Entry 15

Michigan Approves Right-to-work amid Intense Protests

Fox News,  December 11th, 2012
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/12/11/teachers-call-out-as-protests-rev-up-against-michigan-union-bill/

Summary

In Michigan, the "right-to-work"bill was passed with severe protest of laborers. The bill is about lessening the domination of labor union in workplace by prohibiting nonunion workers to financially support the union. As the law is not only applied to workers in private company but also to government workers, the passage of bill brought significant repercussion among pro-union workers. Right-to-work was a contentious bill whose passage was mostly dominated by Republican politicians in state legislature. Even though Democrats' warnings and severe opposition of workers, Republicans enforced the passage of law, and indiscreet approval of law engendered strikes in many industries, including auto industry and school teachers. Furthermore, there is also an issue that it is difficult to rescind this troublesome bill. Since the law is a appropriation bill, it is impossible to propose referendum by popular vote, but its appropriation must be invalidated by people before referendum. While the contentious situation between Republican and Democrats is in progress, it is impossible to adumbrate the future of right-to-work bill.

My thought

Even though the domination of labor union in workplace is unfair for nonunion workers, restricting the activities of labor union in workplace is an unacceptable encroachment of workers' rights. Right to collective bargaining rest on workers, and it cannot be unreasonably limited by corporations as well as government. The passage of "right-to-work" bill is a peremptory actions of Republican parties which did not concern general opinion of people but heavily focused on the benefits of employers and small portion of workers. As a matter of fact, referendum of this bill must be held as soon as possible, and new laws must be set to protect rights of workers authentically instead of such laws threatening the rights of workers.