State Rep. Barnett Speaks Out on Right To Work Bills
The Farmington-Farmington Hills lawmaker's floor speech before yesterday's vote is broadcast on YouTube.
Videos
Interrupted several times by applause, State Rep. Vicki Barnett (D-37th District) gave an impassioned plea yesterday for her colleagues to vote "no" on right-to-work legislation that eventually passed through the House and likely will become state law.
In the speech, which was broadcast and shared on YouTube.com, Barnett said unions are not imposed on businesses and, under the National Labor Relations Act, no one is required to be a union member. She said workers go through a process that includes an election to form a union.
"It's called democracy," she said.
Barnett represents both Farmington and Farmington Hills.
In making the announcement Thursday that he would support right-to-work legislation, Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, said, "I think workplace fairness and equity is a better way to describe it, because it's about being pro-worker and giving workers the freedom to choose who they associate with."
He said the legislation will give Michigan a competitive advantage, and said Indiana, a right-to-work state, has "significantly increased" the number of businesses looking to locate there, due to the new law.
Bryce
12:24 pm on Friday, December 7, 2012
Odd. I was under the impression that Representative Barnett supported a persons right to choose. She is on record as being "Pro-Choice". I guess her support of someone having the right to choice depends on the circumstances.
art
1:42 pm on Friday, December 7, 2012
Bryce: Amazing, Rep. Barnetts sudden change of heart. People having the right to work place fairness apparently does not matter to Rep. Barnett, afterall, much of her campaign cash comes from-------Unions?
Micah
7:56 pm on Saturday, December 8, 2012
Unions are nothing more than an extension of the Democratic Party--why should people be forced to contribute to Pelosi at their daily jobs? Ridiculous.
Jim Sparks
8:31 pm on Saturday, December 8, 2012
Those who bash unions likely benefit from their fight for worker's rights over the years. Remember the 8-hour work day? Actual weekends AND holidays to spend with your family if you choose? Non-sweat shop wages? Safe workplaces? On and on. These right-wing whiners should all be forced to work for $5 a day, without breaks, and no vacations whatsoever. Where is the ideal workplace for you people - Indonesia?
Funny how Snyder and the Republicans tout right-to-work as being "pro-worker" and offers "freedom of choice".... but not, apparently, to police officers and firefighters. If this is such a good deal, why deny the men and women of these professions the "benefits"? Once again, they're talking out both sides of their mouths, saying anything to mollify the peasants, regardless of it's truth.
Right-to-work states have some of the lowest wages in the country, and are high on the list of recipients of government help. This does no favor to Michigan and it's historically hard-working citizens - it's plainly a sop to those who will stop at nothing to stuff more money in their pockets after taking it from the very people who helped make them rich. Disgusting.
FHVoice
2:29 am on Sunday, December 9, 2012
Right to work for less has been the objective of the Devos family for decades. Of the top 10 states in per capita income in 2011, seven were not right-to work states. Of the bottom 10 states with the lowest per capital income, seven were right to work states.
Dale Belman, a professor at Michigan State University’s School of Human Resources and Labor Relations: “There is a lot of evidence that wages and benefits are lower in right-to-work states. There’s a redistribution of wages and benefits toward owners’ capital ... For existing employers it doesn’t provide a benefit and may be a detriment ... because of worsening labor relations in right-to-work states."
Note that "redistribution of wages and benefits toward owners’ capital", which is how the growing chasm between upper and middle incomes gets that way.
art
12:51 pm on Sunday, December 9, 2012
FHVoice: Thanks for your points about wealth distribution. As we have seen many times, the present administration in DC is a believer in wealth distribution and has welcomed on MANY occasions those union bosses who seek to "grab some of that wealth " for themselves. RTW keeps this from happening and more fairly allows all workers to benefit from it useage. As Homer pointed out, its time to stop using the 20's and 30's labor problems as if they were happening today.
If you read most reports, the labor relations in most RTW are as good as ever. Most foreign care companies have better working atmosphere than the "old michigan' type labor relations ever had.
Its time for Michigan to move foreward as opposed to people like you who want to keep the people down, backwards and thinking the same way.
FHVoice
1:55 pm on Sunday, December 9, 2012
art, spare us your in-artful platitudes and provide some facts behind your rantings. Labor problems resolved and gone by 1940? Really? Clearly your grasp of history is elusive.
Here is some info to chew upon:
American CEOs saw their pay spike 15% in 2011 after a 28% pay rise in 2010. Meanwhile, workers saw their inflation-adjusted wages FALL 2% in 2011.
That's in line with a trend that dates back 30 years. CEO pay spiked 725% between 1978 and 2011, while worker pay rose just 5.7%.
Ergo, CEO pay grew 127 times faster than worker pay.
Income inequality between CEOs and workers has consequently exploded, with CEOs last year earning 209.4 times more than workers, compared to just 26.5 times more in 1978 -- meaning CEOs are taking home a larger percentage of company gains.
That comes despite workers nearly doubling their productivity during the same time period, when compensation barely rose. Worker productivity spiked 93% between 1978 and 2011 on a per-hour basis, and 85% on a per-person basis, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Meanwhile, workers saw their inflation-adjusted wages fall in recent years as corporations postponed giving raises while adding to their record corporate profits.
In fact, the US has family income distribution ranks 43rd out of 134 four countries.That's Snyder/Romney type of American exceptionalism. Our growing income chasm threatens this country's future.
Sources: http://goo.gl/wnFvs & http://goo.gl/G9dFq
Bryce
3:37 pm on Sunday, December 9, 2012
FH Voice:
I fail to see why the CEO vs. worker pay is relevant except to promote class envy. It's a supply and demand issue. There are less folks capable of being a CEO than a normal worker. Diamonds are worth much more than coal, A pitcher able to win 20 games a year will make more than the bat boy.
Here is something for you to chew on...
From 2001 to 2011, inflation-adjusted private-sector compensation increased by 12.0% in Right to Work states. That’s double the national average and quadruple the forced-unionism state average. See link from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis.
http://bea.gov/iTable/iTable.cfm?ReqID=70&step=1&isuri=1&acrdn=4#:
FHVoice
10:42 pm on Sunday, December 9, 2012
Bryce, the CEO vs. worker pay is relevant to demonstrate that management hasn't been hamstrung by union agreements, and as union membership has declined, management has kept all the productivity profit gains for themselves. As Warren Buffet declared, “The interesting thing is that the tax code, I wouldn’t call it a war, but it is a struggle. Groups try to keep their own taxes down. People lobby to keep their estate taxes down. They lobby to keep their capital gains taxes down. So, if this is a war – I wouldn’t call it a war, I’d call it a struggle – but, if this is a war, my side has had the nuclear bomb. We’ve got K-Street, we’ve got lobbyists, we’ve got money on our side in terms of lobbyists. Deb does not have a lobbyist. She doesn’t have anybody remotely that’s representing her. But, believe me, plenty of rich families have lobbyists that are working like crazy to get rid of estate taxes, lower capital gain taxes, whatever it may be. So, if there has been a war going on, the war has been waged by the people who are very well to do who are trying to shift the burden onto people like that and away from themselves.”
Consider that point: "the war has been waged by the people who are very well to do who are trying to shift the burden onto people like that and away from themselves". That describes the DeVos / Koch / Snyder alliance attacking unions, just as it describes the GOP's support of the 2%.
Pointing that out isn't envy. It's just fact.