Right to Work Latest Move in Walker Transformation of Wisconsin

From The Journal Sentinel
By Jason Stein

Hundreds of union members rally outside the Capitol in Madison on Tuesday to oppose a Republican-led measure that would make Wisconsin a right-to-work state.

Reuters/Landov

Madison — With their embrace of right-to-work legislation, Republicans are advancing their four-year transformation of Wisconsin, weaving conservative policies and politics into the fabric of a state where the Progressive era has yielded to the age of Scott Walker.

This Republican revolution arguably represents the greatest reordering of Wisconsin's politics in a century, encompassing everything from allowing the concealed carry of handguns, putting new rules on abortion providers and rolling over once powerful union foes.

Gallup: 71% of Americans Support 'Right to Work' Laws

PRINCETON, NJ -- A slim majority of Americans, 53%, approve of labor unions, although approval remains on the low end of Gallup's nearly 80-year trend on this question. Approval has been as high as 75% in the 1950s. Currently, 38% disapprove of unions.

At the same time Americans express greater approval than disapproval of unions, they widely support right-to-work laws. Those laws allow workers to hold jobs in unionized workplaces without joining a union. Currently, 10% of Americans identify as union members according to Gallup's Aug. 7-10 poll.

In an update of a question asked in 1957, 71% of Americans said they would "vote for" a right-to-work law if they had the opportunity to do so, while 22% said they would vote against such a law. That is a slightly higher level of support than Gallup measured nearly 60 years ago.

Independence Day Weekend: Michigan Coalition Seeks Freedom to Work

Terry Bowman, Ypsilanti, a United Auto Workers Local 898 member, was among union members and others who announced formation of the Michigan Freedom to Work coalition during a noon news conference at the state Capitol in Lansing. Coalition members also held news conferences in Escanaba, Traverse City, Grand Rapids, Detroit, and Flint, during which they unveiled the group’s new website – MIFreedomtoWork.com -- constructed by coalition volunteers.

“As we prepare to celebrate our country’s freedom, we’re announcing a new coalition of Americans fighting for freedom here in Michigan, the freedom to hold a job whether we belong or give money to a union or not,” Bowman said. “The Michigan Freedom to Work coalition believes all employees should be free to join and financially support a labor union. We believe employees should be equally free not to join or financially support a union, without fear of discrimination or penalty either way.”

Michigan GOP Majority Eyes ‘Right to Work’ Legislation

The battle for America is playing out dramatically in the nation's heartland.  This struggle between two classes of Americans -- hard working taxpayers described by Obama as "clinging to their guns and Bibles," and the Obamunists -- socialist, governmental elites who fancy themselves the ruling class, and believe they know what's best for the rest of us.  Using the Cloward-Piven Strategy and their handbook for revolution, Rules for Radicals, they are intent on bankrupting and destroying the old Republic so that they might impose a new Marxist order.

Wisconsin makes clear that Americans should get their children out of schools that exist for the benefit of leftist governmental unions.  They provide indoctrination; they most assuredly do not provide education.  Their own test scores testify in every state that they utterly fail to provide the education most parents want for their children.

We believe the outcome of the battle in Wisconsin and other states is crucial to the survival and success of liberty in America.  In this regard, we are not surprised that one of the greatest freedom fighters we have known, and a Sunlit Uplands Contributing Editor, Gary Glenn, is playing a leadership role on what may be a battlefield even more challenging than Wisconsin.

The Michigan Messenger reports:

"Gary Glenn, who runs the American Family Association of Michigan, scored his first legislative scores in Idaho pushing for Right to Work legislation there. Idaho approved Right to Work 25 years ago, and Glenn recently returned to celebrate that win. He says Right to Work is really about civil rights.

