Reason Writers Around Town: Shikha Dalmia on Big Labor's Next Big Battle After Wisconsin
The battle over Governor Scott Walker's recall in Wisconsin has not yet ended, but Big Labor is already picking another – arguably even bigger – fight in Michigan, reports Michigan resident and Reason Foundation Senior Analyst Shikha Dalmia in her column at The Daily today. Big Labor is gathering signatures for a November ballot initiative that it calls "Protect Our Jobs" (instead of by its true name "Protect Our Jobs and Screw Michigan Taxpayers") that would not only undo the modest health and pension contributions Michigan Governor Rick Snyder asked public employees to make in order to balance the state's gaping fiscal hole. It would also amend the constitution to make public sector benefits offlimits to elected officials and permanently bar Michigan from becoming a Right to Work state. Moreover, notes Dalmia, the consequences of this initiative won't be limited to Michigan:
The Protect Our Jobs initiative is their field test. If successful, it could become their blueprint to pre-emptively ban or scrap Right to Work laws in the 22 other states that allow legislative action through referendums and ballot initiatives. And it will allow them to constitutionally lock in their public-sector bargaining privileges and protect their membership numbers.
In short, Big Labor is upping the ante in Michigan and going for broke.
Read the whole thing here.
