Right To Work: Outrage in Michigan
By Rod Kackley
Chapter One: Shock and Awe
Two dozen Michigan State Police squad cars filled with troopers in riot gear screeched to a stop in front of the state Capitol, one day in late November. They were ready to block what they were told would be hundreds of marauding, soon-to-riot teachers and other public sector employees who seemed ready to storm the Palace of Republicanism—the GOP-controlled Governor’s Office and both houses of the Legislature, in Lansing Michigan.
Troopers braced themselves like helmeted, baton carrying, Tasers at the ready, hockey referees who would be blocking the biggest fight on the ice they had ever seen.
After years of gently simmering on the political stove in Michigan, with spices and seasonings tossed in occasionally from the right and the left, one cook turning down the heat after the other moved the knob higher for a moment, the stew that is Right to Work legislation had come to full boil in Michigan.
What this really came down to is the state of Michigan divided by an us versus them, management versus labor mentality. This is what had been simmering for years, put on the back burner by union and corporate officials during the decade from Hell that was the 1990s in Michigan. This is what boiled over in December.
This was also Michigan’s history. It is one of labor strife from the shores of Lake Michigan on the West to Lake St. Clair on the East . As 2012 entered its final month, the labor battle was on.
The first days of December were filled with smell of pepper spray, the din of acrimonious shouts and the pain of fists landing on faces as the two sides of the right-to-work (or Freedom To Work as supporters dubbed it) turned vocal and then physical.
One anti-right-to-work protestor hauled back and threw a roundhouse left into the face of a Fox News employee. There has never been any love lost between those two sides of the political spectrum. The Fox employee took the punch well. He even offered to drop an assault charge if the guy with the hard left would agree to meet him in the cage for an MMA-style battle “like a real man,” to raise money for charity.
Emotions were raging at such a roiling, boiling, state of Wisconsin-like vitriolic level because chefs on both sides had turned the heat up as high as it would go. The GOP, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, Big Labor and Democrats are pointing fingers at each other, looking each other in the eye saying, “He started it.” Guess what? They were all correct.
Democrats and Big Labor put two ballot propositions before voters in November. They were both very pro-union. They were also proposals that Republicans and Michigan Chamber of Commerce President Rich Studley said labor union leaders and Democrats had promised to keep off the ballot.
The promise was broken. The gloves came off.
Right To Work: Outrage in Michigan is available for immediate download by clicking here.
Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community tells the story of how the people of Grand Rapids, Michigan changed the way the world sees their community and the way they see the world. If they can do it, your community can do it too.
Autographed editions are available by click Add To Cart on www.rodkackley.com, as well as on the shelves of Barnes & Noble-Woodland Mall, Schuler Books & Music-28th Street and West Coast Coffee-Monroe Center, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an American Community is also available wherever books are sold online including Abbott Press.
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