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Subscribe to RSSAs more protests are planned in Michigan over the controversial right-to-work bill, Rep. Hansen Clarke (D-Mich.) tells MSNBC's Thomas Roberts that he's concerned the legislation will "end up cutting wages and benefits for middle-income workers who really need the money right now."
Michigan's congressional delegation met Monday with Gov. Rick Snyder, asking him to veto or at least delay a vote on a "right to work" law moving through the state's legislature.
Democrats and organized labor groups have launched an all-out blitz they are hoping might halt legislation that would establish workers' rights to employment in a workplace without having to join a union. The Republican-held state legislature passed versions of the legislation last week, and are set to bring it up for final consideration as soon as Tuesday.
NBC's Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro discuss the fiscal cliff deadline and President Obama's motives behind his trip to Michigan on Monday.
Snyder, a first-term Republican governor who's fashioned himself as a more pragmatic leader, has said he would sign the bill if it came to his desk.
"We strongly urged the governor to veto the so-called right to work bill, or at a minimum, ask the legislature to delay the vote on it," Sen. Carl Levin said in a conference call to describe Democrats' meeting with the governor. "The governor listened, and he told us that he would 'seriously,' in his words, consider our concerns."
Former Michigan Republican Governor John Engler, who is the president of the business roundtable, joins The Daily Rundown's Chuck Todd to talk about President Barack Obama's trip the Michigan, the fiscal cliff, and Michigan's 'right to work' law.
Snyder's office had no immediate reaction to Democrats' characterization of the meeting.
Michigan has become the latest Midwestern epicenter over labor rights as a result of this fight, following Ohio and Wisconsin. The Republican governors of those states led efforts to curb or eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees' unions.
Alex Wong / Getty Images
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin
National Democrats have begun to wade into the fight as well, issuing blistering statements warning against the Michigan proposal. The fight could be elevated further this afternoon, when President Barack Obama visits the Detroit area in a previously-scheduled trip.
Democrats are particularly incensed by a procedural move used by Republican authors of the bill which would prevent the law from being challenged by a statewide referendum. The Democrats who met Monday with Snyder said they had also urged the governor to change that provision, so that the right to work proposal could be brought to a popular vote.
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How dare a company want the right to hire non union employees to work for them.
With no extortion to pay out, threats of strikes, and kick backs to the Union Thugs they might actually make money.
The Nerve.
Decent pay for a decent day worked? What nerve? Or idiocy? Capitaism? Watch the movie Capitaism; A Love Story. Get Educated. please.
Unions had their time an place, Now they are simply extortionists holding American industry hostage and forcing companies out of business.
SEE YOU NATIONAL NEWS BROADCAST, GET EDUCATED.
Just raise the minimum wage then? Where people can Live. The WORKING can LIVE.
They had their time and place? So what will stop American industry from going back to those "Bad old days"? You actually think that greed driven American CEO's will continue to pay you a fair days wages once the unions are gone? Union or not, watch middle class pay continue to stagnate and plummet as unions die. Your wages are going down too.
Terry you are an idiot. What do you think happens to prices when you raise minimum wage.
They go UP, so raising the minimum wage does nothing to help people make a better living.
Spending your beer money on night classes to get a better education and improving your skills leads to higher pay, that is the way to a better life.
Unions doing what unions do best: screwing America
Yea screwing them by paying a decent wage. hahahahahahahahaahahaha. Go back to mars. Or just Secede. please.
It's the opposite fool. Get a Clue.
Why do democrats think workers....who are NON Union....should pay UNION dues? This just shows you how STUPID democrats really are.
Maybe the Unions should be asking the RICH IN CONGRESS....like Pelosi, Reid, Schumer, Durbin, Kerry and Obama himself..to start paying UNION DUES....BIG FEES......just watch what these MEGA RICH democrats would do. They are a the greediest bunch of money hogs in DC!!
To be able to feed their family, and have healthcare? Little slow downtown?
Terry, Unions are the breeding ground on complacent, lazy and ignorant individuals that don't want to compete in an open market.
It truly amazes me that the left-wing nuts are still for the union. Does anybody recall the lesson that we just learned from Hostess. Thanks to the union and "collective bargaining rights" Hostess wasn't viable for years...a slow painful death...and now because of it even in my home state which is "right-to-work" I see people out of jobs thanks to the wonderful union. People it is time to wake up and stop drinking the hate mongering kool aid of the left. Personal responsibility will get you further than a union any day.
Union took 2 pay cuts and cuts in benefits before they finally said 'No'. Meanwhile, the executives got enormous bonus's and pay raises. Sounds real fair. And now those same execs want even more to see the company through bankruptcy. Are you still truly amazed? You must be one of those executives that insist that 7% of the private workforce is responsible for the cratering of our economy. Nice try.
