Michigan: RTW Heats Up
According to MLive.com:
State Rep. Jack Hoogendyk faces an uphill battle this year trying to unseat U.S. Sen. Carl Levin - not unlike his try to move Michigan into the right-to-work category of employer-friendly states.
Michigan's faltering economy - with job cuts falling hard on union membership - would seem to make it a likely candidate for change. The June jobless rate was a nation-trailing 8.5 percent, with 49,000 fewer people working than a year ago. No foreign company will make cars here despite plentiful skilled labor, a friendlier business tax and rich economic incentives.
Yet the Kalamazoo County Republican's 2007 measure giving workers the right not to pay union dues or agency fees in collective bargaining workplaces "is not going to see the light of day," Hoogendyk says.
A Democrat-controlled state House friendly to labor unions saw to that, he says. Right-to-work advocates, however, patiently continue to cultivate support in Michigan.
"It's definitely a form of trench warfare," says National Right to Work Committee activist Stan Greer. "We're not going anywhere, and organized labor isn't going anywhere, either."
It's also a likely topic of debate at the 2008 West Michigan Regional Policy Conference Sept. 18-19 in Grand Rapids. Greer will share a work force discussion forum with Michigan International Brotherhood of Teamsters lobbyist Bill Black...click to continue.