'State Right to Work laws are civil rights measures that protect employees against job discrimination on the basis of union affiliation by prohibiting collective bargaining agreements which require employees to join or pay dues to a labor union as a condition of continued employment, i.e., ‘pay up or you’re fired.’ The result is that each individual is free to choose for himself whether to join or financially support a union at his place of work, without fearing discrimination, retribution, or termination for whichever choice he makes,' Glenn said. 'Obviously, employees in Right to Work states are just as free to exercise their federally-guaranteed right to join or support a union if they wish as they are anywhere else.'

Many Michigan groups, like CALL and a coalition of Tea Party groups who are hosting a day long conference in Lansing later this year, are turning to Glenn for advice, guidance and support in driving Right to Work legislation to the forefront of Michigan’s agenda."

Gary Glenn Celebrates 25th Anniversary of One of His, and Freedom's, Great Triumphs

"I'm a true believer. The purpose was always individual freedom. It is no longer legal to be discriminated against or fired on the basis of support or nonsupport of a private organization."

Gary Glenn is the most brilliant political strategist we know, a champion of individual freedom, and a columnist for Sunlit Uplands. This week he is returning to the scene of one of his most important political victories for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the campaign to end compulsory unionism in Idaho.

The Idaho Statesman tells the extraordinary story:

Glenn returns to celebrate 25 years of Right to Work in Idaho

Dan Popkey: Glenn returns to celebrate 25 years of Right to Work in Idaho

One of the most polarizing figures in Idaho history is marking a triumph that changed the workplace and solidified the Republican hold on Idaho.

Gary Glenn, now 52, was the baby-faced but ruthless leader of the long campaign to make Idaho the 20th of 21 states to outlaw "union shops," where workers are obligated to pay dues as a condition of employment.

After the passage of Right to Work in 1985 over the veto of Democratic Gov. John Evans, voters affirmed the change 54 percent to 46 percent. The subsequent emasculation of a key component of the Democratic base has changed politics forever.

"It was a big victory for the Republican Party and a big defeat for the Democrats," said Roger Madsen, a former GOP state senator who leads the Idaho Department of Labor. Madsen will join his boss, Gov. Butch Otter, and others Thursday night at a banquet organized by Glenn at the DoubleTree Riverside in Garden City.

The political culture has changed so much that the current Democratic nominee for governor, Keith Allred, declines to take a stand on an issue that was once a Democratic litmus test.

"What a difference 25 years makes," Glenn said.

Jim Kerns, president of the Idaho AFL-CIO from 1981 to 1992 and a key player in a 1970 Treasure Valley grocery strike, said the anniversary dredges up bitter memories. "You can't have an effective strike today in Idaho and everybody knows it," he said.

Steve Ahrens, a former Statesman political editor who became a business lobbyist and favors Right to Work, said the landmark campaign was plenty bitter. "The tactics on both sides were equally despicable," Ahrens said. "They ranged from scurrilous to reprehensible."

Kerns, 71, would just as soon forget it and focus on his grandkids and celebrating his Boise State Broncos. But Glenn, also a big Bronco fan, loves reliving the fight.

He edited 30 hours of video to 27 minutes for the banquet. Highlights include Oscar winner Charlton Heston's pivotal TV spots and lawmakers like Boise Republican Kitty Gurnsey, saying she was voting "aye" so Right to Work backers would go away. Glenn, who moved to Idaho in 1978, engineered defeats of key GOP opponents in order to win near-unanimous Republican support.

The result is a more conservative Idaho GOP and a weaker Democratic Party, Glenn said: "A party that could not sustain itself in the free market of public debate is no longer subsidized by compulsory union dues."

After the 1986 campaign, Glenn went to work for the Idaho Cattle Association and famously was barred from the governor's office by Democrat Cecil Andrus. (Evans also ousted Glenn's video crew when he tried to film the 1985 veto.)

Glenn ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1992 against now-Sen. Mike Crapo.

He spent six years as an Ada County commissioner before being defeated and leaving to become president of the American Family Association of Michigan. He's now the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit to overturn the federal hate crimes law on grounds that it infringes on religious freedom.