Unions have been making concessions and it all falls on deaf ears. You're not interested in fairness, you just want the unions gone.
Hostess union employees took two wage cuts since 2008 already, and management came to them for a third. All this while top management at hostess received salary increases as high as 300%. The remaining few hundred (left to clean up Hostess for selling the company) just took another wage cut, while the CEO took no cut. Hostess was looted by top management. Quit buying the BS they're trying to tell you. Anybody with any business knowledge knows Hostess was pirated by upper management and is being sold off ala Gordon Gekko
Blearyeyes and Dan - How much are those ex-empolyees making now?
Since most union members voted for Obama, he must support the union and use Democrats to try and pull it off. Quid pro quo is alive and well in this administration. always has been and always will be.
The unions have NO place in the workplace of America today. They need to go, just like slavery.
"Right to Work like a Slave"
I really like the part where you don't have to pay minimum wage.
Think about the above quote.
Now tell me why Democrats are against it.
There was once a tremendous need for Unions. We now have OSHA and the dept of Labor to take care of the important stuff. Now, the number one job of a union is to keep lazy, incompetant, members employed. There are l;ots of people willing to do the work. Get out of the way and let them!
Anyone should have the right to work at any job without having to join a union
bend over bob83256723489345
Can sure see why so many companies are outsourcing to other countries. If I owned a company I sure as heck wouldn't want a union dictating how I run it. Unions had their place but they're now an obsolete extension of the democratic party. Time for them to go by the way.
Treat your employees fairly and you never ever have to worry about a union. Unions give a greater percentage to dems because the GOP is 'all in' for the 2% and don't give a rats behind for the 98%, because no union member is in the 2%.
The thing is--- MICHIGAN, after two years of a horrible democrat gov. rebelled and elected a Rep gov. THEY ALSO passed a proposal limiting collective bargaining efforts, BY POPULAR VOTE. While the unions are loud, they are NOT the majority anymore in that state.
Why does a cashier at Meijer need to pay union dues for a minimum wage job? They'd rather have the cash in their pocket...It's not making it illegal to have a union, it's making it OPTIONAL. It's awful to think you make something you do with your hard earned money optional (sarcasm). The unions are loud because when it's optional, they will see very clearly that not everyone supports them. The only way they can survive is if they bully people into their position.
And that is exactly what they will do Ellen! They are forcing companies to outsource work so in a sense they're eliminating their own jobs.
Politicians, Republican Politicians like mitt are the ones outsourcing the jobs, are destroying our ecosystem shipping goods from china when they could be made by OUR kids in America for a decent wage. WAKEUPAMERICA. Alot of you people are stupid or just duped or maybe doped.
A lot of companies that have unions end up sending their work overseas because of the union demands, if their going to make a profit instead of lose money. It's sad, no one wants our jobs going overseas, but if a company has to keep people on who are not productive, they have to go another route. It's hard to fire a union worker, even if they become lazy. If you owned a company would you want lazy, unproductive workers around?
After decades of failed democrat policies that have plagued Michigan, I am glad to see the people are waking up. Dedicated workers that do good work are finally getting tired of those that skate by doing a half ass job and getting the same pay and benefits. Those 2 things should be awarded to those that deserve it and not to those that do not deserve it.
You all need to take a serious look at Europe. We are almost there. Except for the Germans, no industry, no innovation, high taxation, per Greece, they are doomed to a much lower standard of living very soon. Observe outside the border of this great country of ours. You have Europe on one side and China on the other. Europe is out of rich people to pay the bills.
Just curious, why are you so afraid of living in a Right to Work state? Personally, I would hate to be required to pay money to an organization whose political or social views/stances I did not support. I can't think of anything more unAmerican than being forced to join an organization - whether left or right leaning - just because I have a job at a company that is unionized.
The Chinese just bought A123 solar, around the corner from where obama is today???
I wonder if they will go union???
BTW: obama gave 200 million to A123 solar, another of his green failures!!!
I don't know why dems would have a problem with someone getting the same benefits as union members when they don't want to belong to the union. For years the dems have been saying that all people should have a right to have the money of someone who has worked hard for it redistributed to them because they don't make as much. Kind of sounds like the same thing to me.
I see the unions are getting ther blood money back from the demofalps for helping get him GET elected, pretty soon we will have to bow the the third reich. YOU WISH
The 99% American People ALL NEED A "RIGHT TO WORK FOR MORE MONEY" NOT FOR "LESS"!!!!!!
