Michigan Right To Work prompts protest against freedom

Michigan is not Wisconsin.

Right to Work legislation in Michigan doesn’t touch collective bargaining for private or public unions.  Right to work legislation in Michigan doesn’t include firemen or police in any legislative bill.  Right to work legislation in Michigan only makes it a personal decision by an employee to join or not join a union, and makes it unlawful for an employer to fire an employee for not joining or joining a union.

That’s it.

So of course, the slack-jawed pea-brained Michigan opinion dupes in the media over-act the entire issue.  All of a sudden, the middle class will cease to exist if somebody has the choice to negotiate his own deal.  All of a sudden, Michiganders didn’t send a majority of Republicans to handle Lansing.  All of a sudden, thousands of protesters practice modified Christmas songs to sing in front of the capitol because somehow allowing more freedom is the death knell for America.

Even some union-beholden intelligence-deficient Republicans vote against individual rights when push comes to shove.  Mike Nofs, the Republican Senator who pushed for unionization of home-healthcare workers after taking money along with several workers from SEIU for his reelection campaign, said he didn’t vote for Right to Work legislation because,

“I think that in general, working-class workers will not benefit from this,” Nofs said.

He said he thinks workers already have the freedom to decide whether they want to take a job that’s unionized or not.

“When you go to apply for a job, you know it’s a union job,” he said.

“If you don’t like unions, don’t apply for a union job. There are plenty of other non-union jobs.”

Senator Tom Casperson has also said he is against the Right to Work, and though I haven’t talked with him on this issue, has mentioned to others that he believes unions create higher wages and that Right To Work would lessen those wages. Somehow. I guess.

But these fellows are wrong, just as is the predictable media and the fanatical demonstrators that will be bussed in on Tuesday.  The protesters are undergoing vigorous training, preparing for clashes with police.

The unions are preparing for war because, quite simply, it is not right for people to be able to take on their own responsibility.

From the Detroit News: “Humanize the situation. Be clear with your intentions. Introduce yourself,” national labor activist Lisa Fithian, of Austin, Texas, said through a megaphone. “They’re going to do everything they can to criminalize us.”

I’ll humanize the situation.  When a man or woman works for someone else he or she can take what is handed out, or he or she can negotiate for his or her own future.  Yes, wages are high because of unions,  but they also increase the prices of goods which hurts middle America.  The unskilled laborer hits a windfall when he makes comparable money and benefits as a highly-skilled specialized laborer.

If equality is what is sought, tell me of the equality between someone who never took the initiative to learn a craft and one who can build something and make it work.  People are different, and in companies all across the nation people with special skills negotiate for their own pay.  This legislation is about the right to be responsible for yourself.

Of course the argumentative union representatives complain that it would be unfair for people who refuse to join a union to be able to ‘freeload’ from the collective bargaining efforts of the union.  Actually, they are more afraid that when a skilled laborer makes a better deal based on skills that he owns as much as he owns his body, that it will be the end of union power over man.

If men and women are allowed to create their own deal and depend on their own ability to succeed or fail, they won’t be “freeloading”. In fact it will cause people to learn skills, an acute need in America.

The only freeloading taking place is that of unions who launder dues into Democrat coffers at election time.  If you are of the mind that you do not agree with the Democrat party and you do not wish to feed it, and you belong to a union, you can get out.

So as this whole issue gets overblown with civil disobedience courses being taught in universities and pastors railing at the pulpit against the so-called extreme nature of Right To Work, just remember, freedom isn’t free and slavery comes in many forms.

On Tuesday many people will object to freedom by protesting.  In the near future, the unions will try to organize recall efforts for some or all of the Republicans who voted in favor of RTW, including the governor.  We will be fed the impression that Republicans are anti-American Nazis and who knows what other drivel they will conjure.

If in America you are not allowed to be your own person, responsible and willing to be accountable to yourself and yourself alone, then there is no freedom anywhere.

A great American author, Eric Hoffer, wrote of mass movements and described the condition of those who do push for solidarity in the collective versus the freedom of man:

Freedom of choice places the whole blame of failure on the shoulders of the individual.  And as freedom encourages a multiplicity of attempts, it unavoidably multiplies failure and frustration…Unless a man has the talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden.  Of what avail is freedom to choose if the self be ineffectual?

It is hard work when one decides to be completely responsible but there are empowering side effects that create a confident, vibrant economy and society.  By arguing and protesting against individual empowerment, those against Freedom to Work put themselves in direct conflict with the fabric of America.

Power to the people, individually.


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