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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMichigan Republicans Deny Police Officers and Firefighters the Right to Work
That is what the headlines would say if anyone really believed that the anti-union laws passed last week in Michigan actually had anything to do with the rights of workers. When the legislature outlawed contracts requiring workers who benefit from union representation to pay for that representation, it explicitly exempted the police and firefighters unions. If this law was actually about the right to work, the Republican legislature and Governor Snyder were effective denying the right to work to the states police officers and firefighters.
Of course this law has nothing to do with the right to work (RTW), as everyone involved knows; that is just the spin from the anti-labor coalition. This is why police unions and firefighters unions were exempted. The Republicans were trying to buy off these workers with special favors, not singling them out for punishment.
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Republicans have not suddenly developed a fondness for workers rights. They know the obvious. If workers are given the opportunity to freeload on the union that represents them, then some workers will take advantage of this opportunity. This will make unions weaker and therefore less effective in bargaining with management.
This weakening of unions will impose a real cost on all workers in the state, both union and non-union. Unions dont just raise the wages of the workers who are members. Unions raise the wages of all workers...
(read more: http://www.cepr.net/index.php/op-eds-&-columns/op-eds-&-columns/michigan-republicans-deny-police-officers-and-firefighters-the-right-to-work)
xchrom
(108,903 posts)WillyT
(72,631 posts)msongs
(67,413 posts)Fire Walk With Me
(38,893 posts)michigandem58
(1,044 posts)The repugs and union cops/firefighters have a strange alliance indeed.