If it wasn't for the unions, y'all would be workin' for peanuts while the corrupt Republican corporate MONARCHY, their INFILTRATED, "HAND-PICKED" political puppets, the ONE-PECENTERS & their FOREVER VACATIONING CEO'S are LIVING A LIFE OF LUXURY on 77%, that's right, 77% of the 99% American People's country's wealth! WAKE UP! THEY'RE STEALING FROM YOU! They ALREADY STOLE YOUR PENSIONS & YOUR AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE! What are you going to do, let them have EVERYTHING!!!!!
In America, we are suppose to have freedom. Being forced to join a union sounds un-American. I love it when people get into all the hype, but it's not to eliminate unions, it's to give people the choice if they want to join. I've had to work for a union before, they took out from my paycheck, never seen or heard from anyone. It was just a waiste of my money, money that should of been in my bank, not the unions...
Preventing workers from organizing is as American as apple pie, apparently.
There is a reason why Labor's share of the national income is at 70 year lows. See if you can figure out what that is.
Freedom to be stupid.
Your paycheck would have been much smaller than the amount taken for dues had you not been in a union. Unions are the reason you make as much as you do, but corporations are eroding the gains made in the 50's, 60's, and 70's. And idiots like you don't realize you're throwing out the baby with the bath water. The rich get richer and the middle class continues to disappear as the war on unions continues.
@blearyeyed, $10 an hour must be a huge salary. You should be given a choice, I choose not to give my money to thugs. This why I'm independent, people should have choices in America, over health care, abortions and work.
It's just another money grab by the rich and their puppets, the republicans. At the expense of middle/working class Americans. No study to date has shown RTW laws create jobs.
So you think a non union worker should be paying union dues....WHY?? UNIONS suck the life out of employers...plain and simple....
Union dues do one thing....they make sure the big honchos live lavishly......
You pay a due to have a reprasentative to stand up to the corporate bully. Do dee Do Do Do.
Unions do punish not just the employers. At the Port of Long Beach recently, the 800-member clerical workers unit of the ILWU local walked off the job, with some 10,000 longshoremen and other union members refusing to cross picket lines, forcing a shutdown at 10 of 14 container terminals. Billions of dollars in economic loss, with costs passed on to you and me. No need for unions anymore, just for people who want to work.
Why shouldn't someone be allowed to work without joining a union? That would be like telling someone they couldn't: vote for a Democratic candidate in the general election unless they were a Registered Democrat, go to a Red Wings game unless they were in the Red Wings fan club, couldn't go to a Michigan Wolverine football game unless they were an alumni ..... .
The people of the Southern US would like Michigan to not pass a right to work law. The South loves all of the jobs sent there by the corrupt, anti-employer labor unions. The South loves better employment. The Blue States must keep their labor unions and continue to drive all of the jobs to the Red States. It will take the people of the Blue States another decade before they figure out how they drove all of the jobs South. Heck, they will probably move South and end up cleaning the toilets in the homes of the new auto-workers. They will be known as Obamas - the people not smart enough to do anything right.
who the hell thinks they have the right to tell me I must join the union to work BULLsh**
Obama and company at work to pay pack who got them elected.
google project labor agreements and you will see how corrupt and inbedded this administration is with the FU**** unions
"Right-to-work" hasn't helped Oklahoma workers in any way. Some Oklahomen and Oklahowomen were mislead into believing that RTW would guarantee them a job. This simply wasn't how it worked out.
If you want to improve the employment situation in your state, I suggest better education.
RTW is just another way to promote cheap labor which can be good or bad, depending upon which end of the food chain you may find yourself. Don't expect non-union employers to help much with health insurance either.
RTW isn't a solution. It's part of the problem.
There are a number lot of non union foreign car manufactors in the South, Indiana and Ohio. They pay a very good wage and benefits, just not stupid wages and benefits like the Big 3 in Detroit.
GM left Oklahoma after RTW passed.
All unions are is a sociolist society. They give the same pay to the worthless workers as the hard workers. They protect the deadbeats from getting fired as long as they are not dueing drugs or drinking on the job. Unions where great but they are even more gready than corporate america.
There can be no creature other than the Republican Party that are so intent on becoming extinct! They make themselves look like fools to the rest of the county with impunity. They just don't get it do they?
william, do you honestly have any clue on what you are talking about ? 86% of the construction workforce is non-union by Choice.Do you get it by Choice that means not signing papers to join some deadbeat union.
Oh I guess that means 86% of the us construction workforce are the 1% ers, no let me spell it out for you. The 86% of the workforce which chooses to be non- union is the middle glass ahole.
2.10 thats what servers make and what every worker would make if it was republicans way. WAKEUPAMERICA. herman cain and his lobbiest make sure of this. Lobbiest/ Unions are all the same. Just Unions are for the WORKERS.