Showdown in Michigan: Labor Fights Back Against Anti-Worker Laws

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/12/10-1


Nurses protested at the Michigan Capitol Monday: 'This legislation will only gifve corporations more power to silence workers.' (Photo: Greg Deruiter / Lansing State Journal)

As the city of Lansing, Mich. braces for thousands of workers and union supporters to descend on the capital in protest of the controversial right-to-work legislation, President Obama and congressional Democrats and met with Governor Rick Snyder urging him to "step back from the brink."

After meeting with the Governor, President Obama made a speech at the Daimler Diesel Plant in Redford, Mich. during which he railed against right-to-work laws saying they "give you the right to work for less money."

"What we shouldn’t be doing is try to take away your rights to bargain for better wages or working conditions," he said Monday, arguing for the need for high-skilled, well-payed workers. "We don't want a race to the bottom. We want a race to the top."

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In Lansing, large numbers of state police swarmed the Capitol building Monday as members of the Michigan Nurses Association kicked off the protest demonstrating on the building's steps with duct tape over their mouths.