Page 4 of 8

Posted on

FYI-MICHIGAN PROPOSITION 2, PROTECT OUR JOBS

Let’s make  no mistake about this.  Proposition 2 is the most important of the propositions on the ballot.  This one is so important that, its opposition is not just campaigning against it directly, the are running an ad that entreats voters to just vote no on all of the “constitutional change” proposals.

Karen Bouffard, in a Detroit News article “Proposal 2 campaigns confusing, polarizing For Michigan voters,” writes:

“Supporters claim unions are under attack and workers will lose their hard-won rights, pay and benefits if the proposal doesn’t win. Republican leaders have passed roughly 30 laws opposed by unions since the GOP swept the state House, Senate and Governor’s Office in 2010.

Opponents say the amendment would eradicate a half-century of labor laws, including those that protect workers and keep pedophile teachers out of classrooms.”

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120924/POLITICS01/209240339#ixzz27cMLDFr8

Ms. Bouffard does a great job of breaking down both sides of the argument, for and against.  I’d encourage everybody to take a few moments and read her article.

But despite the pro’s and con’s this “one” fact is clear.

This proposition is about the future of Michigan.  “PROTECT OUR JOBS” IS ABOUT PROTECTING OUR FUTURE!

This is what the proposal will look like on the ballot:

PROPOSAL 12-2
A PROPOSAL TO AMEND THE STATE CONSTITUTION
REGARDING COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
This proposal would:

  • Grant public and private employees the constitutional right to organize and bargain collectively through labor unions.
  • Invalidate existing or future state or local laws that limit the ability to join unions and bargain collectively, and to negotiate and enforce collective bargaining agreements, including employees’ financial support of their labor unions.  Laws may be enacted to prohibit public employees from striking.
  • Override state laws that regulate hours and conditions of employment to the extent that those laws conflict with collective bargaining agreements.
  • Define “employer” as a person or entity employing one or more employees.

Should this proposal be approved?

YES _
NO _

Let’s go over this proposal point-by-point.

Grant public and private employees the constitutional right to organize and bargain collectively through labor unions.

It’s being argued that public and private employees have that right.  To the extent that many workers are benefiting from union protections, that may seem to be true.  But, these protections are not guaranteed.  These protections are under attack on many levels.  Laws like the Emergency Manager Law, have stripped powers, voided contracts, and reduced or eliminated the rights of employees in both the public and private sectors.  The opponents of this proposal have used calls for the “right to work” to rally their supporters, but I wonder if those supporters “really” know what right to work means.

This is posted on the University of Michigan Institute for Research on Labor, Employment, and the Economy site:

What “Right to Work” Would Mean for Michigan
Roland Zullo, Research Scientist
Institute for Labor and Industrial Relations
University of Michigan

There is an effort afoot to make Michigan a “right to work” state. Unfortunately,
most citizens are unaware of what “right to work” means or the implications if such a law
is passed. Our purpose here is to explain the law, map the arguments for and against, and
describe potential effects for Michigan should such a proposal become law.

To begin, the term “right to work” (hereafter RTW) is a misnomer. RTW has
nothing to do with the right of a person to seek and accept gainful employment. Rather,
RTW laws prohibit a labor union and employer from negotiating union security clauses.
What are union security clauses? Union security clauses are contract provisions that
regulate the collection of union dues. In non-RTW states, such as Michigan, the parties
are free to negotiate a range of union security options. Unions typically prefer “union
shop” terms that require every person benefiting from union representation to pay union
dues. In RTW states, the parties are barred from negotiating union security clauses,
making the default the “open shop,” where the payment of dues is optional for workers
represented by the union. Between these two policy poles are arrangements that require
represented persons to pay a proportion of full dues, and even to allow objectors to
unionization to contribute dues to charity. Such arrangements are, however, also
proscribed under the RTW proposal before Michigan.

