Michigan limits dues for unions

Protesters fill, circle Capitol, met by police

People protesting Michigan’s new labor law ÿll the state Capitol rotunda in Lansing on Tuesday. As the crowd grew, authorities closed the building, saying it had reached its capacity of more than 2,000.
People protesting Michigan’s new labor law ÿll the state Capitol rotunda in Lansing on Tuesday. As the crowd grew, authorities closed the building, saying it had reached its capacity of more than 2,000.

— Republican Gov. Rick Snyder signed bills banning mandatory union dues in Michigan workplaces, making it the 24th U.S. state to enact so-called right-to-work legislation.

“I don’t view this as antiunion,” he said Tuesday at a news briefing in Lansing. “This is pro-worker.”

Bundled-up protesters had converged on the Statehouse as lawmakers debated the bills for the home state of the United Auto Workers and the three largest U.S. automakers. The passage of the measures is viewed by some as a practical and symbolic rout in a stronghold of organized labor in the U.S., while opponents said it presaged political warfare.

“There will be blood,” Rep. Douglas Geiss, a Democrat from Taylor, said during debate in the House of Representatives.

Outside the Capitol, supporters and opponents clashed, with protesters tearing down a tent set up by Americans for Prosperity, an organization supported by billionaires Charles and David Koch. They overturned tables and stamped on signs with slogans such as “Stop feeding the union pigs.”

Police on foot and horseback charged through the crowd, pushing people back with batons.

Bill Bagwell, a 55-year-old UAW member from Westland, said the measure would create friction at his General Motors plant in Ypsilanti. Members who pay union dues would detest those who enjoy the benefits of the contract but don’t contribute, he said.

“It’ll create civil war,” Bagwell said.

Michigan’s push for the laws, which exclude police and firefighters, began last week, when Snyder ended more than a year of neutrality and declared that he would sign the legislation. Hours later, the measures won initial approval in the House and the Senate with no hearings.

Democrats failed to strip from the bills a $1 million appropriation to administer the measures. The inclusion of the money will shield the laws from a referendum to repeal them.

Supporters say right-towork laws give workers the option of withholding support from unions they view as ineffective or politically objectionable.

“Unions will be more responsive, and more jobs will come to Michigan,” Snyder said at the briefing. “I try to do what’s best for the citizens of Michigan.”

The dues issue came to a head after unions spent $23 million in an unsuccessful campaign to enshrine collective-bargaining rights in the state constitution with a ballot measure in November. Snyder had asked union leaders not to seek the constitutional amendment, and he campaigned against it, saying it would undo efforts to rein in employee costs.

The events in Michigan, with a history of combative organizing and powerful ties to the UAW and International Brotherhood of Teamsters, are watched by unions as a possible harbinger of similar campaigns in other states. Opponents say the laws are an attempt to strip unions of money used not only to bargain with management but also to support political campaigns.

About 17 percent of Michigan’s work force belongs to unions, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In the early 1960s, about 40 percent did.

Lisa Posthumus Lyons, a House Republican, who said her family included union members, said the legislation gave workers the freedom to make their own choices.

“Yes, we are witnessing history,” she said. “This is the day when Michigan freed its workers.”

Mark Meadows, a House Democrat, had a different take.

“I was hoping that this day would never come,” he said. “In the last two years there’s been a chipping away at bargaining. But today, the corporations delivered the” death blow.

As the debate over the bills intensified Tuesday, the authorities closed the Capitol after saying the building had reached its capacity of more than 2,000. That left thousands of noisy union members — many dressed in red — on the lawn outside, although the doors to the building were opened again later in the morning.

Streets around the Capitol were also closed to traffic, and clusters of state police, some equipped with riot gear, stood at posts throughout the building and along nearby streets.

At least two school districts around the state announced that they would close for the day, as word spread that teachers and other workers planned to protest in Lansing.

As Republicans in the state House moved uncommonly swiftly to pass the measures, union demonstrators outside — the sound of their drumbeats becoming progressively louder inside the chamber — chanted, “Kill the bill! Kill the bill!”

Once the first bill — related to public employees — was approved by a 58-51 vote, union supporters cried out from the gallery, “Recall! Recall! Recall!”

Republicans hold a 64-46 majority in the state House, and aside from a few dissenters, the vote was generally along party lines.

The second bill covering private-sector unions was passed by the House about an hour and a half later by a 58-52 vote.

Democrats around the nation, including President Barack Obama, have denounced the measures in recent days.

“You know, these so-called right-to-work laws, they don’t have to do with economics,” said Obama, during a visit to a truck factory outside Detroit on Monday. “They have everything to do with politics. What they’re really talking about is giving you the right to work for less money.”

Before the first House vote Tuesday, Democrats had sought to slow down the proceedings by employing whatever tactics they could dream up. One was to offer an array of amendments with the idea of destabilizing the bill by a thousand cuts. Among the suggestions: send the question to a public vote. Each amendment however, was quickly rejected.

“This is being forced down people’s throats,” said Rep. Jon Switalski, a Democrat. “It’s being done so in a very poor way — in lame duck with no committee meetings.”

Then, Democrats, one by one, recalled their family histories in labor unions and reminisced about what unions once meant to the country. But primarily, they spoke about their objections to the speed at which the bills had made their way through the House and about the methods used by their Republican colleagues to win approval for the measures.

Rep. Joan Bauer, a Democrat, said she was saddened and sickened by what was happening.

“I cannot believe this legislation was rammed through in one day,” Bauer said.

But Rep. Rick Olson, a Republican, said the legislation was a matter of worker choice, not of harming unions. Olson described the move as “tough love” for unions.

Outside the Capitol, the protests continued even after the voting was finished.

“This has been a union state for a long time,” said Jim Scarlett, 62, from Ann Arbor, who retired as a union telephone worker last month. “I think with this legislation the standard of living is going to drop, wages will drop, and health care may go away for workers.”

Information for this article was contributed by Chris Christoff and Esmi E. Deprez of Bloomberg News; and by Monica Davey, Mary M. Chapman and Steven Yaccino of The New York Times.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/12/2012

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