Ky should follow in (the new & improved) Michigan's footsteps by supporting a right-to-work policy
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It's monumental that Michigan -- home to the powerful United Automobile Workers, which has helped fund the nationwide multi-billion dollar Big Labor political machine through dues payments forcibly stripped from paychecks of Michigan workers -- became the nation's 24th right-to-work state in late 2012. The state's right-to-work policy simply states that in Michigan, no worker can be forced to financially support a union as a condition of employment.
Considering what's happened to Michigan's economy since passage of that historic law, Kentucky policymakers should seriously consider making the commonwealth the 25th such state to implement right-to-work.
While Michigan previously was considered a state that offered great economic prosperity because of its huge industrial manufacturing sector -- Detroit in the 1960s was America's richest per-capita state, which positively impacted the entire state's economy -- the state's economy has faltered greatly in recent decades. While the rest of America was experiencing an economic boom in the early 2000’s, Michigan was in the midst of an economic downturn, losing over 840,000 jobs, ultimately culminating in the city of Detroit being forced to declare bankruptcy.
However, the Great Lakes State has made an impressive economic turnaround since passing its right-to-work law. It has:
• Risen to second in the nation in manufacturing job creation; it is second only to Indiana, which passed a right-to-work law in February 2012.
• It enjoys an unemployment rate lower than at any time in the past five years; the number of unemployed Michiganders has dropped by 30 percent since 2010.
• Surged to ninth in the nation in per capita income growth.
Not surprisingly, union bosses are not happy with the passage of the right-to-work legislation, as demonstrated by the $60 million being spent by the AFL-CIO to defeat legislators who support the right-to-work policy.
But wait a sec! What about all of that economic progress that individual labor freedom has spawned? Apparently, that doesn't matter to the labor-union bosses, who will let nothing -- even great economic progress - stand in the way of holding on to their power.
Lawmakers must understand that being a non-right-to-work state sandwiched among two states (Indiana and Tennessee) that have used to great advantage -- even against Kentucky -- their labor-freedom laws as the spark that has fired their economic roar makes it imperative that the Bluegrass State follow in (the new and improved) Michigan's footsteps.
Elaina Waters, BIPPS intern