What Republicans do in office- break unions

By Duane Campbell

The Republican victories in the Michigan government in 2010 and 2012 are now achieving their intended effect. The Associated Press reports that labor, pro- business groups, and the Koch brothers among others are engaged in an intense battle for teachers to continue to support the Michigan Education Association ( NEA) or to leave their union. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/25/michigan-teacher-union-drop-out_n_5710393.html

Many of the 112,000 teachers in the Michigan Education Association can now leave the union and stop paying fees under the law that took effect last year. Other major unions, covered by multi-year contracts, won’t reach this opt-out point until 2015 or later.

Economic power at the top is used to produce political results in elections. The rich get richer while the middle stagnates and the poor get screwed. The banks and institutions that brought us the global economic crisis got billions in governmental relief and no prosecutions for the frauds they committed while homeowners, pensioners, and working people were robbed of their life savings and now working people are losing their unions. This is the planned, deliberate result of neoliberalism at work.

In states such as the upper Midwest where low voter turnout in 2010 delivered the states to the Republican governance ( Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania) campaigns targeting low income voters can focus on reversing the severe austerity of state budgets , cuts to budgets, and the increased voter restrictions and the attacks on unions. Union members, including retirees, can work within their unions to increase voter turnout from those who often do not vote.