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REDFORD, MICH. – President Barack Obama traveled Monday to Michigan to tout a new investment in domestic auto jobs, while using the opportunity to assail the state's Republican lawmakers for pursuing "right to work" legislation.
With three weeks to go to avoid the fiscal cliff, President Barack Obama will travel to a Detroit auto plan and attempt to sell his plan to raise taxes on the top two percent of Americans.
Obama renewed his offensive to pressure Republicans into extending middle class tax cuts, calling on Congress to pass legislation making the Bush-era tax rates for those making below $250,000 permanent.
But this trip to the Detroit-area came with some extra baggage in the form of a state-wide union battle over a right-to-work law that Michigan’s governor, Rick Snyder (R) has pledged to sign. The president addressed the union controversy towards the middle of his remarks:
"We should do everything we can to encourage companies like Daimler to keep investing in American workers," Obama said, "what we shouldn’t be doing is trying to take away your rights to bargain for better wages and working conditions."
Related: Lawmakers implore Michigan gov. to halt or delay 'right to work' law
The audience responded enthusiastically as the president continued: "These so-called right-to-work laws, they don't have to do with economics. They have everything to do with politics. What they're really talking about is giving you the right to work for less money."
While Snyder did not join the president for his event at the Daimler-owned Detroit Diesel Corporation, the governor did greet Obama on the tarmac along with some of the Democratic members of Michigan’s congressional delegation.
Snyder had a meeting with many members of the Michigan delegation earlier today to discuss the legislation, which would make mandatory payment of union dues or fees as a condition of employment illegal. On the flight to Michigan, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney noted that the president’s opposition to right-to-work laws was “well known” and the optics of this were brought even more into focus by the president being accompanied on his tour of the engine plant by the UAW NW Local 163 Detroit Diesel Engine Unit Shop Chairperson Mark Gibson, and multiple people in the crowd sporting UAW stickers. Currently, 23 states and Guam have some type of right-to-work legislation on the books.
Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images
President Barack Obama speaks on the economy and fiscal cliff negotiations after touring the Daimler Detroit Diesel Plant in Redford, Michigan, December 10, 2012.
But while the president was on the tour of the Redford engine plant, the clock continued to tick towards the end of the year and the so-called fiscal cliff. Obama again insisted that tax rates on the wealthiest Americans should be allowed to go up,
"What you need is a package that keeps taxes where they are for middle-class families," he said. "We make some tough spending cuts on things that we don't need, and then we ask the wealthiest Americans to pay a slightly higher tax rate. And that's a principle I won't compromise on."
He didn’t mention his meeting over the weekend with House Speaker John Boehner, choosing instead to focus the blame on Congress if taxes go up for everyone at the end of the year.
"If Congress doesn't act soon -- meaning in the next few weeks -- starting on Jan. 1, everybody's going to see their income taxes go up. It's true,” the president said. The audience loudly booed and the president responded, “You all don't like that.”
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If if it wasn't for the Unions you be able to buy twinkies today.
Twinkies will be back. They will be made in China. The lead content will be up a little and most of the stuff that is really bad for you will still be there. But they should be cheaper.
Mr. President, I'm sure you know that 'right to work' does not stop you from joining a union if that is in your interest. It means that the folks that would rather not belong to a union are not required to belong in order to hold the job.
It's the employee's choice.
according to Marx the purpose of unions is to be the central element in the communist revolution to destroy capitalism
The never-ending ignorance and stupidity of this president is hard to believe. Second only to the ignorance and stupidity of those who elected him. The days of the value of unions has long-since passed. They largely share the responsibility for one corporate failure after another. No one, including this president, can see the big picture for being too focused on themselves. Interesting how he fails to mention his administration's latest taxpayer-funded quarter-billion dollar debacle, the A123 battery company. And he wants more of our money so he can continue to waste it endlessly. In my life, if I don't have money, I don't spend money. This liberal socialist just doesn't get that, nor do his minions of followers who want their government handouts.
The President owes much of his billion dollar campaign funding to unions. He's providing pay-back for their support.
Too bad you can rely on the President of the U.S. for integrity.
All these President and Union haters, LOL!
What are Unions good for:
Decent livable wages, 40 hour work weeks, benefits, pensions and healthcare, collective bargaining, which help all workers!
Why do corporations hate unions, because many voices have more power! They want to be able to fire people for any reason, they want to have all their employees, to be part time so they don't have to pay vacation and healthcare, (right Wal-Mart) they want all the power and the workers to have none!
My father was a teamster truck driver raised 6 kids with my Mom a housewife, those evil Unions!!! LOL
No one is stopping folks from joining a union. What's wrong with having the choice?
Unions are COOL.... Where else can you drink on the job, fire up a big joint at lunch and still KEEP your job...... Got to love it...................
hummbird - I live in a RTW and I have all those rights, except collective bargaining, which I would definitly oppose. Companies around here pay vacation, benefits, 401k matching, healthcare at will because they want their workers to stay and build loyalty to them. That goes for anything from the autoindustry that's moved here in the past 15-20 years, to government workers (state and federal).
