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Right to Work Fight Coming to Michigan

Supporters and opponents of making Michigan a right-to-work state are closely watching Indiana’s lawmakers debate the issue and gearing up for a possible battle in Lansing this year.

The bill before the Republican-controlled Indiana General Assembly would make it illegal for labor contracts to require employees to pay union dues. The measure, backed by Gov. Mitch Daniels, has prompted mass protests by union workers and a walkout by Democratic lawmakers.

Proponents of right-to-work legislation say freeing industry from cumbersome labor rules and negotiations can help attract and keep employers. But with labor drawing its lifeblood from membership fees, union officials see right-to-work as a direct attack on organized labor.

No wide-ranging right-to-work bills have been introduced in Michigan yet, but there is a growing expectation that could change soon, despite the reluctance of Gov. Rick Snyder to address the issue.

Obama Signs Act Allowing Indefinite Detention of U.S. Citizens

In his last official act of business in 2011, President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act from his vacation rental in Kailua, Hawaii. In a statement, the president said he did so with reservations about key provisions in the law — including a controversial component that would allow the military to indefinitely detain terror suspects, including American citizens arrested in the United States, without charge.

The legislation has drawn severe criticism from civil liberties groups, many Democrats, along with Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, who called it “a slip into tyranny.” Recently two retired four-star Marine generals called on the president to veto the bill in a New York Times op-ed, deeming it “misguided and unnecessary.”

“Due process would be a thing of the past,” wrote Gens Charles C. Krulak and Joseph P. Hoar. “Current law empowers the military to detain people caught on the battlefield, but this provision would expand the battlefield to include the United States – and hand Osama bin Laden an unearned victory long after his well-earned demise.”

Indiana Pushing Hard for ‘Right to Work’

INDIANAPOLIS — Nearly a year after legislatures in Wisconsin and several other Republican-dominated states curbed the power of public sector unions, lawmakers are now turning their sights toward private sector unions, setting up what is sure to be another political storm.

The thunderclouds are gathering first here in Indiana. The leaders of the Republican-controlled Legislature say that when the legislative session opens on Wednesday, their No. 1 priority will be to push through a business-friendly piece of legislation known as a right-to-work law.

If Indiana enacts such a law — and its sponsors say they have the votes — it will give new momentum to those who have previously pushed such legislation in Maine, Michigan, Missouri and other states. New Hampshire’s Republican-controlled Legislature was the last to pass a right-to-work bill in 2011, but it narrowly failed to muster the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto by the Democratic governor; an Indiana law would re-energize that effort.

Right-to-work is also a potent political symbol that carries serious financial consequences for unions. Corporations view such laws as an important sign that a state has policies friendly to business. Labor leaders say that allowing workers to opt out of paying any money to the union that represents them weakens unions’ finances, bargaining clout and political power.

John Sampson, president of the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership, an economic development group, said companies were attracted to right-to-work states not because of lower wages but because the weakened role of unions means that companies get greater operating flexibility, which lowers their costs.

“Some people will say this is about bashing organized labor,” Mr. Sampson added. “From my point of view, there’s nothing better for labor than to create increased demand for jobs.”

Unemployment Claims at Nine Month Low?

WASHINGTON – The number of people applying for unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest level in nine months, that latest evidence that the job market is improving.

The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly applications dropped by 23,000 to a seasonally adjusted 381,000. That’s the lowest number of applications since late February.

The four-week average, a less volatile measure, fell for the ninth time in 11 weeks to 393,250. That’s the lowest average since early April. Applications that drop below 375,000 — consistently — tend to correlate with a steady decline in the unemployment rate.

“There have been numerous indications that the labor market is healing and today’s jobless claims report only reinforces that view,” Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG, a trading firm.

The unemployment rate fell to 8.6% in November, the government said last week, down from 9% the previous month. That’s the lowest rate in two and a half years.

Still, the unemployment rate dropped last month in part because more people gave up looking for work. Once the unemployed stop looking for jobs and drop out of the work force, they are no longer counted as unemployed.

WTF?  What are they counted as then?

Ohio Vote Shows Unions Still a Political Force

WASHINGTON (AP) — Labor unions are celebrating one of their biggest victories in decades after turning back an Ohio law that curbed collective bargaining rights for the state’s public workers. The vote showed unions are still a potent political force that can’t be ignored.

The question for many is whether to interpret Tuesday’s Ohio referendum as simply a rejection of Republican overreach in a heavily unionized state or more broadly as a barometer of a battleground state that could resonate with voters nationwide.

Union leaders say they hope it brings about a resurgence for a labor movement long in decline and sends a strong message to other states where lawmakers are thinking about restricting union rights. But they also want to use the outcome as a spark to help re-elect President Barack Obama and put more Democrats in office next year.

“I think the outcome is an absolute momentum-shifting victory for the labor movement,” said Harold Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Firefighters.

If unions succeed next year in recalling Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a top target after he pushed through similar legislation limiting union rights in his state, Schaitberger predicted “tremendous impact across the country.”

By a nearly 2-1 margin, Ohio voters repealed a new law that would have severely limited the bargaining rights of more than 350,000 teachers, firefighters, police officers and other state employees.

The law signed in late March by Republican Gov. John Kasich would have banned public employee strikes, scrapped binding arbitration, and denied public workers the ability to negotiate pensions and health care benefits.