Truth be known the news media round here must be secretly hoping
that what is happening in Wisconsin will repeat itself here…you know
the attack by the new GOP governor on union collective bargaining
rights.
After all the visuals out of Madison are wonderful: Teachers
sleeping on the floor, protestors waving banners and a legislature in
gridlock. It doesn't get any better than that.
But apparently Gov. rick Snyder wants no part of that. Over the
weekend he was asked on Detroit Public TV about preserving collective
bargaining rights and he opined, "that is the system in this state and
we're going to work with the system."
"We appreciate hearing that," responds Mark Gaffney who runs the
state's largest union, the AFL-CIO. But Gaffney knows the governor is
only one voice in this debate and what about all the ultra conservative
GOP-types who reside in the Michigan House and Senate?
He wonders if those folks "can get the message" from their
governor to lay-off the C.B. stuff?
It's a reasonable inquiry in that those folks did not listen to
the governor when he asserted that he wanted nothing to do with any
Right to Work legislation. The governor sees that as very divisive and
would pit labor against business and that's the last thing he wants.
Going against their governor's wishes, modified RTW legislation is
in the hopper right now and if the GOP can do that, why not legislation
to wipe collective bargaining off the books?
Gaffney is looking at a laundry list of 33 measures which he says
are all anti-labor and they "look a lot like Wisconsin."
Wouldn't it be an unbelievable turn of events if one Mr. Gaffney
and one Mr. Snyder ended up on the same side battling members of the
governor's own party?
That would top the story across the lake in Madison.