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A Republican state representative in Michigan proposed an amendment to exempt her husband's job from the so-called "right to work" law which limits the ability of unions to collect dues.

State Rep. Lisa Posthumus Lyons (R) on Monday offered an amendment that would have added corrections officers like her husband, Brad, to the list of types of jobs not covered by the anti-union law. Police and firefighters had already been exempted from the legislation.

"When we talk about the brave women in police and fire we need to remember people in corrections," Lyon explained earlier this week, according to MLive.com. "These guys work in conditions that we can’t even begin to imagine."

"It's not financial. It's philosophy. I am saying we need to treat our corrections officers that way we treat our police men and women and firefighter men and women.”

Democrats, however, claimed that the proposal was an example of Republican hypocrisy.

"Why would she want to exempt her husband if this is such a great bill?" state House Democratic Caucus spokesperson Katie Carey asked. "“We were kind of disgusted with it... We were just kind of disappointed that she would offer this amendment at the same time lauding this legislation."

In the end, Republicans chose to gavel down the amendment without giving it a vote.

"I'm convinced of the value of our union and I'm here to tell you we will continue to pay union dues, the union that has represented Brad with such unequaled advocacy," Lyons declared in a Dec. 6 speech, adding that the "right to work" measure was about "the unions' freedom to make its case to members."

"Today, we are a proud union. Tomorrow, we will be a proud union family by choice," she said.

Following passage of the bill, Lyons asserted: "This is the day when Michigan freed its workers."

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Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) is insisting that a so-called "right to work" law which restricts unions' ability to collect dues is not "anti-union" at all.

Speaking to MSNBC on Wednesday, Snyder said his move to sign the legislation into law and join the 23 other "right to work" states where workers make $1,500 less on average was actually "pro-worker."

But MSNBC's Richard Wolffe wondered how the governor could defend calling unions bad for business when the auto industry in Michigan had been very successful in recent years.

"I've never said unions are bad for business and I don't believe this is actually anti-union," Snyder asserted. "I believe this is pro-worker."

"Are you serious?" a stunned Wolffe replied. "Are you serious this is not anti-union? This, at its core, actually undermines the ability for unions to organize."

"This does not deal with organizing at all," Snyder declared. "This does not deal with collective bargaining at all. This is nothing to do with the relationship between an employer and a union. This is about the relationship between unions and workers. And this is about giving workers the freedom to choose, and unions have to be in a position to present a good value proposition."

"This should make unions more effective in terms of having to put a value proposition to workers," he added.

Scarborough explained that while he did not support requiring workers to pay union dues, he would "not go so far as to say what you’ve just said, which is that this helps unions."

"I mean, it undermines unions’ ability to stay vibrant, right?" the MSNBC host observed.

"It really leaves it up to the union to decide and innovate as to what their value proposition is," Snyder insisted.

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As Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder was about to sign their union-busting right-to-work-for-less bills into law, Chris Matthews spoke to UAW President Bob King and the State Director of the Michigan chapter of Americans for Prosperity's Scott Hagerstrom. Matthews attempted to get Hagerstrom to come clean about who "signs his paycheck" and despite repeated badgering from Matthews, refused to acknowledge that AFP is just a front group for the Koch brothers.

He just works for a grass roots organization, like the Red Cross don't you know! And they have lots of donors. He didn't want to talk about their one big one though. Here's more on Hagerstrom and his remarks back in February of 2011 from Think Progress: Koch Front Group Americans For Prosperity: ‘Take The Unions Out At The Knees’:

In a speech earlier this month at the Conservative Political Action Committee’s annual conference, Americans For Prosperity-Michigan Executive Director Scott Hagerstrom revealed the true goal of his group and its allies like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) efforts. Speaking at CPAC’s “Panel for Labor Policy,” Hagerstrom said that AFP really wants to do is to “take the unions out at the knees”:

HAGERSTROM: It’s easy to go out there and fight taxes and increased regulation, you know we send out an action alert on taxes to AFP and we get thousands of people to respond. You send out one on a more complicated issue and it just doesn’t quite resonate…We fight these battles on taxes and regulation but really what we would like to see is to take the unions out at the knees so they don’t have the resources to fight these battles.

Taking “the unions out at the knees” has long been a goal of the Koch brothers and their many front groups. In the run-up to the 2010 elections, the Kochs worked with other anti-labor billionaires, corporations and activists to fund conservative candidates and groups across the country. Now after viciously opposing pro-middle class policies for years, Koch Industries is trying to eliminate the only organizations which serve as a counterweight to the well-oiled corporate machine.

Sadly they managed to succeed in that goal today in Michigan. Sourcewatch has more on Americans for Prosperity here and the fact that they are indeed just a front group for the Koch brothers here.

