Labor strikes back?: Trying an end-run on emergency managers and right-to-work laws

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from the Detroit Metro Times:



Labor strikes back?
Trying an end-run on emergency managers and right-to-work laws

By Jack Lessenberry
Published: March 14, 2012


For more than a year, unions and working people have taken a pounding, ever since Rick Snyder became governor and Republican right-wing ideologues captured the Legislature.

A tough new emergency manager law sailed with ease though the Legislature; among other things, it gives such managers the power to tear up contracts negotiated in good faith, if they feel like it.

The lawmakers put strict limits on how much local governments could offer their workers in terms of health benefits, proving once again the ancient proverb that Republicans are in favor of local control ... except when they aren't.

They went after teachers' unions, with the clear intent of making it harder for them to represent their members by forbidding payroll deduction of dues. They also seemed bizarrely obsessed with preventing a handful of graduate research assistants at the University of Michigan from forming a union. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://metrotimes.com/columns/labor-strikes-back-1.1285300

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