Workplace Freedom in Michigan Ups the Ante for Ohio

By: Jason Hart (Diary)  |  December 12th at 01:00 PM  | 

Michigan became the second workplace freedom state neighboring Ohio on December 11, less than a year after Indiana implemented right to work. The abrupt, lame-duck passage of “freedom to work” legislation by Michigan’s Republican-controlled state legislature and Governor Rick Snyder prompted renewed speculation that Ohio needs to follow suit to stay competitive.

Already union front We Are Ohio and other labor groups have worked to tie workplace freedom to Senate Bill 5 (SB 5), the complex collection of public employee union reforms overturned by Ohio voters in 2011 following a $40 million union smear campaign.

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Reality vs. Union “Right to Work is WRONG” Infographic

By: Jason Hart (Diary)  |  December 11th at 01:00 PM  | 

We Are Ohio recently published an infographic of AFL-CIO talking points from 2002, presenting decade-old union spin against workplace freedom as current facts. The infographic, which contains four claims and lists no source, is easily debunked with public records and an understanding of what “right to work” means.

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We Are Ohio Compares Michigan Republicans to Japanese Who Bombed Pearl Harbor

By: Jason Hart (Diary)  |  December 7th at 02:30 PM  | 

We Are Ohio reacted furiously to the Michigan state legislature’s passage of a workplace freedom law, comparing the move to Japan’s December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. We Are Ohio posted a branded graphic and a series of Facebook updates bearing this theme, the latest in the union front’s already vicious campaign to protect the flow of forced dues from Ohio workers into union coffers.

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Wage Trends Favor Workplace Freedom States

By: Jason Hart (Diary)  |  December 5th at 05:00 PM  | 

Average wages in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Kentucky were each leapfrogged by multiple workplace freedom states from 2001 to 2011 based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data. Comparing Ohio and its 5 neighboring states to the 22 workplace freedom states – whose ranks Indiana joined in February 2012 – Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana were 3 of only 5 states with wage growth below 30 percent over the course of the decade.

In terms of BLS-calculated wages, slow wage growth resulted in an erosion of the relative advantage in Ohio and neighboring forced-unionism states, where workers can be required to pay a union boss as a condition of employment, versus workplace freedom states. Without adjusting for taxes or cost of living, the statewide average wage in Ohio fell from 7th-highest to 9th-highest.

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Workplace Freedom States Soared While Ohio and Michigan Economies Crashed

By: Jason Hart (Diary)  |  December 4th at 03:00 PM  | 

Job creation in Ohio lagged far behind all 22 workplace freedom states from 1991 to 2011, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) records. Without cherry-picking data as union bosses must in order to defend forced unionism, total seasonally adjusted non-farm employment growth shows a huge advantage for residents of right to work states.

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