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http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121207/POLITICS02/212070366/Right-work-bills-pass-Lansing?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

Right-to-work bills pass in Lansing

December 7, 2012 at 9:35 am
Karen Bouffard and Chad Livengood
Detroit News


Lansing — The birthplace of the nation's modern-day labor movement moved closer to becoming the nation's 24th right-to-work state after bills Gov. Rick Snyder vowed to sign into law passed their first hurdles in the Republican-controlled Legislature on Thursday.

The House and Senate each passed bills on the same day they were introduced that give private and public sector workers the right to avoid paying union dues in an organized workplace. Only police officers and firefighters would be exempt.

The package can't reach final completion until at least Tuesday because of procedural rules that require a five-day layover for two of the bills before they can be voted on in the other chamber.

That gives opponents more time to lobby against the legislation, like they did Thursday starting in the early morning when word spread the bills would be introduced, to late evening when the Senate finally adjourned.





Of course, there is no provision in there to prevent union thugs from harassing and/or assaulting people who don't want to be a part of their criminal enterprise. However, this is a good start...

Sorry, those were sold off to Kansas so that they could keep Detroit aflot for another month.


(In reality, the funds only lasted a week).

Buy out the corporations! (Just like that union is doing with Hostess. Oh wait...they went goose hunting instead)

Yup. People living in company towns, paid with chits only good in company stores, living in company housing, and working 16 hour days was better.
How do you think unions came about?

Company's drove people to stand together, and form unions.

Unions took the ball and ran it into corruption, and waste.

Guess what happens now? Do you see a pattern?the government is reactive, and won't enforce any type of worker protection from the company's who are about to cash in on all of us. Well all be paying for the pension funds that are insured by the Feds that are about to lose member funding. And well pay for it with about $8 an hour average pay.

Sorry about your buddy jpotts, I'm sure the big bad unions had nothing better to do than run a small owner operator business in to the ground for fear of going under because of him. Easy to blame failure on everything but what's in the mirror.

I don't blame them. Michigan will be non union and ill either move, or become my own corp. haven't decided yet. Gotta make choices based on what's available, I won't blame anyone or thing for my own well being. Maybe this is the kick in the pants I needed.

YES!
Unions were good in Nineteen hundred so they must be good in two thousand!!

And while we're at it, let's go back to the horse and buggy and Obama's bayonets.



OK. That was sarcastic.

Let me ask you, if you truly believe everything you wrote above, please explain why there are public unions?
Teachers unions?

Really...that's ALL you got? For ****'s sake you forgot about putting 4 year old's to work in the coal mines!

Like it was already mentioned...1900 was a long time ago...we're NOT going back to it...well, we might when we go off the cliff...but whatever at least you'll have a sweet union steward bumping you to the curb so he can protect his!

You obviously have no clue about unions other than what you learned here.

You won't earn over 100,000 as an employed tradesman working for a company whose non union. Is that being held down?

You always have a choice, I could do what I do non union. Just not at my current company. I'd have to pick from a thousand other ones.

It comes from customers.

No one is worth any more or less than what they can get. There's someone out there who will do your job for less too.

Unions set the wage and the company hires who they want. And can lay off any one at any time with no repercussion. That's how construction unions work in Michigan. Only my wage is protected.

Where I work, it is me, the boss, and 2 apprentices. They (union guys) came onto my job site and slashed my tire. Then into my job site and started making threats. Why? Because we were working in "their area", so they say.
Sorry sd, It has nothing to do with the Union thinking we are going to run them into the ground. It has to do with the Union not wanting anyone else but them working, us or them attitude. Banners, blow up giant rats, yep, they were all there. They also thought it was funny to keep hitting the pedestrian cross walk light constantly to f up traffic in front of my site. The PD had to show up and threaten to arrest anyone that would not leave.
I just want to work and earn a paycheck, leave me alone! I have a family too. That tire cost me $225 that I didn't have to spend on that crap.

And that sweet syrup called "Dues" isn't being tossed toward the DNC anymore. That rich blood will dry up and there will be lamentation in the party when they can't tap your awesome amazing paycheck anymore!

OH, the huge manatees!

Grow a pair.

You already said you're worth what a company will pay you. You've become soft and believe you're entitled to more. You already do less so don't act like you're busting your balls and productive. Wouldn't want to get in the way with all those breaks and work stoppages. Besides lunch is a daily visit to the local party store and then off to the park to chug down a couple 40's and fire up the chronic then it's back to the salt mines where you can maintain that high level of productivity that the company demands outta you and your champion union!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVmKyJXHXRE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SSOoWy6opg

Stupid Hostess union workers should have taken whatever they could get in wages and benefits for now. They probably could have negotiated partial ownership or stock options. I wouldn't give a single one of them who went out on strike any unemployment benefits. They "played chicken' and lost. Too bad, so sad.

Love, exciting and new
Come Aboard. We're expecting you.

Robert, I can tell you've NEVER been in a union. Why? Because you're defending them.

