密歇根州颁布从右到工作法, 处理打击工会

密歇根州颁布了深远的立法周二，威胁要削弱工会组织的力量在一个国家，这是国家产业主导地位的鼎盛时期工会力量的枢纽.

随着成千上万的愤怒的工会成员高呼反对州议会在外面兰辛, 两项措施，以要求工人按规定交纳会费禁止工会共和党控制的立法工作完成. 州长. 里克·斯奈德 (Ř) 然后签署成为法律星期二晚上.

该“工作权”的努力说明共和党人动用国家立法多数赢得了电源 2010 追求自己的政策偏好, 即使失去了一个苦涩的总统大选后.

这场失利是毁灭性的有组织的劳工, which for decades has been waging an uphill battle against declining membership and dwindling influence.

But it also strikes at the roots of a Democratic Party that relied on unions for financial support and to marshal voters for President Obama’s reelection.

The new law comes nearly two years after Wisconsin Gov. 斯科特·沃克 (Ř) began a push to curb collective bargaining rights for public employees. That effort ignited huge protests from union and liberal activists and triggered a failed effort to recall Walker.

同时, 一 well-funded campaign to curtail union power swept through several other Republican-controlled states in the industrial Midwest.

Indiana followed Wisconsin and passed laws that limited the reach of organized labor. Lawmakers in Ohio also passed legislation that curtailed collective bargaining rights of public sector unions, but voters overturned it.

In crafting Michigan’s measure, supporters avoided some tactical errors from earlier efforts. The measure is attached to an appropriations bill, which exempts it from being taken to a referendum. And it excludes firefighters and police, groups that were critical in overturning Ohio’s law.

Proponents call their win in Michigan especially significant because the state is the birthplace of one of the country’s most powerful labor groups, the United Auto Workers. Founded in 1935, the union organized auto workers, winning wages and benefits that transformed assembly-line work into solid middle-class jobs.

“This is really a message to every other state that is a closed union shop, that if you do it here you can do it everywhere else,” said Scott Hagerstrom, Michigan director of Americans for Prosperity. The group is supported by industrialists Charles and David Koch, billionaires who have pushed for anti-union and other conservative measures.

Supporters predicted that the new law will be a boon to economic growth in an era of global competition. But unions say the measure will starve them of money, weakening their ability to bargain for their members and undercutting their ability to support Democratic political candidates, who typically back their causes.

Labor leaders and Democratic state legislators said they had requested that Obama weigh in on the labor fight. They asked the White House to issue a public statement last week declaring the president’s opposition to the legislation, and for him to refer to the labor fight in his remarks Monday during a visit to Redford, Mich.

“你知道, these so-called right-to-work laws, they don’t have to do with economics. They have everything to do with politics,“奥巴马说. “What they’re really talking about is giving you the right to work for less money.”

Labor Department figures show that unionized workers earn more and have better benefits than their non-union counterparts. But the number of American workers who are in labor unions is in sharp decline.

在密歇根州, 工会工人的比例已经从下降 28.4 ％，至 17.5 ％，自 1985. 与此同时, 国家的斗争，坚持制造就业机会和汽车行业的艰辛取得密歇根州的经济废人不久衰退. 经济衰退打击后，, 失业的状态达到高峰， 14.2 ％，而目前为 9.1 百分之, 远高于全国平均水平.

随着工作的美国人越来越多谁必须凑合着用工资下降, 冻结养老金和失业的长期, 目前还不清楚他们是否考虑工会的盟友.

密歇根州投票结束财富的迅速变化有组织劳工的力量有. 工会和他们的支持者花了超过 $22 million to back a ballot measure last month that would have guaranteed collective bargaining rights in the state Constitution, only to see it resoundingly defeated.

The rejection emboldened the other side. Sensing an opening, supporters pushed to have the legislature pass the right-to-work measure. Then Snyder, who had previously expressed ambivalence, came out in favor of it.

Greg McNeilly, who heads the Michigan Freedom Fund, a group backed by multimillionaire conservative activist Dick DeVos that spent millions pressing for passage of the legislation, called their success a potentially decisive hit against organized labor.

“I think today is their Waterloo,” McNeilly said. “To see the birthplace of forced unionization do a turnabout is a very monumental achievement, and it is historic.”

At a news conference Tuesday at the George W. Romney Building steps away from the state Capitol, Snyder defended his move as one that would lead to “more jobs coming to Michigan.”

“I view this as simply trying to get this issue behind us,” he said of his decision to sign the measures. “And I recognize that people are going to be upset. There’ll be a continuation. But hopefully what’s really going to transpire over time is you’re going to see workers making a choice and you’ll see unions being held more accountable and responsive.”

Researchers are divided about whether such laws fuel job creation. Sylvia Allegretto, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley, 说，通过了俄克拉何马州的类似法律 2001 没有完善的劳动力市场.

与此同时, 普通工人 - 加入工会与否 - 在从右到工作状态赢得 $1,500 每年少比同类工人的状态没有这样的法律, 根据美国进步自由中心.

但保守的研究人员认为，从右到工作状态做了吸引投资比有更多的高度工会化的状态更好，工作. 西密歇根政策论坛, 该支持从右到工作法案的一个研究小组, 说的 10 随着个人收入的增长速度最高的国家, 8有从右到工作法例.

不管是什么影响, 工会领导人承诺将努力推翻周二的行动.

“这句话的意思是，在未来两年, 我们要努力工作，选出谁支持中产阶级和工人阶级的候选人，看看我们能做些什么来得到这个法案上交,“迈克尔·波顿说, 美国钢铁工人区总监 2, 其中包括威斯康星州和密歇根州.

菲利普立德, 彼得Whoriskey和费利西亚SONMEZ促成了这一报告.

来源: WP