Chris Savage is a Michigan-based political writer and owner of Eclectablog. You also can follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

On Dec. 6, 2012, Republicans in the Michigan legislature passed bills that eventually led to Michigan becoming the 24th "right to work" for less state. With their majorities in both the House and the Senate and encouragement from Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, this was a pretty straightforward accomplishment. However, it was done with a crowd of thousands of protesters surrounding the Capitol building and filling its corridors. 

A coalition of Michigan labor unions—including the UAW—and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) asked a judge Thursday to strike down the recently passed "right to work" for less law because it was enacted while the public was locked out of the Capitol, which is a violation of the Open Meetings Act, the First Amendment and the Michigan Constitution.

We've heard a lot about loss of labor rights in Wisconsin, "right to work" for less legislation in Indiana and now Michigan. We get the impression that laws in those states had somehow required workers to join unions.

Quite the contrary. Unions are the bargaining agent for the employees, negotiating contracts with employers—binding legal contracts, sacred to conservative think tanks everywhere.

While government in Washington, D.C., remains divided and marked by long-term gridlock, governments in the states are much less divided. Of the 50 states, 37 now feature state governments where the governor and majorities in both legislative houses are controlled by one party—24 of those are controlled by Republicans. Extreme, anti-working family Republicans have repeatedly assaulted the rights of people in recent years and, by all accounts, the trend looks to expand in 2013. Working families are mobilized and fought back in 2012 and will continue to fight in 2013.  The response to the "right to work" for less push in Michigan was so strong, that governors in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin have since declared that they won't push for right to work in their states.

When the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star recently published a cartoon featuring so-called “union thugs” in trench coats talking in “does and dem” patois expressing dismay about the "right to work" for less vote in Michigan, with American manufacturing encased in cement ready for a deep six off a pier in the background, and inferring workers were the reason for the demise of Hostess, Seafarers (SIU) Communications Director Jordan Biscardo fired off  a letter to the editor in protest.

Not only was the letter published, but the paper apologized for the cartoon. Here’s Biscardo’s letter:

Last week, after Michigan became the latest state to pass "right to work" for less legislation, many began to dig into the history of such laws and discovered that one of the earliest pushes for "right to work" came from an extreme right-wing activist Vance Muse, who was staunchly anti-communist, anti-integration and anti-union. Muse was the leader of the Christian American Association, an organization that fought to pass "right to work" in more than a dozen states in the 1940s.

Faced with a shrinking margin for the 2013 legislative session, Michigan Republicans not only majority-muscled through a “right to work” for less bill in its lame-duck session that stood little chance of passage next year, but several other last-minute controversial measures as well.

This is an excerpt of The Huffington Post column "Right-to-Work Laws are Killing the American Dream," by Communications Workers of America (CWA) President Larry Cohen. 

The campaign to make Michigan a so-called "right to work" state is not really about individuals paying union dues. It's all about the 1 percent limiting the ability of working people to work together for a real voice on the job and better wages and conditions.

It seems appropriate that after Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) shepherded through the state House and Senate the right-wing extremist and corporate CEO backed  “right to work” for less legislation—that he had long-called "too divisive" to pursue—without any public input, that he would sign the measure in secret yesterday.

Here are some details of the legislation that, if it follows the pattern of “right to work” laws in other states, will lower the standard of living for Michigan workers. 

Gov. Rick Snyder just signed the "right to work" for less bills into law (S.B. 0116 and H.B. 4003). Gov. Snyder and House Republicans rammed through  “right to work” for less legislation with no input from the voters. 

 AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement: