Update | By Martin Michaels
More than 13,000 union workers demonstrated in Lansing, Mich. yesterday to protest the passage of an anti-union right-to-work law. The outpouring of opposition was the largest demonstration in the Michigan state capitol. Michigan, home to 700,000 union workers, is the 24th state to pass right-to-work legislation, limiting the collective bargaining power of organized labor by allowing workers in unionized industries to opt out of paying union dues.
Scuffles around the capitol led to two arrests. No serious injuries were reported in the mostly peaceful protests. Prominent union leaders for the AFL-CIO and the United Auto Workers (UAW) have vowed to carry on the fight, mobilizing voters for the 2014 mid-term elections in a struggle to oust Republican lawmakers supportive of the bill.
(MintPress) – Hundreds of union activists stormed the Michigan capitol on Thursday to protest the late night passage of anti-labor “freedom to work” legislation. With the Workplace Fairness and Equality Act, Michigan becomes the 24th “right to work” state, continuing a trend of union busting that will undermine the strength of the United Auto Workers and other major unions in the state. While not as far reaching as Gov. Scott Walker’s cuts to union rights in Wisconsin last year, the Michigan legislature has significantly curbed the bargaining power of workers, especially in the auto industry — historically one of the strongest unionized industries in the U.S.
Despite a glowing jobs report released Friday reporting 147,000 new American jobs, the onslaught of right to work legislation and free trade pacts will ensure that class warfare and low wages remain the order of the day.
Selling out the common worker
“These guys have lied to us all along the way, they are pushing through the most divisive legislation they could come up with in the dark of night, at the end of a lame duck session, and then they are going to hightail it out of town. Its cowardly,” said Michigan state Senate Democratic leader Gretchen Whitmer.
State Democrats in Michigan, the birthplace of the modern U.S. labor movement, were powerless to stop the rapid vote pushed through by Republican lawmakers. The GOP currently holds a majority of seats in Michigan’s bicameral state legislature.
Protesters shouting, “No justice, no peace,” continued their occupation late into the night, creating a boisterous opposition to the new law. Several protesters were pepper sprayed by police after a small contingent attempted to enter the Senate chamber. However, the majority of the public protesters were non-violent.
Once a prominent fixture in public and private sector employment, union influence has declined considerably as the right wing assault on labor, funded by big money corporate campaigns, seeks to squash the rights of workers to bargain collectively.
A well funded coalition led by the Koch brothers thwarted an attempt to recall Wisconsin Gov. Walker in June. Walker, a strong proponent of right wing cuts to pensions and limiting union rights, enjoyed a $70 million bankroll from mostly out of state donors, successfully crushing the grassroots opposition from Democrats, labor unions and public sector employees. Tom Barrett, the Democratic challenger, solicited just $14 million for his unsuccessful campaign.
While there is corruption within the upper echelon of national union leadership, the case for unions remains strong as thousands of non-unionized workers continue to petition employers for the right to a fair living wage and decent benefits.
Protests at approximately 1,000 Wal-Mart stores on Black Friday centered around employee demands for benefits and overtime required under federal law. Approximately 80 percent of Wal-Mart employees rely on food stamps, costing taxpayers upwards of $1 billion per year.
Influencing the GOP decision to back the legislation were reports of 90 companies moving from Michigan to Indiana. Indiana previously passed right to work legislation, providing ample incentive for corporations seeking cheap labor. However, in the long run, right to work legislation and free trade pacts hurt the American worker as jobs get outsourced to other states, and abroad.
Did big labor ruin Detroit?
Contrary to popular canards, labor unions didn’t ruin Detroit, but rather allowed workers to enjoy a decent living wage while producing a world class product.
The 2008 auto bailout helped save American auto manufacturing and prevented thousands of jobs from going overseas. Save for years of recession, General Motors, Chrysler and Ford, “The Big Three,” were profitable every year from 1955-2008 even with strong union presence.
However, the marked decline in U.S. market share from 70 percent in 1998 to 53 percent in 2008 was due largely to poor decisions by management to revamp product lines offering smaller, more fuel efficient models demanded by consumers.
The force of free trade pacts touted as beneficial to consumers has also compounded the problem, allowing employers backed by monied corporate interests to simply pack up production and move to areas where laborers work for a fraction of the cost, often in conditions akin to wage slavery.
The “race to the bottom,” allowing retailers to search for the cheapest labor in countries with few labor or environmental regulations, means that the American worker, making modest demands for a living wage, will lose out when corporations seek maximum profitability.
Free trade legislation — including, most notably, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) created in 1994 — proved to be disastrous for workers rights in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.
An exhaustive study examining the effects of NAFTA conducted by Cornell University labor economist Kate Bronfenbrenner found that half of all union organizing efforts in the U.S were disrupted by employer threats to transfer production abroad.
Simply by placing signs reading, “Mexico Transfer Job,” management was able to intimidate workers into accepting low wages while reaping the rewards of expanded markets in the free trade pact.
Bronfenbrenner found that U.S. plants closed at triple the rate before NAFTA was enacted. The Economic Policy Institute found that from 1994-2003, NAFTA resulted in a net job loss of almost 879,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs.
The same pattern is prevalent within the U.S. as right to work states employing workers at a fraction of salaries paid in union states will always win out in the effort to attract new production facilities.
While the latest Michigan law has been advertised as expanding freedoms for workers who want to opt out of union membership, the long-term effects will result in lower wages, fewer benefits and less democratic control in how a company is run.
Indeed, since the decline of union membership from a high of approximately 35 percent in the 1970s, corporate profits have moved disproportionately into the hands of CEO and management. Approximately 10 percent of the U.S. workforce enjoys union membership in 2012.