'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Police used chemical spray Thursday to subdue protesters trying to rush the Michigan Senate chamber after Gov. Rick Snyder and other Republican leaders announced they would press for quick approval of right-to-work legislation limiting union powers.
After weeks of speculation, Michigan's GOP-controlled Legislature and Republican Gov. Rick Snyder on Thursday pushed ahead with a bill to make this historic labor stronghold a right-to-work state, sparking a clash in the state Capitol and setting up what could be an epic fight watched by union and management supporters nationwide.
Having just helped torpedo a labor-backed move that would have enshrined collective-bargaining rights in the state's constitution, emboldened Republican lawmakers are considering a move to make this historic bastion of union power into the nation's 24th right-to-work state.
Indiana became the first Rust Belt state to enact the contentious right-to-work labor law prohibiting labor contracts that require workers to pay union representation fees, when Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels signed the bill Wednesday afternoon.
Supporters of a proposed new bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, scrambled Thursday to revive the plan after losing a key vote in a Michigan Senate committee.
Michigan's Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, who is up for re-election in 2014, has called right-to-work "too divisive" and Michigan's Republican Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville said last week he doubted right-to-work would bring the economic benefits promised by supporters.
