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I want to put everyone to work - the 416,200 looking for jobs as well as those who've given up looking. I want jobs for the prisoners who've served their sentences and are ready to be released. I want a job for anyone who needs one. We cannot let ideology blind us to solutions.

There are many reasons for the decline of manufacturing in Michigan - bad decisions on the part of overpaid auto executives, competition from abroad, competition from non-union plants in other states, deteriorating infrastructure, ever-changing business taxes. All of these must be addressed, but the one factor that we really can do something about is our labor climate. Production workers - unskilled laborers - in our auto plants have average earnings of $70,000. Their regular pay at $27 an hour comes to $56,160 a year, but bonuses and overtime bring average actual income to $70,000. Yes, these are hard jobs, overtime is tough, and most of these workers are very capable. But to get these jobs, they needed no advanced education or skills. Any of the currently 416,200 unemployed in Michigan would have qualified for these jobs, and I'm guessing they would take them for half what UAW workers are currently paid. The hourly wage of new "non-core" UAW workers at GM is $15.30, according to the 2007 contract, and I doubt that GM will have any trouble filling those jobs.

If weakening the grip of unions on manufacturing is what we have to do, let's get at it. This is no time for teary-eyed fantasies about the struggle of the working man against the evil corporation. Not even union members believe that crap. For the U.S. as a whole, 12.1% of employed wage and salary workers belong to unions, and somehow the rest of the nation is doing quite well compared to Michigan, where 19.5% are union members.

Drive the Unions out of Michigan
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