Labor unions are nearly universal in their opposition to RTW laws, and their
argument is straightforward: each person that benefits directly from union representation
should pay their fair share of the cost of that representation. In the very least, represented
persons should pay a dues amount to cover the expense of negotiating and administering
the labor agreement (what are referred to as collective bargaining activities). For unions,
this is just since, by law, they are required to represent all persons within a bargaining
unit. It is critical to appreciate that although unions have some input into the composition
of the bargaining unit, they cannot exclude persons that simply do not want unionization.

You can find this entire post at:  http://irlee.umich.edu/Publications/Docs/RightToWorkInMichigan.pdf

Simply put, right to work is really the right to work for less.  Less wages, because collective bargaining brings about a fair wage for employees.  Less stability, because collective bargaining establishes workplace rules for safety and maintaining the work force.  Less benefits,  employer paid healthcare, vacations, sick pay and pensions.  All of these things were brought about through the efforts of collective bargaining and right to work could diminish or eliminate them.

Invalidate existing or future state or local laws that limit the ability to join unions and bargain collectively, and to negotiate and enforce collective bargaining agreements, including employees’ financial support of their labor unions.  Laws may be enacted to prohibit public employees from striking.

Michigan lawmakers have passed a law that prohibits school districts from deducting union dues. They’ve passed another law designed to prevent graduate student research assistants from unionizing.  Last year, another tough new bill gave appointed emergency managers the right to dissolve or change collective-bargaining contracts as they see fit.  GOP legislators are talking about trying to make Michigan a “right to work” state that would ban the union shop.

Let’s be clear, a constitutional right to collective bargaining is not constitutionally mandating unions.  This Act would allow employees the constitutional right to choose.  This is about freedom from intimidation and censure from employers that would impose on that right.

Override state laws that regulate hours and conditions of employment to the extent that those laws conflict with collective bargaining agreements.

As I understand this part of the proposal, it would allow the employees to restore previously negotiated conditions of employment, and prevent the state from unilaterally imposing changes, without union consideration or negotiation.

Define “employer” as a person or entity employing one or more employees.

This is self-explanatory.

**********************************************************************************************************

The opponents of  Proposition 2 are running advertisements claiming that the proposal will “eliminate safety rules for school bus drivers,” or could stop schools from getting rid of criminals.”  That the proposal is “dangerous for kids and terrifying for parents.”  That is just plain nonsense.  Unions are made up of people, mom and dads, aunts and uncles, sisters and brothers.  These people have sons and daughters who use the services that the unions seek to protect.  Why would anyone imply that the safety of their sons and daughters would not be of tantamount importance to them.  Making such a ludicrous statement is not only careless but it’s insulting as well.  Insulting to union workers and to the people that they believe, will believe, what they say.  They’ve threatened that if passed Proposition 2 will lead to teacher strikes like the recent one in Chicago, but that is, also, not true.  Notwithstanding the fact that people do not strike just for the hell of it, it is also illegal for government employees in Michigan to strike.  These are plain and simple scare tactics, designed to pull at the heartstrings of regular everyday people, and to manipulate them to vote a particular way.  These tactics should not and will not work .

What this proposal does is return the citizens of Michigan to the conditions that allowed us to become the premier industrial/manufacturing state in the region, perhaps in the United States of America.  Organized Labor has been and will continue to be the driving force in making those conditions possible.

There is a very good article written by Jack Lessenberry in the Toledo Blade that speaks about the need for this proposal.  This article shows that this is important not just for Michigan, but the entire region.  Here is a link to the article:  http://www.toledoblade.com/JackLessenberry/2012/03/09/Michigan-unions-mobilize-to-protect-bargaining-rights.html

I would also recommend, that for more information, interested citizens should contact the various local Union headquarters in the area.  They can answer any questions you may have regarding the need for collective bargaining.

Related articles
Posted on

WELL GROVER, YOU GOT YOUR MAN!

