Let's REALLY Look At "Right To Work!"

On the surface, I agree with Michigan's new 'right-to-work" law, which forbids members of unions from having to pay mandatory union dues.  Yes, I don't agree that workers should be made to pay mandatory union dues as condition of their membership, but I don't believe that legislative action should be used to mandate such.
As with anything new law, the motivation was partly political.  Yes, it makes sense--especially in the automobile capital of America--to have a policy meant to stem the building of new automobile plants in mostly Southern "right-to-work" states.  Such a law incentivizes building new plants in Michigan, a state hit particularly hard by the recent economic downturn. But the law also has the added effect of siphoning off potential money which unions use in support pro-union candidates for public office...who are typically not Republicans.  Additionally, a provision in the new law which prohibits it from being overturned by popular referendum--a legal option in Michigan for undoing unpopular or initiating desired laws--smacks of imperialism; a we know what's best for you! law.  Big surprise.
If this new law was really meant to be "pro-worker," as Republican Governor Rick Snyder asserts, then maybe he and the Republican-led Michigan legislature wouldn't mind considering eliminating the the "at-will employment" doctrine among state employers.  In short, the law operates on the following basis:

"any hiring is presumed to be "at will"; that is, the employer is free to discharge individuals "for good cause, or bad cause, or no cause at all," and the employee is equally free to quit, strike, or otherwise cease work" (At-Will Employment).

At the risk of incurring some criticism and "fact-checking" by hair-splitting types, my own (admittedly anecdotal) experience with at-will employment is that it allow employers to terminate employee for any reason which isn't explicitly prohibited by established laws (federal and/or state).  However, this does not include having a thread out of place, or giving a an opinion.  In many states, the attempt to unionize can also be grounds for termination.  I have personally witnessed more than my fair share if individuals having their employment terminated for the most relatively benign of reasons...and the fact that many of the employers were quick to tout "we're an 'at-will employer'" as a justification for their decisions tells me all I need to know about the doctrine. 
If those against the enforcement of paying union dues were really out to protect the "right to work," then they would balance the scales of the asynchronistic power relationship between employers and employees in America by eliminating this antiquated, outdated, and inherently unfair practice by employers.

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Oil & Water CAN Mix

In Buddhist philosophy, the central tenet is that nothing last forever. But in market philosophy, it seems that that particular lesson has to be forever learned the hard way, As Michigan has learned in the past couple of years. Long staking its economy on the single industry of automobiles, the state has learned that even America’s love affair with its automobiles is not an eternal thing. As a result of the current recession and unforeseen rise in world oil futures in the past couple years, Michigan has been hemorrhaging jobs, a stable tax base, people, and hope; its once proud world-leading automobile giants are only a step or two from declaring bankruptcy.
Partially as a result of its failing economy, its governor, Jennifer Granholm, has made the growing trend of renewable energy the foundation of her initiative to create a new industry base in the state. To this end, earlier this week T. Boone Pickens, the Texas oil baron who has become the unlikely but welcomed spokesman for the push to make the country independent of its attachment to foreign oil, joined the governor on the state’s premiere resort, Mackinaw Island to pitch the benefits to the nation as a whole of diversifying the state’s economy in this particular direction.
In his pitch to gathering of industry and government officials, Pickens noted that, “Michigan is a big state and you have a lot of resources here. I would think people would see it as an opportunity.” The energy tycoon acknowledged that the state has an already-established manufacturing base (i.e., an infrastructure capable of supporting mass industrial complex), a willing work-force hungry for employment, and the government’s desire to provide tax credits and other financial incentives to any investor that is willing to start the ball rolling towards this goal…in addition to natural resources such as “abundant wind and water.”

Texas Energy Baron & Billionaire Pushes American Independence from Foreign Oil


At the risk of sounding partisan, Pickens is a pragmatic political conservative that Americans need more of…one who has the will to do what’s necessary rather than what’s feasible for the market. Most of his ilk (as well as a few more toward the moderate left) seem hell-bent on keeping the country technologically stagnant by their insistence that the only way to meet the growing demand for oil is to invest in drilling for more of it domestically. This politically-entrenched mindset will do nothing more than keep America (and by extension, the world) from exploring and moving toward the next level of technological advancement, the push toward finding environmentally safer and cheaper renewable fuels.
One can only hope that the other policy- and opinion-makers in both Washington and Lansing (the state capital for those of you who are Jeopardy-impaired) take Granholm and Pickens' example to heart and be willing to put down their partisanship “thinking” caps and do what’s best on this particular issue.

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