"I'm held in the same regard among homosexual activists in Michigan as I was by AFL-CIO officials in Idaho," Glenn said.

Kerns takes some comfort in the fact Glenn left. Kerns still calls him a carpetbagger.

He says Right to Work has transformed Idaho into a company town. "Idaho's still a great place to live, but I don't think it's a great place to work," he said.

Union membership has tumbled nationwide since 1985, dropping from 18 percent to 12 percent of the work force.

In Idaho, the decline was steeper, from 12 percent in 1985 to 6 percent in 2009.

Kerns and Glenn disagree on the economic impacts. Kerns points to the relative decline in Idaho wages, from 84 percent of the national average in 1985 to 75 percent in 2008. Glenn cites two decades of job growth that easily exceeded all but a few states.

Researchers also differ. One study says that after you account for the fact the Right to Work states started off poorer, wages have risen faster than national rates. Another says Right to Work has brought a 6.5 percent "wage penalty."

Northwest Nazarene University economist Peter Crabb suggests Right to Work made employment more stable. Boise State economist Don Holley says lower wages may have made the housing bubble worse.

Glenn concedes there's almost religious fervor about the impact of Right to Work.

But economics weren't the most important aspect of the campaign, he said.

"I'm a true believer," he said.

"The purpose was always individual freedom. It is no longer legal to be discriminated against or fired on the basis of support or nonsupport of a private organization."

Right To Work Is More Than Economics

From Michigan Business Review
By Gary Glenn

I led the Idaho Right to Work effort for six years, culminating in the successful 1986 ballot campaign in which Idaho voters approved a Right to Work law, despite our being outspent 3 to 1 by union officials intent on defending the "pay up or you're fired" system of job discrimination against employees who choose not to join or pay dues to a labor union.

Right to Work is more than just an economic development issue, on which the proof is both overwhelming and conclusive. Idaho (1986) and Oklahoma (2001) roared into first place nationally in both job and income growth within two years of enacting Right to Work.

As the only Right to Work state in the Great Lakes, Michigan would become an economic powerhouse overnight as industry in the region rushed to relocate.

But even more so, it's an individual freedom and freedom of conscience issue, even a moral issue.

One example: Polls in 2004 showed that two-thirds of union households in Michigan voted in favor of the Marriage Protection Amendment, constitutionally protecting one man, one woman marriage. Yet national and state AFL-CIO officials formally opposed and spent their members' compulsory dues money campaigning against both the state and federal marriage amendments.

Thus, tens of thousands of Michiganians, who voted in favor of constitutionally protecting traditional marriage, are compelled as a condition of employment to financially support a private organization that lobbies and campaigns against their moral and religious convictions. That's just one of the many issues on which union officials campaign at odds with the views of individual employees compelled to finance those activities.

Should every person in Michigan be free to hold a job whether they belong to or support a private labor organization or not? Of course they should. Should it be illegal to discriminate against and fire an individual on the basis of membership or nonmembership in, or financial support or non-support of, a labor union or any other private organization, either way? Of course it should.

And if Right to Work should end up on some future election ballot, union officials will have a hard time convincing Michigan voters that Alabama or Texas or Florida or Arizona or Iowa or Tennessee or Nevada are poverty-stricken Third World-style economies.

If Right to Work (however) is presented primarily as a Big Business issue, the corporate boardroom's plan for economic recovery, the advantage will remain with union officials.

But if it is presented as a worker's (freedom) issue - with the helpful side-benefit that it will likely attract hundreds of thousands of new jobs to Michigan - then it may have a shot of surviving union officials' compulsory-dues-financed $50 million ballot campaign advertising gauntlet.

Outlawing job discrimination on the basis of union affiliation is philosophically, morally and politically justifiable, even if it had no effect on Michigan's economy. At the same time, no single change in public policy would more dramatically or immediately reverse Michigan's ongoing economic decline.

Gary Glenn is president of the American Family Association of Michigan. He lives in Midland.