Leading Christian and Jewish clergy from Michigan spoke out against attacks on hard-working Michiganders and reaffirmed long-standing religious commitments to working people. At a press conference at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Detroit, the diverse clergy representing thousands of people in the faith community, opposed legislation introduced in the state legislature last week (SB 729) that would impose so-called “right to work” restrictions on Michigan’s teachers and school employees.
Rep. Mike Shirkey gives false information about so called “Right To Work” laws
During an interview with “Off The Record” Shirkey said no auto plants have been built in Michigan for the last decade.
In keeping them honest, We Are the People, blasted Shirkey for not knowing General Motors built its Delta Township plant 10 minutes away from his 65th House District. The plant employs nearly 4,000 workers and, according to UAW Local 602, there are 41 workers at that plant who live in Shirkey’s district.
The plant, which opened in 2006, generates $255.9 million in wages and pays $4.2 million in property taxes, according to General Motors.
Unlike GM, Shirkey’s manufacturing firm has not paid state business taxes in six years, according to Michigan Messenger. Shirkey promised the state he would create 12 jobs, but eventually laid off 6 workers after accepting millions from the federal stimulus program.
“Mr. Shirkey needs to get his facts straight,” said group spokesman Zack Pohl. “So-called Right to Work laws lead to lower wages for all workers and don’t create jobs… it’s time for extreme politicians like Shirkey to stop the power struggles and focus on creating good jobs that pay a fair wage.”
A recent report from the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute found that Right to Work laws, “do not boost job growth in states that adopt them, and that they lower wages and reduce benefits for both union and non-union workers.
As Michigan seeks to recover from the Great Recession while addressing the additional problems generated by contraction in the auto industry, some advocates are promoting the idea that the state’s economy can be turned around through adoption of a “right-to-work” law.
Large sums of money have been devoted to backing so-called “right-to-work” bills in numerous state legislatures.
Lobbyists for these misleadingly named laws claim that they significantly improve both job growth and the wages people earn.
The evidence shows that these claims are completely without scientific foundation.
The most rigorous scientific analysis shows the exact opposite is true:
• Right-to-work laws have no impact in boosting economic growth: research shows that there is no
relationship between right-to-work laws and state
unemployment rates, state per capita income, or
state job growth.
• Right-to-work laws have no signifi cant impact on attracting employers to a particular state; surveys of
employers show that “right to work” is a minor or
non-existent factor in location decisions, and that
higher-wage, hi-tech fi rms in particular generally prefer
free-bargaining states.
• Right-to-work laws lower wages—for both union and
nonunion workers alike—by an average of $1,500 per
year, after accounting for the cost of living in each state.
• Right-to-work laws also decrease the likelihood that employees get either health insurance or pensions through their jobs—again, for both union and nonunion
workers.
Many of the jobs that have been created in Texas are on the lower end of the pay scale. Some 550,000 workers last year were paid at or below the federal minimum wage of $7.25, more than double the number making those wages in 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That’s 9.5% of Texas’ hourly workforce, which gives it the highest percentage of minimum-wage hourly workers in the nation — a dubious title it shares with Mississippi, which is also a Freedom To Work or Right To Work state.
Do the math: $7.25 X 40hrs = $290 dollars a week IF you are working full time.
It looks as if Michigan will be heading down minimum wage alley if it follows in the footsteps of Texas and Mississippi.
Ask yourself this question. Who stands the most to gain if Michigan becomes “Right To Work” or “Freedom To Work”?The COMPANY or the WORKER?
MUSKEGON COUNTY — Apparently, the right-to-work issue is so controversial to many on the Muskegon County Board of Commissioners that a piece of communication on the topic from another Michigan county won’t even be placed on file.
Muskegon County commissioners receive communications from other counties and state government, along with other organizations, covering a variety of issues that they typically “receive and place on file” with little discussion. That changed Tuesday when considering the official placement on file of a Grand Traverse County resolution dubbed Supporting Employee Freedom to Work Act.
In an extremely rare action, the Muskegon County board defeated the motion to place the resolution on file on a 6-5 vote. On most occasions, commissioners approve filing communications without much talk on a voice vote.
The Wayne County Board of Commission took a stand for worker rights when it approved a resolution on July 21 opposing Michigan becoming a so-called “right to work” state.