The very first job I had was with Southern Bell. It was a union job. All the old-timers said I had it made and would be able to retire. I got on my first crew and the lead said I didn't have enough time with the company to drive the truck. Whatever. His boss? He wouldn't even talk to a guy that wasn't vested! What I saw there was enough to make me puke. Lazy assed grown men acting shiftless and like little babies. When AT&T was told to bust up the "monopoly" they had by a dirtbag named Judge Brown I had 3-1/2 years with the Can't Work Anyways (CWA) POS union. They took my dues and the one time we did go on strike it was a flippin joke the money we did get for looking like a complete moron holding up a sign walking up and down sidewalks. I didn't go back the next day and took a side job cutting wood and made twice as much money with pride and dignity. Hit the "Forward" button to where I got out of the US Army and I had 2 great job offers on the table. 1) take a job with Michigan Bell, but it was as an operator until a field position opened up or 2) with Electronic Data Systems, H. Ross Perot's company. Non-union, but I would be a copper/fiber technician on an emergency response and construction team. The money was almost the same. EDS was paying more. Which company do you think I went with? Yeah. The non-union company that up to that point had NEVER laid anyone off. It wasn't even an hour's thought with that one.

You can ignore companies that are forced to do the union thing like automotive manufacturing in Detroit where the above YouTubes I posted are a reality almost every tv ratings cycle. The skilled trades inside the plants are even worse! Places where they sleep, their own numbers rackets, when the winter ice and snow melts where they've plowed mountains in parking lots you can find hundreds of bottles, hypodermic needles and rolling paper debris EVERYWHERE! Don't give me that "Well, someone should tell somebody" narco speech because I've seen guys in management get beat up and their cars vandalized IN THE COMPANY PARKING LOTS!

Contrary to you explanation of what a union is...I offer a real life application where they force you to walk the plank, demand you pay dues so they can throw it to political parties with ideas I don't agree with and maintain a thug mentality within the ranks never getting better but protecting what they have and wanting MORE!

Been there...done that...and can tell you're full of crap on this one no matter how bad you want to spin it!

Thank you for your honesty on this matter.

I don't begrudge anyone the ability to make what they can. What I cannot ignore is the fact that many many honest hard working people are forced to work for a union that they feel they're the square peg in the round hole. They cannot simply just walk away. The matter is much harder than that and to explain it away in simplistic terms demeans the actual truth behind the facade that there's some sort of "brotherhood" in it.

In a case like GM and Chrysler where they took taxpayer money only to promote this poor behavior is an outright crime but it's protected by people that will not prosecute the matter because of contracts.

I don't think working in the military or federal complex where your pay is dictated at a minimum rate by the Davis-Bacon laws is a fair comparison to being union or non union, whether or not your employer pays at that minimum or above it.

http://www.simplyhired.com/a/salary/search/q-Union+Electhttp://www.simplyhired.com/a/salary/search/q-Union+Electricianrician

Salary search for the heading union electrician shows average income nationwide of $76000. Plus benefits.

Same search for all jobs with electrician in the title shows $34000 for the national average if you exclude any reference to unions.

You are making wages based on union wages to make bidding on federal work competitive for all bidders, since Mississippi doesn't have prevailing wage laws. Your company is directed to bid at a rate spelled out in its bid documents when it got the contract.

What would you make pulling wire in a new residential development, working for a non union contractor? Big difference.

Fair enough.

I have got to learn to stick to cigars, and liquor around here.

You open a biz and offer/negotiate wages/beni's that are not competitive with the rest of the local wages then it won't matter if you are or aren't union as no-one will work for you for very long.

Currently working in the Shipyard is the way to go, Unless one is a highly skilled finish carpenter. Now if we get another devastating hurricane, that will skew the pay to the residential side for a few years, as it did after Katrina. There are no laws dictating (besides Fed Min Wage) what a Company has to pay an employee here.

When i was a Tradesman the only difference in my paycheck before and after I was in the Union were the dues that were deducted from my pay on a weekly basis. So when I left the IBEW I essentially received a 3% raise in my take home pay. My hourly rate of pay was the same regardless of Union membership or not ($18 an hour at the time) as were all my other benefits. No laws enforcing it besides the Right to Work laws.

what it all comes down to is if you work for Andrew Carnegie or a Company that actually tries to be fair to its employees

Unions came about because of a new wave of socialist thinking imported from Europe.

Those company towns, company stores, and company housing came about because many of these people who joined these companies didn't have a pot to p*ss in, and had no means to provide form themelves. Back in those days, skilled trades were few, ans a huge majority of people were either farmers, or unskilled labors. Likewise those company towns were not located in suburbs - they were generally in remote areas. Someone had to provide food, clothing, and shelter for the people working the mines.

Your understanding of history is rather lacking.



Virtually every union has been infiltrated by organized crime.

Nowadays, in Michigan, forced unionization if en vogue. If you provide dacare services, they tried to force you into a union. If you provide care for your own relatives in your homes, they made an attempt to unionize you (ballot in the last election cycle).

You are SO full of crap on this one, it is coming out of your ears.

I'd say something about "sleeping with the dogs and waking up with the fleas," but what else would you expect from a bunch or reprobate socialists?



Pfftth. You know *NOTHING* about what goes on with these unions in these "corporations trying to cash in on the rest of us." Yeah, like unions in the car companies don't slow down production to force OT, right? Or threaten you while you're in the plant if they think that what you're installing might "cost union jobs," right?

Yeah, GM is just doing stellar these days.

Most of the manufacturing that's moved out of Michigan has done so because of the cost of unionized labor. People expect to get a salary of $16.00 / hr, with benefits, and a pension when a three-year-old could do the job. Yeah, that's progress all right.

Speaking of "cashing in," ever seen the incomes of those top union "representatives?"

You are an idiot.



Yeah, because there's no telling what other union people might do when they see someone making a decent living pouring basements and NOT having to give up 15% of their income to a bunch of union idiots who rarely make good on their promises.

Unions, like the communist chineese, and the soviets don't want their people getting any funny ideas that they can forge their own destiny without them.