Scrub-a-dub-dub…
Graphic by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog
Last January, I wrote first about the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) crowing about screwing workers with Right to Work. In fact, they corrupted our beloved “Pure Michigan” brand to do so.
Shortly after that, I broke the story of how they scrubbed their Right to Work bragging from the state website. At the time, they had a Right to Work webpage that wasn’t linked by any other state government website.
I grabbed a screenshot of it in case it got deleted and, in fact, it now HAS been deleted. The URL www.michiganadvantage.org/right-to-work now redirects to the Why Michigan? page.
But that’s not the only scrubbing they’ve been up to. At one time, they had a flyer targeted at prospective businesses, telling them all of the great things about Michigan that should encourage them to set up their business here. It looked like this:
Click for a larger image (pdf)
Here’s the very bottom part large:
Michigan businesses will realize greater efficiency and higher potential profits while partnering with a world-class workforce that will be free to decide whether union membership is right for them.
I’ve been watching that flyer and sometime not too long ago, the bit claiming businesses will “realize greater efficiency and higher potential profits” because of the screwing over of workers with Right to Work was removed. Here’s the current flyer:
Click for larger version (pdf)
Here’s a larger version of that bottom section:
Now, it simply says:
A world-class workforce free to decide whether union membership is right for them.
It’s clear why they have done this. There is no evidence to support the claim that businesses in Right to Work states are more profitable or successful than those with strong labor unions. In fact, it has been proven that the claims are largely bogus. Perhaps it’s because higher paid workers with better benefits have more money to spend. Perhaps it’s because states where workers aren’t considered costs to be cut but, rather, assets to be invested in are more attractive to people and have more vibrant economies because of it.
At any rate, it’s a strong signal that we must keep sounding off about the travesty of Michigan, the birthplace of organized labor in the United States of America, becoming a Right to Work state. We must push back at every available opportunity against the corporate interests and their corporatist minions in our state legislature to refute their lies and their misinformation.
And, most of all, we must turn out in record numbers in 2014 to vote the corporatists out of office. And that includes our most powerful corporatist Governor Rick Snyder, and make him the One Term Nerd.
Caricature by DonkeyHotey from photos by Anne C. Savage for Eclectablog
