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Michigan Workers now have Right to “Work for Less” (Granholm Video)

Juan Cole 12/12/2012

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Jennifer Granholm explains that Michigan’s new “right to work” law actually is a “right to work for less,” resulting in thousands of dollars a year less income for the average worker and even a lower education budget.

Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, who is in the back pocket of the notorious oil billionaires, the Koch brothers, signed the bills away from the cameras on Tuesday. The Koch brothers are part of a conspiracy of likeminded super-rich to destroy what is left of unions in the US, in part so as to de-fund the Democratic Party and deprive the working and middle classes of any levers to fight back against an increasing income inequality in the US. These moves are producing a new aristocracy of wealth in America, which is heading toward a sort of 21st century feudalism, with serfs such as you and I, and lords such as the Kochs.

What “right to work” laws do is allow workers to be free riders, benefiting from union representation without paying the dues that support the officials, lawyers and others who make successful collective bargaining possible.

Unsurprising, in RTW states, unionization rates fall precipitously.

“Right to work” can also be called a “wage reduction program,”, since the average wage of the average worker in RTW states is roughly $5000 less than in states that do not interfere with unions.

Some 70% of Swedish workers are unionized, compared to about 9% in the United States.

The nominal per capita annual income of Swedes is $57,638.

For the United States? $48,328

And, income inequality is twice as bad in the US as in Sweden.

But, folks, you might as well give up on being Sweden. You are all peasants now, so bow the knee to your lords.

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About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

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