Unions were supposed to be cool, if they supported aLL the workers, but they don't! Instead all the other workers have to pay for the Unions in higher prices! That ain't COOL!
They are good for sending jobs overseas.
That is ALL Unions are good for.
You can't argue with me on this.
I got suckered into a Union for ten years.
All I ever got was numbers deducted from my pay.
Hell.
I gave up on even trying to get a Union card or even a bumper sticker. (ass holes never sent me either)
SCREW UNIONS.
LetUsReason --
Choice is something Americans don't know anything about; funny, that's what America was supposed to be all about!
Republicans are jealous of the success China is having with 80 hour work weeks and 10 year old kids working in factories. While corporate profits are at an all time high (thank you president Obama), the middle class and poor still have too much.
Unless you are a woman.
It just amazes me how nowhere in this article does it discuss what the right to work law is.
Ignorance is the ally of fascism and the enemy of democracy.
This President has never run a business and doesn't understand what it takes to make a profit. Workers should not be abused but businesses need to have the opportunity to construct a business without added pressure of creating salary models that will never help turn a profit. Businesses will leave for other places if government continues its path of creating unfriendly business environments.
If unions's only negotiated salary, that would be manageable for most businesses. But they force work rules that destroy the company's productivity.
A recent example of how they destroy a company. Hostess (bankrupt) could not put different baked goods on the same truck. Example, Twinkies on one truck and Ho Ho's on a different one. Totally destroys productivity for the company.
This doesn't mean less pay, it means no pay - because the company, like Hostess, closes down. Unions are, unfortunately, totally out of control.
Right on Peace. The economy works best when everyone can participate. Where is the idea of a fair and reasonable profit and fair employee pay? Reagan showed business that they should take as much as possible, even if part of that came from employees. Since we can't legislate pay to profit ratios, unions are there to insure some level of corporate responsibility. Unfortunatly the GOP seems to think that the goodness of man will insure corporate responsibility. Go sell that to the residents of Bopal, India.
And my union can get my job back when I get busted for drinking and smokin a big fattie on the job... Oh yeah just before I go assemble YOUR new car.... Sure hope I wasn't installing the brakes.....
So, mrphil, 93% of all working Americans get no benefits, no full-time jobs, no decent pay? Only 7% of workers are in a union.
There is a direct relationship to pay and Union membership. Unions work for all workers.
GRAPH: As Union Membership Has Declined, Income Inequality Has Skyrocketed In The United States | ThinkProgress
jwilson - You must believe in fairy tales. Or you simply make this stuff up. Not really creative, so it must be the latter.
I would be all for Unions, if everyone belonged to them; the trouble is they don't -- and the result is just another special interest passing along its increases into increases that the American Taxpayers have to pay for cars, Health Care and Schools. If one gets higher pay and good benefits then all should get them! Instead the ALL is getting shafted, paying a whole year's salary for a piece of crap of a car that doesn't even get the gas milage its suppose to get -- the car companies just keep passing all those Union victories over to us, the masses, as increases in prices. Today, Unions are just another part of the 2%; another special interest we all have to pay for , so a few can prosper at our expense!
I'm tired of Hypocrisy! I'm tired of the ALL getting shafted so the FEW can prosper -- that ain't Democracy!
Being forced to join a union seems illogical.
Want to work for UPS...better be prepared to start paying union dues, for what? Training, sorry..this is not an electrical workers union, or a carpenters union- you load and deliver boxes.
Teachers- same thing. No training. Just a mouth piece and someone to argue for your job when you slip up.
So basically Unions are a protection racket. They protect your job and your wages, and you pay them for this. I think it should be illegal to pay someone to protect your job like this. "pay me each pay check...and I'll keep you on the line" very seedy. what a racket.
The King of Liberals has spoken.
And soon he will be pillaging the land.
If you think conservatism is bad, just wait.
America was not built by Unions.
At one time with certain (not all) companies, it had it's place.
It is dead now.
To push this dead horse will be the downfall of America.
You want manufacturing to go overseas more?
Keep up the Union crap.
And the King does not really care.
He has his new four years.
All he is trying to do now is keep the sheep happy for Hillary in 2016.
And all the liberals are sucking it all up.
A lot of Obama's billion dollar re-election funds came from unions. There should be no surprise there is a big quid-pro-quo going on here.
For all you union wackos that don't understand the term 'quid-pro-quo', it means you scratch my back, and I scratch yours.
FYI morons.
We scratch your back. Unions work for everybody.
GRAPH: As Union Membership Has Declined, Income Inequality Has Skyrocketed In The United States | ThinkProgress
I'm seeing a common 'talking points' theme here miklkit. You must be a union shill, and your comment should be ignored.
None of your business Obama. If the state votes for Right to Work, then you should shut up.