The state most populous county passed the resolution sponsored by Commissioner Ilona Varga, D-Lincoln Park, and Commissioner Ray Basham, D-Taylor. Varga is a former State Representative and Basham is a former State Representative and Senator. The resolution is in response to a Teabagger group financed by corporate cash from the rightwing billionaire Koch brothers, called “Michigan Freedom to Work” that launched a push to bust unions on July 1.
“We must guard against being fooled by such a false slogan as right-to-work,” Varga said. “Instead, what The Michigan Freedom to Work coalition is trying to do is rob us all here in Michigan of our civil rights and job rights. We want Governor Rick Snyder and all of our representatives in Lansing to know this is a transparent attempt to weaken and bankrupt our unions and workforce.”
Proponents of right to work for less claim the law would do away with the requirement that workers must be in a union to be employed at a union shop. However, federal law already protects workers who don’t want to join a union to get or keep their jobs, and the law gives workers the right to opt out of a union. But they must still pay union dues. RTWFL would give them the option of not paying dues while still enjoying the benefits of being in a union. What it will do is kill the union, and that’s what this is all about.
Basham said the issue has been prevalent politically for decades and this recent attempt to place the measure back on the legislative agenda couldn’t come at a more inopportune time, given the economic state Michigan is currently in.
“We are wasting resources and creating greater polarization on an issue that ultimately will not aid our economy here in Michigan,” he said. “The push for this is unnecessary. It is unlikely it will ever help create jobs. It is certain, however, to increase hardships for the residents of our great state.”
Workers in RTWFL states make an average of $5,900 less in annual salary, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In addition, the rate of workplace deaths is 41 percent higher in RTWFL states, according to the bureau. As for the job growth lie, of the five states with unemployment rates higher than Michigan, three are right to work for less states, including Nevada at No. 1.
“Labor and management coming together with government operating as one is essential toward avoiding the divisiveness and political discord right-to-work laws encourage,” Varga said. “Passage of such legislation would result in negative consequences for Wayne County, organized labor and business as well.”
This is the second county board to take up the issue. Early last month the Grand Traverse County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution in support of RTWFL, also known as the Right to Freeload Act, pushed by teabagger commissioner Jason Gillman, a member of the so-called “Freedom to Work” collation.
However, the GTC board is only the 23rd most populous county among Michigan’s 83 counties, representing only 86,986 people compared to Wayne County’s 1.8 million people.
Equal rights and equal pay for women doesn’t exist in Right To Work Sates. The Economic Policy Institute recently released a briefing paper on The Compensation penalty of “right-to-work” laws.
In this briefing paper I read about lower wages for union AND non-union workers, which we already knew. What I didn’t know was on page 6 of the report and I quote
“we find that women’s wages are penalized further (4.4%) in
RTW states than men’s (1.7%). The wage penalty exists
across all categories of educational attainment and racial/
ethnic groups; however, we find that it is higher among
nonwhites, with the RTW penalty being 4.8% for blacks
and 4.4% for Hispanics.”
“In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, as ‘right to work.’ It provides no ‘rights’ and no ‘works.’ Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining. We demand this fraud be stopped.”
This is very misleading. The actual Study conducted by Dr. Hari Singh, Seidman College of Business, Grand Valley State University stated under his concluding remarks on the next to last page “A middle of the road “crude” estimate based on a relatively good methodology indicates that if Michigan was a RTW state it might create approximately 50,000 to 60,000 more jobs in the manufacturing transportation sector over an extended period.”
This was a Crude Estimate that Might Create Approximately….It is deceiving at best when a media sources use these terms to try publish a story about creating jobs in Michigan. Especially when so many in Michigan want a good job.
The Study also points out on page 5 “Other differences in demographics, business conditions, and market variables can influence the migration of manufacturing jobs. Typically, the local governments of RTW states have also been aggressive about providing tax incentives and other sweeteners to firms considering locating new plants. Consequently, we have to be cautious about how much of these differences in wage costs and the job migration can be attributed solely to RTW issues.”
Don’t believe what the media says just because they say it.
Michigan Public Employees Are Under Compensated!!!!
A recent report from the Economic Policy Institute, which is a non profit public policy think tank, shows public employees are underpaid as they are compared to the private sector.
Some elected officials are promoting public employee pay freezes and major benefits reductions as the antidote to the alleged overpayment problem and the key to reducing Michigan’s budget deficit.
