Obama attacks Scott Walker after Wisconsin right-to-work move

◼ President Obama took direct aim at Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Monday night after the state became the 25th in the nation to enact right-to-work laws that weaken the power of labor unions. - Ben Wolfgang/The Washington Times

In a statement, Mr. Obama said the Wisconsin bill is the latest in a “sustained, coordinated assault on unions” led by the wealthy and their friends in government, predicting it will hamper economic growth and harm the middle class moving forward.

But he saved his harshest words for Mr. Walker, a potential 2016 presidential candidate and rising star in the Republican party.

“Wisconsin is a state built by labor, with a proud pro-worker past. So even as its governor claims victory over working Americans, I’d encourage him to try and score a victory for working Americans by taking meaningful action to raise their wages and offer them the security of paid leave,” Mr. Obama said. “That’s how you give hardworking middle-class families a fair shot in the new economy — not by stripping their rights in the workplace, but by offering them all the tools they need to get ahead.”

Mr. Walker shot back and said the president could learn lessons from states such as Wisconsin.

“On the heels of vetoing Keystone Pipeline legislation, which would have paved the way to create thousands of quality, middle-class jobs, the president should be looking to states, like Wisconsin, as an example for how to grow our economy,” he said in a statement. “Our reforms are moving Wisconsin forward and helping create family-supporting jobs for people in our state.”

#9724; Freedom not to choose: Right-to-work proliferates as workers balk at paying costly union dues - Stephen Moore/The Washington Times

Unions and the think tanks they fund are in an understandable panic. History shows that when workers aren’t forced to pay union dues and fees, they usually choose not to.

A right-to-work law does not prohibit unions. There are active, powerful unions in right-to-work states. This law simply gives individual workers the freedom to choose whether to financially support a union as a job condition.

Governor Scott Walker to sign right-to-work in Wisconsin.

◼ You know a firestorm is coming but Walker and Wisconsin know that territory well. - HERMAN CAIN TV

That law could be on the books in a matter of weeks, potentially setting off protests at the state Capitol and prompting labor unions and management to quickly extend contracts to avoid compliance with right-to-work legislation. Such laws, adopted in 24 other states, prohibit private employers from negotiating a union contract that requires all workers to pay dues.

Democrats and top labor leaders slammed the proposal and accused Republicans and Walker -- a likely 2016 presidential candidate -- of ramming it through the Legislature with little public scrutiny....

Should unions be allowed to control when a company relocates?

◼ If you own a company and want to relocate to another part of the country, Obama wants you to know that you have no right to decide where that location will be. Obama wants you to know that only a labor union can make that decision. You have no say in the matter. - Warner Todd Huston/Right Wing News

At least, that is what Obama’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) wants to do with a new rule that would give unions veto power over where a company re-opens its doors.

The goal, of course, is to destroy the economies of right-to-work states and force them to allow destructive unions to hold sway over their business sector or risk economic ruin.

Currently it is perfectly legal (not to mention moral, I might add) for a company to decided it wants to close its facilities in one part of the country and move some or all of it’s business to another part of the country. We call it the free enterprise system.

Do unions exist for the benefit of workers, or do workers exist for the benefit of unions?

◼ A judge in Lake County, Ind., ruled recently that it is the latter.
- Washington Examiner Editorial

Judge John Sedia said in a Sept. 5, 2013, ruling that his state’s right-to-work law, which prevents workers from being forced to join a union or pay dues to one as a condition of employment, violates a section in the state that bars the delivery of services “without just compensation.” The judge’s thinking went like this: Union contracts require them to represent all employees in a workplace. A worker not paying dues is stealing from the union.

It’s an absurd argument. What the judge ignored was the fact that it is the unions that demand their contracts with management cover all workers. Nothing forces them to make that demand.

...Michigan’s legislature passed a right-to-work law last year. That followed similar, though more limited, efforts in Ohio and Wisconsin. Unions rolled back Ohio’s law in a voter referendum, but they have struggled in other traditionally union-friendly states. The debate puts them in the awkward position of arguing that individual workers should have no say in whether they join a union. So unions have turned to the courts to say it for them.

◼ In Other News: Demise: Wisconsin’s third-largest school district says no thanks to union representation - HotAir

◼ What happens when teachers don’t have to join a union? - CEI

Today, teachers in Kenosha, Wis., voted to decertify their union, the Kenosha Education Association, by a margin of nearly two to one. Only 37 percent of the teachers opted to retain the union in an election made possible by the labor reforms enacted under Gov. Scott Walker (R). The result goes to show that when workers have a choice on whether to join a union instead of being forced into one by law, they often choose to vote down the union.

If this California teacher gets her way in court, she won't have to pay union dues much longer

◼ Right-to-work gets its day in court - Sean Higgins/Washington Examiner

Rebecca Friedrichs is an Orange County, Calif., math teacher who pays about $700 to her union every year. She didn't sign up for that expense, though. Under California law, she has no choice: Public school teachers either enroll or they don't work.

If she gets her way in court, however, she won't have to pay dues much longer. She is one of 10 educators suing the California Teachers Association to end the dues requirement.