I am tired of Obama.
What more would you expect from President Blackula and the Demoncrats?
These spending vampires are out to suck the country's economic blood dry!
It is UNAMERICAN to force someone to associate with an organization as a requirement to hold a job. If someone wants to be a memebr of a union they should be free to CHOOSE to join it. Our Constitution gives us the right of freedom of association.
Yet again, Blackula and the Demoncrats are looking to turn our Constitution into toilet paper.
Then again, what would you expect from a group that is so full of sh!t????
Didn't I hear something like that back in the days of Russian Communist rallies when the workers were marching in Moscow saluting their Communist Party leadership? No, that couldn't be true, not in the United States. That would make us sound like a dictatorship.
I live in Washington. We have wonderful benefits for our daughter, who is severely disabled. The state agreed to pay for skilled nursing care for her. It was difficult to find consistency of care, so the state offered to pay me (at about a third the cost of a nurse) to provide care. And then they told me I had to join a union in order to provide that care. I think it would make sense to give me the option of "opting out" of union membership. I'm all for right-to-work laws.
Which is not to say that I don't think the union has done great things for home care workers in our state. They have, and I think that union membership should be available to anyone that wants it. But mandatory? For parent providers?
workers have the RIGHT not to be held hostage by the corrupt unions....of course liberals need the unions to bargain for their cheese rations.
The grand illusion just keeps on growing, and demonstrating how "anti business" the unions, and the dems are.
Unions by and large have nearly destroyed the manufactoring economy. Greed, extortion, and selfserving demands upon the automotive industry, as well as local municipal governments, post office, and a banquet of other business entities has impacted everyone, and will continue to do so unless we get rid of this parasite that continues to gorge, and destroy until nothing is left to feed on.
YOU AND EVERYONE ELSE ON THIS PLANET ARE NOT GUARANTEED A PAYCHECK!
The right to work should be everyone's right, and just because a union is involved at a workplace it should not have that much power over the hiring.
My union takes my dues and gives them to bastards like 0bama. They do NOTHING for the rank and file. I wish my state adopted right to work laws. Make the damn unions EARN the money they get! I could leave the union but then I have to pay "fair share". Enough dammit!
There is still hope that Obama will have a freak golfing accident....
Oh wait, then we'd have Prsident Foot-in-Mouth to suffer with
Unions are a joke...just a way to keep your job while actually not having to do your job! Hmmm Obama is a first class idiot!!
So if the unions are so wonderful why do they have to force people to join? If the union provides a valuable service in my opinion I should have the right to join. If not, then I have the right not to join.
Of course many people want to be sheep and told how to act (notice the antics of the union folks at the demonstrations). Unions had their place and are needed to balance heavy-handed management in some companies. However most unions go overboard and their rules do not tolerate any opinion other than what some "union boss" decides is in your best interest (meaning their best interest).
You don't have to apply for a union job, nobody is forcing you. The average worker in a right to work state makes $5k less than workers in normal states. Workers in right to work states have 50% higher workplace deaths and are 25% less likely to have health insurance. Unions are voted on by the workers in the company and every company that has a union deserves one. You're concerned about your right to work what about the majority of the employees that voted to be represented by a union in that company?
Employees in a company should have the right to unionize, but every individual should no be FORCED to join a union as a condition of working for that company.
Or do you prefer that we change the name of the country to the USSA?
Don't forget you get to drink on the job..... And smoke a big fattie during lunch.... AND GET TO KEEP YOUR JOB!!!!!!! Unions.......Yeah Baby
Unions should be a part of all workers rights; but EVERY WORKER should have that choice. Unions today are nothing but special interests, for a FEW, letting the masses support them by paying higher prices. When ALL workers are unionized, then Unions will be worth something.
Do u get to keep all that u make or can the unions take whatever amount they want out of your paycheck? Can the workers keep their job if they want to leave the union?
Unions work for everybody. You don't like paying dues? Go to a non Union shop and make less money.
GRAPH: As Union Membership Has Declined, Income Inequality Has Skyrocketed In The United States | ThinkProgress
This entire Bill is NOT ANTI-UNION! All it will do is allow workers the right to choose to belong or not belong to a union. If they choose not to belong then the union nor state can deduct any union dues. Why is it so hard for some people on here to believe that NOT ALL people want to belong to a union & those that DON'T, believe they SHOULD NOT be forced to pay into something they are against.
If they choose not to belong and not pay union dues they still receive all the protections that paying members receive - FOR FREE. Why is it so hard for some people on here to understand that it is not appropriate for an employee to receive the same protections for free while the co-workers pay for the protections. If you don't want to join a union, don't apply for employment at a union shop. If you don't like your salary and benefits, do something about it instead of complaining about what other people have.
Stinking democrats and their greedy unions..The people of this country have had it with you....you have driven manufacturing out...bankrupt most major cities with your overinflated penisions....we the tax payer of this country have had it ....the free ride is over