via ThinkProgress,
Gov. Rick Snyder agreed to an interview with APR ("American Public Radio") host Jeremy Hobson, who stumped the governor when he was asked to explain... if the intent of his legislation isn't to destroy the unions... just how does "union busting" attract jobs to his state of Michigan?
SNYDER: This is about more and better jobs coming to Michigan. If you look at Indiana, they did similar legislation in February. And literally, thousands of new jobs are coming to Indiana where this was a major consideration in companies’ decision to move to that state.
HOBSON: Are you saying then that companies decided to go to Indiana, for example, because there’s less union membership in Indiana?
SNYDER: No, and I don’t want to speak for the companies but it is very clear that companies are looking at Indiana that previously did not. [...]
HOBSON: Well, make that connection though. You’re saying that, by not requiring workers to pay union dues, that therefore companies are going to be more attracted to the state. Why would that be?
SNYDER: Well, that’s a question for the companies but there is a strong sense, and companies do look at that. That’s something we’ve suffered here.[...]
HOBSON: Union membership has fallen dramatically in Michigan and across the country and it’s not as though that has translated into some boom in employment. I see the point you’re making, but it hasn’t been borne out in the evidence, has it?
SNYDER: Well, it’s been borne out in the Indiana case.
There has been NO "boom in employment" in Indiana as a result of their anti-union "Right-to-Work" laws. An LA Times report Tuesday noted that Michigan created more jobs last October (pre-RTW) than the year before while Indiana created less (after passing their own RTW in January.) MediaMatters points out, RTW states have produced less than 1/3 as many jobs as non-RTW states (900K vs 3-million).
Of course, we know exactly why Republican governors equate RTW with attracting jobs to their state: because many corporations have chosen states WITHOUT unions to open new plants (where they can pay employees less without fear of retaliation by organized workers.) So, despite numerous protests that RTW has "nothing to do with busting unions", Snyder's arguments defending RTW otherwise makes no sense.
