In a speech Monday in front of employees from Redford Township’s Detroit Diesel engine factory, President Barack Obama weighed in on Michigan’s impending right-to-work legislation.
About halfway through the President’s address, intended to promote his plan for averting the fiscal cliff, Obama took up the issue of right-to-work, the Detroit Free Press Reports:
“What we shouldn’t be dong is taking away your rights to bargain for better labor agreements,” Obama said. “These so called right-to-work laws, they don’t have anything to do with economics, they have to do with politics.”
The President also praised a $120 million investment by Daimler in the plant, which makes engines for heavy duty trucks.
He went on to cite his administration’s bailout of the auto industry as a major driver of economic recovery.
From the Freep:
“It was just a few years ago that the auto industry was on the verge of collapse,” Obama said. “And all of you, the men and women who built these companies with your own hands would have been hung out to dry.”
During his visit, the President shook hands with factory employees.
The Detroit News reports some were wearing UAW stickers reading: "The President Saved the Auto Industry. Don’t Let Snyder Destroy It."
Right-to-work legislation could be passed by the Legislature and on the Governor's desk for approval as early as tomorrow.
- Jordan Wyant, Michigan Radio Newsroom
