| Daniel Howes is frequently so full of shit that the sclera of his eyes turn brown, leading his co-workers and family members to believe that he has been momentarily possessed by a demon of some kind. But, he's done something remarkable, which is to say that he asked some of the self-appointed leaders of the state's business community whether Right to Work would be a good idea. The results? Corporate Michigan's burgeoning love affair with Gov. Rick Snyder and his Republican-controlled Legislature has limits and they can be summed up in three words — right to work. "It really sucks all the air out of the room and you're going to have a mud fight," says PVS Chemicals Inc. CEO Jim Nicholson, chairman of Business Leaders for Michigan. "We think it's distracting, and we're not encouraging either side." That probably doesn't mean much to the partisans convinced that making Michigan the nation's 23rd right-to-work state — if Indiana doesn't get there first — is precisely the right prescription to rid the state of its understandably negative rep as a Big Labor stronghold. But it should.
In other words, Right to Work is bad for business. The entire thing is worth a read, and it's a good reminder that when you hear Republicans talking about the priorities of the business community what they really mean are their own political priorities cloaked as those of the business community. This isn't the first reminder of that, or even a very recent reminder. We got that late last year when they pushed their domestic partner benefits ban that had business leaders questioning whether it was the best way to make the state attractive to talented workers in a global competition for good people. |