"I just want to have a free choice," she told the Washington Examiner.

Should they get the case to the Supreme Court, a ruling in their favor could effectively make every state a right-to-work state. Big Labor could face huge membership losses as people in previously "closed shop" union workplaces opt out.

The right-to-work dilemma

◼ For all the fury and fistfights outside the Lansing Capitol, what happened in Michigan this week was a simple accommodation to reality. The most famously unionized state, birthplace of the United Auto Workers, royalty of the American working class, became right-to-work. - Charles Krauthammer/NATIONAL POST

...There’s a reason Detroit went bankrupt while the southern auto transplants did not. This is not to exonerate incompetent overpaid management that contributed to the fall. But clearly the wage, benefit and work-rule gap between the unionized North and the right-to-work South was a major factor.

President Obama railed against the Michigan legislation, calling right-to-work “giving you the right to work for less money.” Well, there is a principle at stake here: A free country should allow its workers to choose whether or not to join a union. Moreover, it is more than slightly ironic that Democrats, the fiercely pro-choice party, reserve free choice for aborting a fetus, while denying it for such matters as choosing your child’s school or joining a union.

Principle and hypocrisy aside, however, the president’s statement has some validity. Let’s be honest: Right-to-work laws do weaken unions. And de-unionization can lead to lower wages.

But there is another factor at play: having a job in the first place. In right-to-work states, the average wage is about 10 percent lower. But in right-to-work states, unemployment also is about 10 percent lower.

Higher wages or lower unemployment? It is a wrenching choice. Although, you would think that liberals would be more inclined to spread the wealth — i.e., the jobs — around, preferring somewhat lower pay in order to leave fewer fellow workers mired in unemployment.

...rigidity and nostalgia have a price. The industrial Midwest is littered with the resulting wreckage. Michigan most notably, where its formerly great metropolis of Detroit is reduced to boarded-up bankruptcy by its inability and unwillingness to adapt to global change.

It’s easy to understand why a state such as Michigan would seek to recover its competitiveness by emulating the success of neighboring Indiana. One can sympathize with those who pine for the union glory days, while at the same time welcoming the new realism that promises not an impossible restoration, but desperately needed — and doable — recalibration and recovery.

Union Violence In Michigan Is No Tea Party

◼ The assault on a Fox News contributor protecting women and seniors in a tent is but the latest example of the civil discourse and respect for democracy the president's union supporters really have. - IBD Editorial

Imagine the outrage and the mainstream media feeding frenzy had it been a Tea Party member punching an MSNBC contributor covering a protest over ObamaCare.

Or if Tea Party members had descended on a tent full of Occupy Wall Street supporters, flattening and tearing it apart with total disregard for the people inside....

Obama´s Big Michigan Right-To-Work Lie: Lower Wages

◼ Probably the most breathtaking public lie to date. - Discussion at Lucianne

◼ The president says right-to-work laws mean "the right to work for less money." So how does he explain the fact that incomes are up in RTW states while forced unionism is a proven job killer? - IBD Editorial

Campaigning Monday in Michigan as it stood poised to become the nation's 24th right-to-work state, President Obama spoke the exact opposite of the truth to union workers at a Daimler Detroit Diesel plant in the birthplace of organized labor.

"What we shouldn't be doing," he told the small crowd, "is trying to take away your rights to bargain for better wages. We don't want a race to the bottom. We want a race to the top."

Yet looking at the hard numbers, becoming a right-to-work state is a direct line to the top....

Michigan law will now bar requiring workers to pay money to a third party, namely unions, as a condition of employment. This has given rise to the big lie that workers who refuse to join a union and pay dues will get a "free ride" enjoying the benefits of union representation without contributing to that representation....

(I)n its most recent federal filings, the Michigan Education Association said "representational activities" (money spent on bargaining contracts for members) made up only 11% of total spending for the union.

Most of the rest went under the category "general overhead," which included union administration and, of course, the union political activities that include lobbying for more government spending. It's the unions that are getting a "free ride...."

Union Thugs Shouted Racial Slurs At Hot Dog Vendor While Trashing His Business

◼ Yesterday a hot dog vendor named Clint Tarver was serving hot dogs at the AFP tent that was torn down by an angry mob of union members. He wasn’t there to be political, he was there to do his job and make a living. The union goons didn’t care, they destroyed his hot dog cart while shouting racial slurs at him as he tried to gather his belongings. - The Lonely Conservative

Early today[December 11, 2012], Clint Tarver, known as “The Hot Dog Guy” here in Lansing had his business attacked and destroyed by out of line and out of control protesters near the Capitol.

Everyone who has passed the hot dog cart knows what a kind and caring individual Clint is. He never fails to bestow a smile or friendly greeting. In no way [did] he provoke this attack, nor any of the behavior displayed toward him.

◼ AFL-CIO OMG WTF? - The Other McCain

Clint is a beloved local figure, his hot dog stand across from the Michigan state capitol being a sort of institution, a landmark. “This is not a guy who’s about politics,” Lee explained. “He’s about hot dogs.”