Well Grover, I think, you’ve got your man.  The truth about the real strategy coming from the right-wing is becoming more and more obvious for all of America to see.  Grover Norquist gave a speech back in February of this year at the CPAC gathering in Washington, DC.  This is what he had to say:

“All we have to do is replace Obama. …  We are not auditioning for fearless leader. We don’t need a president to tell us in what direction to go. We know what direction to go. We want the Ryan budget. … We just need a president to sign this stuff. We don’t need someone to think it up or design it. The leadership now for the modern conservative movement for the next 20 years will be coming out of the House and the Senate. […]

Pick a Republican with enough working digits to handle a pen to become president of the United States. This is a change for Republicans: the House and Senate doing the work with the president signing bills. His job is to be captain of the team, to sign the legislation that has already been prepared.”

Well, as they say, you need to be careful what you ask for.  Let’s go back to January 20, 2009.

They, your party members and some of it’s backers, put their nefarious plot together on the day President Obama was inaugurated.  That meeting at the Caucus Club in Washington DC, was designed to put into motion a plan to attempt to gain control of the House of Representatives (which they did) and the Senate.  To gain control of as many State House’s and Legislatures as they could (they were marginally successful with that), obstruct the President at every turn, and use whatever successes they had at the state level to suppress the President’s support.

Your guys used a jobs meme at both national and local levels, in the mid-term elections of 2010, to gain control.  Your group co-opted the tea-party groups as part of your plan, coincidentally, a group whose enmity for the president is matched only by [your groups] enmity for them, and immediately pivoted away from the jobs promise, which would have helped the country and by extension the President, distracted the entire country with an assault on what had been accepted social norms, and then, set about using every tactic they could to suppress the vote.

Then came the primaries and you, and your cohort’s, in spite of the more qualified available party members (Tim Pawlenty, Rob Portman, Jon Huntsman and Jeb Bush), Mitt Romney became the party’s choice.  But lets think about that.  You didn’t pick Mitt because of his intelligence, you picked him because of his statuesque stance.  You didn’t pick Mitt for his time as CEO of Bain, you picked him in spite of it.  You didn’t pick Mitt because of his plan for America, you actually picked him because he didn’t have a workable plan.  You didn’t pick him because of his positions on the issues, you picked him because of his many different positions on the same issues.  This election wasn’t supposed to be about him anyway.

All you wanted from him was “enough working digits to handle a pen.”

Then, the “Mitt” hit the fan.

In the month since the Republican National Convention, the campaign has almost completely come off it’s rails. Beginning at the convention itself, except for the final night, your candidate was pretty much a prime-time afterthought. Even on that thursday night, Mitt found himself upstaged by Clint Eastwood and a chair.  Your convention was, then, upstaged a week later by what, the concensus says, was a very successful convention by the Democrat’s.

The next week, the “October surprise” came early, and a possible chance at redemption presented itself.  The attack on the consulate in Lybia (with the assassination of Ambassador Stevens), and the uprising spreading from Egypt and middle-east, gave Mitt and the party, an opportunity show America, and the world, how you would handle yourselves in a crisis.  Well that didn’t work out very well.  Mitt’s planned, but premature, attack on the president, based on what was found to be incorrect information, was a complete fail.

Then just as you were starting yet another reinvention of your candidate, this video of Mitt, speaking so casually and with such disdain, about half of our population was revealed.  Really Mitt?  47%?

What you now have is a candidate that is trailing in virtually every demographic, in virtually every poll.  Down ticket candidates are abandoning Mitt left and right.  Right-wing pundits are assailing Mitt, questioning whether he is up to the task of unseating President Obama.  The answers I’m hearing from them do not show a lot of confidence.  But Grover, you got what you asked for.

As for you, Mitt my man, you’ve been played.  You were at the CPAC  weren’t you?  Didn’t you hear what Rick Santorum had to say?  “Money will not defeat Barack Obama, ideas will.”  Didn’t you hear what Grover Norquist had to say, about those digits?

Well Grover (can I call you “Grove”), there’s one thing you, and your buddies, can say, when you sit around the Caucus Club and talk about the mess you, and your party, find yourselves in.

YOU DID BUILD THAT!

Related articles