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Toledo
Blade
Mich. Gov. Snyder signs into law
right-to-work bills limiting unions
Union members, supporters crowd
Capitol
By Tyrel Linkhorn
LANSING
—Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder
has signed right-to-work legislation, dealing a devastating and
once-unthinkable defeat to organized labor in a state that has been a
cradle of
the movement for generations.
He
put his signatures on the bills
today, hours after the state House passed the measures.
Mr.
Snyder says a failed ballot
proposal to enshrine collective bargaining rights in the constitution
triggered
the discussion that led to the passage and signing of right-to-work.
During
a news conference, he called
the protests "an exercise in democracy."
Earlier
today, the Michigan House
today approved two contentious right-to-work bills limiting unions’
power as a
boisterous but mostly peaceful crowd of thousands surrounded the
Michigan State
Capitol.
The
bills were passed by the
Michigan Senate last week.
Michigan
becomes the 24th state
with right-to-work laws, which give workers a choice on whether or not
to join
a union and ban requirements that nonunion employees pay unions for
negotiating
contracts and other services.
Earlier
today, the
Republican-dominated House first passed a measure dealing with
public-sector
workers 58-51 as protesters shouted “shame on you” from the gallery and
huge
crowds of union backers massed in the state Capitol halls and on the
grounds.
Democrats
immediately sought to
have the vote reconsidered but failed in that effort…
Read
the article, watch video at
Toledo Blade
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