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Fri Feb 29, 2008 at 14:22:02 PM EST
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(Good news! - promoted by Eric B.)
An article in the Oakland Press reveals that even the anti-working families wonks at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy who are behind a "right to work" petition to put an anti-union referendum on November's ballot think they will fail.
One huge sign of the petition's likely failure was the dismal efforts of anti-worker signature gatherers to even make a showing at Michigan's January 20th primary.
Signature gatherers planned to appear at polling places all over the state and confuse voters with their "right to work" language, hiding the fact that the petition would make it harder for workers to join or organize labor unions in their workplaces.
But they just didn't show up. Instead, several thousand labor union members came out to the polls that day, distributed leaflets and educated voters about what "right to work" means.
Backers of the petition, all pro-big business types, insist that killing unions is the best way to revive the economy. In other words, the best way to make an economy work is to make sure that workers and their families are paid low wages, lack good health benefits, and aren't protected by safety and health regulations.
Does that make any sense? While it might ensure high profits for corporations and fat salaries and bonuses for executives (the folks who fund the Mackinac Center), it is no plan to build an economy. Indeed, look at the 1950s through the 1970s when Michigan's economy was at its most robust. That was when unions had the most strength and influence.
Ever since the 1990s, Republicans in the Michigan government presided over slashing public services and the tax revenue, especially for higher income folks. And they presided over Michigan's drive to an economic slump. And now, in their last remaining footholds in the state legislature, they have blocked any and every plan Governor Granholm has offered to turn things around.
Look at the states with "right to work" laws. They are the poorest in the country. Workers their have low wages, no benefits, and public services are tiny. Is that what we want to become? |
| ypsi-blue :: "Right to Work" (for less) Petition Drive Floundering |
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