This interview has a bunch of right wing blogs worked up of course, the usual suspects that I'm not going to link to, calling Matthews "unhinged" and claiming he "berated" Hagerstrom because he asked him time and again who funds AFP. If they think this is Matthews coming "unhinged" they must not watch the show much, because this is pretty mild by his standards. There are times that stuff can be annoying out of him. This wasn't one of them.

The AFP chair was on there pretending he's got the interest of those workers in Michigan at heart and that they're just some grass roots organization instead of an AstroTurf front group who only care about a race to the bottom on wages so their rich donors can squeeze some more blood out of the working class.

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President Barack Obama traveled to Michigan on Monday where he said a controversial anti-union "right to work" law passed by the Republican-controlled state Legislature last week really meant that workers had a "right to work for less money."

"What we shouldn't be doing is taking away your rights to bargain for better wages and working conditions," Obama told a crowd of supporters at a Daimler AG plant in Redford. "These so-called right to work laws, they don't have anything to do with economics, they have everything to do with politics."

"What they're really talking about is giving you the right to work for less money," he added. "America's not going to compete based on low skill, low wage, no workers rights. That's not our competitive advantage. There's always going to be some other country that can treat it's workers even worse."

"So, we've got to get passed this whole situation were we manufacture crises because of politics. That actually leads to less certainty, more conflict and we can't all focus on coming together to grow."

Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) and other Democratic lawmakers met with Gov. Rick Snyder (R) on Monday and encouraged him to veto the right to work legislation, although he had already vowed to sign it.

(h/t: Talking Points Memo)

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The Fox News morning show Fox & Friends on Friday declared that a law in Michigan that weakens unions was a "Victory for Capitalism!"

On Thursday, the Republican-controlled state legislature in Michigan had quickly pushed through a new measure that would make the birthplace of the country's labor movement a right-to-work state, crippling unions by prohibiting requirements that employees join or pay dues.

"Yesterday, the legislature of both of houses passed a law making Michigan the 24th right to work state, bans mandatory union dues," Fox News co-host Steve Doocy reported while a graphic on the screen read, "Victory for Capitalism!"

"If you work for the UAW, you work for Chrysler, Ford, places like that -- there are a lot of people who are upset," Doocy noted.

"But that's where it's going," co-host Brian Kilmeade asserted. "If you want to know what's good about our economy, look at Indiana, look at Ohio and now look what's happening over in Florida [with anti-union laws] and that's what they want to do in Michigan. It's governors making tough choices."

Hundreds of protesters turned out on Thursday, briefly shutting down the Michigan state Capitol Building and causing State Police to use pepper spray and arrest several demonstrators. But lawmakers jammed through the legislation and Gov. Rick Snyder has promised to sign the bill after final passage, which is expected before the Republican majority is reduced from a 64-46 margin to a 59-51 margin in January.

(h/t: Media Matters)

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Michigan State Police say they were forced to use pepper spray and arrest at least four protesters who were opposing right to work legislation at the Michigan Capitol on Thursday.

Michigan State Police Inspector Gene Adamczyk told the Detroit Free Press that a number of protesters tried to rush the state Senate floor.

"When several of the individuals rushed the troopers, they used chemical munitions to disperse the crowd," Adamczyk said. "It would be a lot worse if someone gets hurt and I failed to act."

WILX reported that the Capitol building had been locked and at least four protesters were arrested during the incident. WILX reporter Brian Johnson estimated that there were around 500 protesters in the building.

Video posted by Michigan Senate Democrats showed Republican state Senator Tonya Schuitmaker angrily gaveling the Senate session into recess as the crowd became rowdy.

"Additionally, Republicans have called in countless State Police officers again today to guard their offices and question the public as they enter the Capitol to protest the Republican agenda," the Democrats wrote. "Frankly, if you have to bring in a massive police presence in order to conduct business at the State Capitol, it might be time for Republicans to rethink what they’re doing."

After initially calling the union-busting right to work legislation "too decisive," Republican Gov. Rick Snyder on Thursday said that he would sign the bill if it came to his desk. The measure is expect to pass because Republicans control both the state Senate and state House.

"The goal isn’t to divide Michigan," he said at a press conference. "It is to bring Michigan together."

Snyder said that he now supported the legislation because it was about the "freedom to choose" and "fairness and equity in the workplace."

Democratic lawmakers and unions, however, claimed that the bill would lower wages and reduce benefits for workers.

"Gov. Snyder campaigned on a promise of unity, but instead he’s ushering in an era of divisiveness across Michigan by launching an attack against working families," U.S. Representative Gary Peters said in a statement on Thursday. "By trying to jam this through a lame duck session, Gov. Snyder is trying to prevent voters from seeing how he is dividing Michigan instead of working to ensure the future of our state during this fragile recovery."