Jimmy Hoffa Vows To Fight Right-To-Work-For-Less In Michigan

[General of Darkness]

I thought this was going to be a joke. Apparently I'm wrong.




Jimmy Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, said Tuesday he expects Michigan unions and lawmakers to break out into "civil war" after the state legislature passed right-to-work bills that would weaken unions' power.

"This is just the first round of a battle that's going to divide this state. We're going to have a civil war," Hoffa said on CNN's "Newsroom."

The Republican-controlled state House passed two bills that had already been approved by the GOP-dominated state Senate. Gov. Rick Snyder, also a Republican, is poised to sign the bill, which would allow workers at union-represented employers to forgo paying dues.

As thousands of protestors gathered at the state capitol on Tuesday, Hoffa called the legislation a "tremendous mistake" and "a monumental decision to make" by outgoing lawmakers in a lame duck session.

"What they're doing is basically betraying democracy," he told CNN's Brooke Baldwin. "If there's any question here, let's put it on the ballot and let the people of Michigan decide what's good for Michigan."

Proponents of the legislation say it gives workers more freedom, while opponents say a less robust union presence will negatively affect workers’ rights. Hoffa also argued that those who don't pay union dues will be considered "free riders,” as they’re getting the same benefits from union representation without the cost.

Hoffa pointed to Michigan's recovering auto industry, saying the Wolverine State has bounced back from the recession without being a "right to work" state.

"This is basically a step backward," he argued.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2trIypROnSw

[woodman]

I really don't know much about this legislation or the ramifications of it. I do know that the unions have become a negative force in the economic life of this nation. When they started out, they had a well defined purpose and were necessary. People died in battles to implement unions in Michigan. Many people died fighting corporate goon cops. The unions morphed into something else over time. The workers lost their work ethic that came with them from frontier times and from the old country.

I could tell you story after story of working union jobs in Michigan. One particular that stands out in my mind is when as a young man I was working in an automotive warehouse in Detroit. I was working hard, picking parts orders and putting them in my cart and another worker looks at me menacingly through a shelf from the other side and says, "Hey, quit working so hard. You're making me look bad!" Well hell, I wasn't making him look bad. I was just doing my job and being productive. He didn't want to be productive and I certainly wasn't going to tell him to be more productive but he felt entitled to tell me to be less productive.

When an organization becomes a negative force toward the ends of it's own existence, then it is time to push it aside because it will soon commit suicide anyway. The unions in Michigan have commited suicide. May they rest in peace.

[chad]

my good friend worked at 3m in minneapolis as a temp guy in college one summer. he had his car windows smashed out after work with a note left that said "slow down down college boy, or next time it will be worse."

he quit and went back to landscaping.

[palani]

Non-union guy at an otherwise union shop got his arm caught in a slitter. Union had a debate afterward about whether they should have helped get him out. Management took it seriously enough to cover the area with cameras.

Mob mentality.

One UAW line crosser (during a strike) was confronted by a fellow he knew that was not crossing. He was told "you are taking the food out of my children's mouths". He told the fellow there was no need for kids to go hungry just send them over to his house.

[messianicdruid]

I was an air traffic controller in the army. My friend and I took the test just before we got out and he got hired right away and went to Indianapolis Center. I worked in the Dayton Plant in Okla. City, oil field manufacturing and worked in the oil filed fracturing and logging wells. When the strike happened, I called him up and asked what was going on and should I try to get hired {I was very motivated}. He says, sure we need more help! Anyway, I finally got on in Minneapolis Center, walking past picket lines, and being followed home at night. He ended up being a male nurse in Duluth.

At first there wasn't much union talk, but eventually, after enough managment screw-ups and people remembering "the good old days" NATCA got going and the herd mentality started up again. I decided not to argue with any of them. I seemed to be always caught in the middle since the people getting promoted were, too often, the most vocal union slobs.

After five years, I bid on an Academy job, and milked that for as long as I could, building seniority so I would not have to work so many mid shifts. The hardest part of the job, for me, was working those crazy shifts {2-2-1} and missing out on your children's lives. When I got back to the field the first thing they asked me was my EOD {seniority date}. NATCA was in full swing by then, and I was branded a "free rider" because I wouldn't join their club. NATCA thought it owned all air traffic control positions and if you weren't one of them you were scum and a thief.

When they had a vote at the St.Louis convention to take away all seniority except while you were actually talking to airplanes, I lost 7.5 years seniority, and a lot of other pro-NATCA people lost a bunch too. I went from #1 in my area, to fourteen {out of 53}. After this the "recruiter" quit coming around.

Our "productivity" wasn't an issue, the traffic was coming and we had to make it work. Getting too many people who weren't well qualified was an issue, and still is.

Right to work situations make the union more responsible to the members, but even here they will shit on some to satisfy the wants others. Democracy at it's best. {?}

Maybe there was, or is, a use for unions in some places or times, but when you swear to NOT go on strike because you are in a government safety position, what's the point?

[woodman]

I investigated this legislation and it seems it will give union members the option to not pay dues and thereby loose their right to union representation. If they feel the company will give them a fair shake and do right by them, then why should they need union representation. So basically the unions and many members are pissed because they feel they are being taken out of the equation for those that wish to do so. Well it seems that the unions are taking a good share of member dues and giving PAC money to the democratic party (communist party) to reelect Obama, etc. Many of these hard working people have voted republican and feel they are being forced to promote that which is antithetical to their own interests and desires.