Americans for Prosperity hired Clint to serve hot dogs at their tent on the capitol grounds, where AFP officials were presenting the pro-freedom side of the right-to-work argument. And when the union goons decided to assault the AFP tent, Clint became a target.

UPDATE: ◼ Those racist right-wing teabaggers have already raised more than $17,000 to help Clint Tarver.

◼ Heckuva job: Michigan union thugs destroyed hot dog vendor’s cart - Michelle Malkin

◼ Update on ‘the hot dog guy’ - Doug Powers/Michelle Malkin

...Tarver also says he was called racial epithets by other union attackers, including the “N” word and “Uncle Tom.” Tarver says he’s never been called such things in his 17 years as a hot dog vendor. His wife expressed her digust that union workers stood around with their hands in their pockets while Tarver attempted to pick up his catering equipment and other items....

A fund started to help Tarver replace his equipment that had an original goal of $2,000 is now up to over $25,000.

Most chilling Michigan video — “There are people under there, oh my God”

◼ The numerous videos of the union mob action in Michigan today show an assault on Steven Crowder, but it actually was potentially much worse as the mob collapsed the tent even as bystanders screamed that there were people inside. - Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion



...As the union members attacked the Americans For Prosperity tent, a woman cried out “there are people under there, oh my God” (at 1:20). At 1:40, as union members start walking on top of the collapsed tent, a man shouted “hey, there are people in there” but again the crowd didn’t stop, and the union members continued walking on the collapsed tent defiantly as the crowd shouted obscenities and cheered....

Fighting for the freedom to work without coercion; Update: Dem threatens “There will be blood”

◼ MANY great links here: Right to Work laws protect the right of employees to choose for themselves whether or not to join or financially support a union. - Michelle Malkin

Today in Michigan, legislators are expected to ◼ approve a historic right to work bill.

If it is passed and signed into law, Michigan would become the 24th right-to-work state, banning requirements that nonunion employees pay unions for negotiating contracts and other services.

Democratic lawmakers and union backers acknowledge that they have little chance of stopping the tide, given the Republican-dominated Legislature and GOP Gov. Rick Snyder, who has pledged to sign the measure into law.

In an interview Tuesday with WWJ-AM, Mr. Snyder said he expected the bills to be on his desk later this week, calling them “good legislation.” He said the intention is to give workers a choice, not to target unions.

“This is about being pro-worker,” Mr. Snyder said.

◼ Teacher ‘sick out’ for right-to-work protest closes some Michigan schools - Michelle Malkin

As an email directed to retired Michigan Education Association members said: “Take a lesson from Wisconsin, brothers and sisters, protests alone won’t do it. Cause mayhem!”

◼ Michigan Approves Curbs on Unions - Matthew Dolan and Kris Maher/WSJ

◼ Michigan Democrat legislator Douglas Geiss threatens: “There will be blood.” - Twitchy

Pics, reports: Union goons protest right-to-work vote in Lansing, Mich.; Riot police on scene; Update: ‘There will be blood’; : Mich. Dems proudly tweet quote; Update: Michael Moore thinks it’s awesome teachers failed to do their jobs; Update: Mob rule reigns at the link.

◼ As union violence escalates, Mich. House Dems delete tweet promising ‘there will be blood’ - Twitchy

◼ VIDEO: Violent Mob Attacks AFP Booth In Michigan

Never allow these union thugs to tell you they’re peacefully protesting. This isn’t peaceful — it’s violent, hateful and physically threatening.

◼ Video gallery of union thuggery in Michigan; Updated - Michelle Malkin







◼ BREAKING VIDEO: MI Union Thugs Greet Right-To-Work Law With Thuggery And Cupcakes, But Mostly Thuggery - The Other McCain

◼ Michigan Right to Work Protests and Vote Live (Bills pass House)(Unions turn violent) - Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion

Indiana: Right-to-work advances

◼ Hoosier State prepares to eliminate mandatory unionization - Washington Times

It looks like the Hoosier State may no longer force employees to pay tribute to union bosses if they want to keep their jobs. The Indiana House adopted a landmark right-to-work bill Tuesday that’s on track to breeze through a GOP-dominated Senate toward the willing signature of Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels.

Twenty-three other states have similar statutes that say employees cannot be forced to join a union or pay union dues as a precondition of employment. It’s no coincidence that the states playing by these rules are some of the economy’s best performers, such as Texas, Tennessee and even Alabama.

“Indiana Senate committee passes Right-to-Work bill; Unions protest while Democrats boycott”

◼ After nearly six hours of testimony and debate, the Indiana state Senate Pensions and Labor Committee approved Senate Bill 269 by a 6-to-4 vote. Commonly referred to as a “right-to-work” law, SB 269 would make it a Class A misdemeanor to require an individual to join or remain in a union or to pay any dues, fees or other charges to that same labor organization. - Watchdog.org

The bill now goes to the full state Senate, despite the continued absence of a House quorum in the intended joint committee meeting between the House Employment, Labor and Pensions Committee and the Senate Pensions and Labor Committee.