When the Michigan legislature began its new session last week union activists welcomed the lawmakers back to the capital in a “walk of shame” rally intended to remind them that their brazen anti-worker agenda during the lame duck session which yielded “Right-to-Work” would not be met with pacifism.
Michigan lawmakers are hot on the trail of support for their newfound policies and have referenced nearby Indiana time and again as a success story for “Right-to-Work.” But in the case of Sheet Metal Workers Local 20, the success has come in the form of renewed solidarity with little impact on actually working conditions and union membership thus far. Via a Pew piece on the mixed results in Indiana:
Sheet Metal Workers Local 20 haven’t found their “new normal” to be as bad as they’d worried it might be. So far it actually looks a lot like their old normal, with increased solidarity for future legislative battles. “The experience brought us closer together,” says Brad Chamness, the union’s business manager. “We haven’t had a single person leave. We didn’t expect an overwhelming wave, but you’re always fearful that one leads to two, and then two leads to ten.”
Part of the scaremongering involved with “Right-to-Work” is the constant suggestion that “job creators” will flee non-RTW for more business-friendly RTW states where labor costs can be deflated and worker protections can be nuttered.
The plague may cross the border just to the North of Michigan where Ontario may be the next target. Anti-union politicians in the province are now pushing for their own version of “Right-to-Work” which they allege will allow them to…drum roll please…stay competitive. Caterpillar’s Electro-Motive Diesel plant moved to Indiana from Ontario last year after “Right-to-Work’s” passage and last month GM announced it would be moving jobs from Oshawa to Michigan.
But the Pew piece cited above suggests measuring the success of “Right-to-Work” is an imperfect science because it is hard to determine if companies are coming to a state for the reason politicians claim or because of tax incentives that have nothing to do with “Right-to-Work” whatsoever. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) did a study which concluded that despite “Right-to-Work” Indiana still loses jobs to non- “Right-to-Work” states:
The extent to which RTW is discounted in business location decisions is apparent in the significant number of Indiana firms that—since the passage of RTW—continue to choose to invest in other, non-RTW states. A short sample of such decisions includes:
• Manitowic plans to close its Indiana facility and move the jobs to Cleveland, Ohio.
• Diamond Foods plans to close its Indiana facility and move the jobs to California.
• Whirlpool plans to move the jobs remaining in its Evansville, Indiana, facility to Benton Harbor, Michigan.
• Gunite (Accuride) closed its Indiana facility and moved the jobs to Illinois.
For union workers in a renewed sense of solidarity will be key to creating a “new normal” in which a fair wage is protected. For workers in Indiana the passage of “Right-to-Work” brought about a more attentive union, one that wanted to remind its members of the benefits that come along with paying dues:
In anticipation of contract negotiations, some unions are taking extra steps to demonstrate their value to members. The Sheet Metal Workers began using dues to offer a health savings program. Robert Ludolph, an employment attorney at Pepper Hamilton in Detroit, says Indiana unions have become more aggressive in pursuing grievances in order to prove that union membership is desirable.
“There has been a lot more contentiousness in terms of grievances and the like,” says Ludolph, who represents corporate clients in labor disputes in both Indiana and Michigan.
“You’re going to see that because unions have to show what kind of value they are providing to members who pay dues if they’re not required to do so.”
