NOT get involved in the states affairs until needed. The federal government has enough on their plate at the moment as it is. Fix the fiscal issues, let the states take care of their own until your help is requested!!

[Jasonopolis]

Strong Unions = Loss of civil liberties, more jobs go to Honduras, higher unemployment.... this list goes on and on.... SO why are people leaving the northern states of strong unions and coming to the south - in droves???? Hmm.....

[Heavy-Fed]

STFU Obama!

[Jack-Black]

Nobody should be made to join a union just to have a job. A "strong" union only makes union reps rich.

[FFX_VA]

Agreed, "unions forcing workers to join a union, or force dues, as a condition of employment" sounds so un-American. Sounds like a lawsuit, but that loophole is apparently closed. Right to Work is the only emancipation path for Michigan workers.

[FollowTheMoney]

No not really. Unions are not all created equal. Public employees unions should be banned all together, But skilled trades unions are really good for all concerned.

[FFX_VA]

@FollowTheMoney I'm not anti-union, they have a role, but I am against forcing people to join them or risk loosing their livelihoods. That's an assault on individual rights.

[Jack-Black]

@FollowTheMoney I agree public unions should be banned. I am not against unions but being made to join a union is wrong.

[FollowTheMoney]

@FFX_VA I think (I can't recall the source) union companies or represent 7% of the work force. Unions set the wages for 100% of state and federal work done here in Kentucky. Right to work allows the 93% to take the 7%'s jobs.

Right to work is backed by the profiteers at the top so they can pay lower wages with out benefits, thus keeping more profit for them selves.

I hate the fact that labor unions a needed at all, but they really are. Every non-union Carpenter I know ( and I know hundreds) live at or near the poverty level. And that's at 40 hours a week. I just saying...

[DARSB]

It seems unlikely that a conservative Republican governor is more concerned about workers than the support unions have traditionally provided to the Democratic party.

I guess if you can't beat 'em at the polls some other way to tip elections in your favor must be found.

[Neo_NtheMatrix]

I'm not sure I get what you are saying. Are you saying liberals use unions to get Democrats elected? So people who pay union dues only do so because they are forced to, and they don't approve of who the unions throw their support behind? I'm saying that if the employees supported the union they'd pay union dues regardless.

[DARSB]

@Neo_NtheMatrix "Are you saying liberals use unions to get Democrats elected?" No, I'm saying Republicans recognize the threat to their electoral successes when unions throw their support to Democratic candidates.

[Dan_Tien]

If unions must force workers to join them, then they have lost their relevancy.

[Neo_NtheMatrix]

I'm glad you're willing to testify.

[Stratton]

Absolutely correct. If unions really provide all the benefits to workers that they claim, then every worker should want to be in one.

I'll one-up you here: If the health insurance system must force Americans to purchase its policies, then it has lost its relevancy.

[Dan_Tien]

@Stratton It's off topic but I'll see your one-up and raise you one: Since representatives of Healthcare Insurance companies successfully blocked a single payer option to the PPACA and instead forced into it requirements that businesses must buy insurance plans for their employees or be fined, and individuals not otherwise covered must buy health insurance plans or be fined, Healthcare Insurance has now become Healthcare Extortion.

[Stratton]

@Dan_Tien - It's illogical to blame insurers for the outcome of a massive new government program that they opposed in the first place, and did their best to keep from driving them out of business. Nobody forced the Obama Administration to shove a spurious health care "reform" down America's throats.

[Dan_Tien]

@Stratton "A key figure involved in designing the president’s signature health insurance mandate referred to as Obamacare has left her role at the White House to work for one of the very companies profiting off the bill she helped create. Elizabeth Fowler will be leaving her role as the special assistant to the president for healthcare and economic policy at the National Economic Council and joining pharmaceutical giants Jonson & Johnson."

http://rt.com/usa/news/white-role-fowler-heal...

It is not illogical to blame the very people who drafted the legislation, when they will be the ones to benefit from it the most. Healthcare insurance companies, drug companies and malpractice lawyers have driven the cost of medical care beyond the point that most people can afford it without insurance, while those same insurance companies are free to choose what they will pay for and how much they will pay. Healthcare insurance companies want to continue to milk the American people like a herd of dairy cows, so of course they did not want competition from a government program. Access to affordable healthcare for the common people be damned, as long as they continue to reap higher and higher profits. The "spurious" attempt at healthcare reform was a response to the masses of people asking for relief from price gouging from companies whose only care is for profits, even at the expense of human lives.

Not only did these same companies use their power to subvert the attempt at reasonably priced healthcare for American citizens, giving themselves government mandated dominance of the system, they have been able to deflect all blame from themselves, as your response demonstrates. "Obamacare" is now a household word, and all of the blame for this new system has been completely placed upon one man's shoulders.

[cwi530]

Still a noob after four years?
Maybe...Maybe he really doesn't care. He'll do whatever, however, and whenever.

Who's going to stop him?

[vws]

No one should be forced to "join" a union or to contribute to union policies against their will!

[Jim49418]

Why is Obama campaigning in Detroit? Doesnt he know by now that he won?
He should be in D.C. working!
I hope that while he was in Detroit that he took time to drive through the suburbs, and see all of the burned down homes, and abandoned buildings. Dont get me wrong, not saying any of that is his fault, because thats been going on for years, I just think it would be a good sight for him to see.
Obama keeps bragging about how he "saved Detroit".........I just wonder if he's ever seen the real Detroit.

[Jim49418]

Where is this $120 Million for this truck plant mentioned comming from?
Evidently Obama has forgotten about the fiscal cliff. He has no mofre stimulus money to throw around.

[Thegrif]

Well I have found here in Florida, which is a right to work state, which by the way also means "right to be fired", that employers really do a good job from a safety standpoint, and why wouldn't they, cause down here if your company is negligent, the news will be relentless chasing you down, and you are going to be sued, no doubt about it. Also OSHA will get a phone call, or the EEOC, EPA, or DEP. now I have seen OSHA come in and climb up an employers butt with a microscope and it wasn't a pretty sight. You din't need unions to keep you safe on the job is my point.
As for pay, well, we don't make the same as our union counterparts might. But honestly, most of the time I can't understand a laborer making 27 dollars an hour anyway.

[PayThatCEO]

I lived many years in Florida and left reluctantly. The difference in pay scales have a lot to do with living expenses in different areas of the country. It costs more to live in New York than Florida. It costs more to live in most states in the north. They could not survive on Florida wages.

I earn more where I am now that would in Florida, but my cost of living is also higher. It all balances out in the end.

[Thegrif]

@PayThatCEO i agree with you, but I say that one reason things cost more in the north is because everyone makes more. Like if we all had a million bucks then a gal of milk might cost 10 dollars, for example.
I never lived in the north so I dont know all the expenses.

[DyingBreed]

No one should be "forced" to join a Union. You should have the freedom to join or to abstain, to create a Union if you wish or leave it. True Unions are made voluntarily.

[ScottCX]

In WHAT world does eliminating exploitation by organized crime; I mean unions; constitute a reduction of rights? Quite contrary, it enables each INDIVIDUAL to decide; ergo rights.