By Kyle Olson
with staff reports
EAGnews.org

LANSING, Mich. – Thousands of angry union members, anarchists and other left-wing protesters descended on the Michigan Capitol Tuesday as legislators gave final approval to right-to-work legislation and Gov. Rick Snyder quickly signed it into law.

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An estimated 10,000 protesters occupied the Capitol building lawn and spilled into the intersection of Capitol and Michigan avenues, where they banged on buckets and chanted catchy slogans like “Who’s street? Our street!” as state police officers in full riot gear barricaded the governor’s office.

Rev. Jesse Jackson, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, United Auto Workers President Bob King and other high-profile labor sympathizers made appearances to rile up the crowd around mid-day.

Emotions overheated at one point. A group of violent thugs attacked and knocked over a tent occupied by staffers of the free market organization Americans for Prosperity.

Several AFP staffers were reportedly still in the tent when it was knocked over. There were no reports of any injuries, although it was rumored that some of the attackers kicked the victims as they lay on the ground under the tent.

Police officers were able to calm the situation, according to reports.

Otherwise security appeared to be tight and effective. Helicopters circled downtown as hundreds of state police officers surrounded the capitol. Only a handful of arrests were made, and a few people pepper-sprayed, according news reporters.

By 2 p.m fewer than 1,000 protesters remained downtown, most chanting angry slogans at the George W. Romney building that houses the governor’s office.

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Despite the fact that the new law does nothing to prevent the formation of labor unions or inhibit collective bargaining, many protesters seemed convinced that their unions had somehow been dealt a painful blow.

There seemed to be a consensus that without forced membership, many teachers will leave the Michigan Education Association, and many workers in other public and private sector unions will do the same, leading to the extinction of the labor movement.

Owosso high school history teacher Sarah Collins left her students with an intern teacher to trek to Lansing, where she stood in the middle of Capitol Avenue with several colleagues to give Snyder a piece of her mind.

The MEA “is the only way our voice is heard,” she said raising her sign with the message “Right-to-work not right for workers.”

“We make … less money than people like the DeVos family,” Collins said.

Collins, literary coach Karen Michales, English teacher Jeff Barker, and five other Owosso school employees weren’t required to take the day off to attend the rally, they said, thanks to their union.

“We didn’t have to take a sick day,” Michales said. “Our union negotiated our contract to get a certain number of union days off.”

What a raw deal for students who benefit from their teachers’ presence. But hey, who cares about them?

The Owosso crew offered a suggestion for public school educators who don’t believe in collective bargaining or don’t support union politics.

“They can go live somewhere else,” Collins said. “They can go do something else.”

“They should work in a charter school or a private school,” Barker added.

In other words, there’s no room for free thought or diverse opinion in the union world.

At the intersection of Capitol and Michigan avenues, four massive inflatable rodents lined the sidewalk, depicting the union-dubbed “rat pack” – Amway founder Dick DeVos, Gov. Snyder, state House Speaker Jase Bolger and Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville. A 20-foot-tall inflatable eagle represented union power.

A few feet away, Dan Clark, president of the Michigan State University graduate employee union, stood next to a black coffin reading “R.I.P Fair Wages, Decent Benefits and the Middle Class.”

Clark said he’s “fighting for the right of the union to exist.”

He said teachers and other employees already have a choice whether or not to join a union, but acknowledged they must pay a significant portion of union dues regardless.

With right-to-work those who opt out would “get the benefits of the union” without paying for it. Many current union members would become freeloaders, he said.

In recent years teachers unions across Michigan have repeatedly refused to make concessions or other contractual changes that would have prevented layoffs of their youngest members.

We asked: Why should younger teachers, who bear the brunt of layoffs because of the union seniority system, be forced to support the MEA when it could cost them their jobs?

“Our union advocates for all our members,” he said. “We hold meetings to say ‘come give your input.’”

Like the younger members have any chance of winning a layoff debate with a larger group of older, more secure members.

As the crowd dwindled, state workers were left to pick up hundreds of protest signs that littered the capitol lawn. Several contained bigoted or profane language, such as one referring to Synder: “Not a nerd, just a (explicative) liar.”

Teachers and other protesters posed for pictures with the inflatable rat pack, and a statue on the east lawn which held a sign reading “What’s disgusting is union busting!”

Outside the Romney building, Muskegon area high school teacher Randall Green talked about why he’s against right-to-work. The English teacher left his students with a substitute teacher to attend the protest, he said, because “what it does is create a (state) where we got very few people at the top and everyone else is scrambling …”

“When you get a master’s degree, you expect to be compensated fairly,” Green said.

Green said he believes right-to-work legislation is “gonna kill the MEA, unfortunately.

“Dues is what supports the union and when people decide they don’t want to join the union, (membership) will contract,” Green said.

Green said he believes the union provides a valuable service to teachers, but members will leave in droves because of biased media coverage in recent years.

“The media and people like you do such a good job of promoting the opposition” to unions, he said.

Despite mounds of data suggesting otherwise, Green is convinced “there isn’t a charter school in this state that’s doing any better than public schools.”

When challenged on his assessment of public schools, Green and a nearby colleague lobbed allegations at an EAGnews reporter.

Green alleged EAGnews is part of a conspiracy against public education fueled by Dick DeVos and the free market Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Then they broke out into a chant: “DeVos is your boss! DeVos is your boss!”

They offered no evidence to support their allegation.