Needless to say, with the powerful influence the unions have in Michigan (powerful enough to get a State Representative recalled in November 2011), I'm shocked that this finally occurred. Then again, with neighboring Indiana doing the same several months ago, it was about time it came up for consideration in Michigan. This also comes at the heels of Michigan voters defeating a "collective bargaining" constitutional amendment proposal last month, which would've prevented Right-To-Work had it passed.
Of course, the Democrats and Big Labor aren't going to put up without a fight:
Top Michigan Democrats, led by state Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer (a rumored gubernatorial candidate for 2014) urged President Obama to threaten to cut off federal highway funds should Right-to-Work be signed. Also, the Michigan State House Democratic Caucus posted the following tweet:
Michigan House Democrats' Twitter account said:
"We are going to undo 100 years of labor relations. And there will be blood. We will relive the Battle of the Overpass." -(Rep. Douglas Geiss) #SaveMI
The ACLU Michigan branch also blasted this bill as "Right to Discriminate".
Despite this major accomplishment of an agenda that had been going for many years, being rekindled around 2006-07, there will surely be a fight to overturn it. There was a petition drive back in 2008 that would've made Michigan Right-To-Work, but it didn't go through, thanks to an
advertising campaign against it featuring former Detroit TV news anchorman Bill Bonds (best known for his tenure at WXYZ-TV, and having been a pitchman for several Detroit-area businesses, including Gardner-White Furniture, and most recently The Law Offices of Sam Bernstein, yet also chided for his alcoholism and numerous drunk driving arrests.)
I'm fully expecting some activist "judge", probably at the federal level, to overturn Michigan's new Right-to-Work law. I'm also expecting recall efforts against Gov. Snyder (again), as well as all the legislators that voted for this new law.