Working into RTW: Biz, labor ponder law's fine print | Crain's Detroit Business

Working into RTW: Biz, labor ponder law's fine print | Crain's Detroit Business
By Chris Gautz
 December 16, 2012

Following the warp speed with which right-to-work legislation was pushed and signed into law last week in Lansing, Michigan employers and employees are struggling to understand just what the legislative scramble will mean for them....

Questions and answers on right-to-work

• When does the law take effect?
March 27

• When can an employee stop paying union fees?
After a contract expires after the law takes effect. But if a worker signed an authorization card with the union that specifies a specific date, then likely only at that point.

• How much are union dues, typically?
The amount varies greatly between unions and the type of work being done. But a general rule of thumb is that it costs two hours of a base wage per month.

• How much of the state's workforce is unionized?
In 2011, 17.5 percent of workers in the state were union members, up from 16.5 percent in 2010.

• Why do unions have to represent grievances of nonmembers who opt out of paying dues?
In 1935, the National Labor Relations Act was passed, protecting rights of employees in the private sector, thus protecting the creation of unions.

However, by the 1940s, racial tension between unions and individuals in bargaining units boiled over, leading to the 1944 U.S. Supreme Court decision leading to "duty of fair representation" amendment to the NLRA.

In the case Steele v. Louisville & N.R.R. (Nashville Railroad), the Supreme Court ruled against a white employees union that was bargaining to abolish jobs held by black employees. The court ruled that a bargaining group has a statutory obligation to represent each individual fairly in the bargaining unit.

• What kinds of workers are exempt from right-to-work?
Firefighters; local and state law enforcement; those represented by federal unions; agricultural workers; domestic workers (such as nannies or butlers); workers employed by a parent or spouse; employees protected by the Railway Labor Act (also includes airline employees, some types of transportation workers); and those employed as an executive or supervisor.

• Does the law apply to state employees?
There is disagreement among experts and political officials regarding whether right-to-work legislation applies. Attorney General Bill Schuette says he believes it does; union leaders say the Civil Service Commission has authority over wages and benefits.

Michigan Town Woos Hollywood, but Ends Up With a Bit Part

 By LOUISE STORY
The New York Times

Published: December 3, 2012 293 Comments

PONTIAC, Mich. — Even the great and powerful Oz could not save the film studio that was supposed to save this town. 

The studio, a state-of-the-art facility fit for Hollywood blockbusters, had risen from the ruins of a General Motors complex here. It was the brainchild of a small group of investors with big plans: the studio would attract prestigious filmmakers, and the movie productions would create jobs and pump money into the local economy. A glamorous sheen would rub off on this down-on-its-luck town....

 

Pontiac desperately needed them. In March of that year, roughly one of every two residents was without work, according to federal data. Food pantries had record requests. Pontiac was consistently listed among the top 10 most dangerous cities by the F.B.I. The city had made national news when a group of teenagers approached homeless people on the street and beat them to death. 

Ms. Granholm declared the city in a financial crisis in February 2009 and appointed an emergency manager, Fred Leeb. The city’s budget was $54 million a year, but it was overspending by an estimated $7 million to $12 million. Pontiac was also still weighted down by old incentives it had given to businesses like G.M. 

The movie studio was an added challenge, since it was seeking financial incentives from the city — not to mention from other branches of the government. It won redevelopment tax credits from the federal government and separate aid from the state that included incentives for technology companies that hire residents. 

Job creation became a point of contention with beleaguered Pontiac, which was being asked to waive virtually all property taxes for the studio. The investors claimed that thousands of people would be employed, but Mr. Leeb said that when he asked for job numbers to be written into the contract, the investors refused. “We started seeing some backpedaling,” said Mr. Leeb, who added that the negotiations featured “knock-down, drag-out fights.” 

Mr. Nelson said he did not recall that request, but added that his company could not have guaranteed jobs anyway, since they were mainly supposed to be created by filmmakers renting out the studio.

Under pressure from the governor’s office, Mr. Leeb said he had little choice but to approve the investors’ requests....

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/04/us/when-hollywood-comes-to-town.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: Nonprofits fear the 'fiscal cliff' | Crain's Detroit Business

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: Nonprofits fear the 'fiscal cliff' | Crain's Detroit Business
November 25, 2012

By Sherri Welch

| | | | | |

Sherri Welch writes about nonprofits and services. Call (313) 446-1694 or write sbegin@crain.com

The so-called "fiscal cliff" that's looming over the country will significantly impact nonprofits and the work they do if not addressed by Congress before year's end.

The cliff refers to the combination of tax increases and budget cuts hitting the country concurrently on Jan. 1.

Legislators are also talking about removing some of the benefits to charities in the tax code, said Kyle Caldwell, president of the Michigan Nonprofit Association. One example: eliminating or capping the charitable deduction, which would follow the elimination of the Michigan charitable tax credits at the end of 2011.

"In a nutshell, the fiscal cliff for the budget means a leap over the edge," Caldwell said. "But for many nonprofits, these spending cuts and less disposable income really means we're standing at the edge of a gravesite."

Much of what nonprofits do is providing the social safety net, Caldwell said: "People live or die by some of the services we provide."

Manufacturing and metros are recipe for success, says guru on cities | Bridge Michigan

Manufacturing and metros are recipe for success, says guru on cities | Bridge Michigan

  20 November 2012

By Derek Melot/Bridge Magazine

Bruce Katz has pushed a consistent message for Michigan: M&M&E.
That’s short for manufacturing, metros and exports. A vice president at the Brookings Institution, Katz has worked in recent years with Business Leaders for Michigan in developing ideas for improving Michigan’s economy.

Bridge Magazine spoke with Katz by phone recently to get his sense of how Michigan’s recovery is doing – and what policy decisions are still lacking to bolster the state’s economy.

Bridge: In your testimony before the House Commerce Committee in May, you noted that Detroit and Grand Rapids ranked highly for export intensity. What is export intensity and why is it important in economic policy considerations?

A: Export intensity is a measure of the share of total output in the metropolitan area that is exported. Nationally, exports are around 11 percent of total gross domestic product, but in strong manufacturing metros, it’s higher. Detroit is about 14.9 percent and in Grand Rapids, it’s 15.3 percent. So there is just greater export intensity in the manufacturing metros and what we found is that 13-14 metros in Michigan are actually more exporting intense than the U.S. economy as a whole.

You know that matters because you know global demand is raising the U.S. economy, which has been underperforming because we have such a large domestic market. So with the Great Recession, the recovery that we have had to date is still not sufficient. What we have had today has mostly been fueled by global demands, particularly in countries like China, Brazil and elsewhere. … As the century unfolds, we are going to find ourselves doing more business abroad and for cities and metropolitan areas, they are going need to understand what they trade and who they trade with.

Bridge: Is it fair to say, based on these export intensity figures, that Michigan is actually further along than the rest of the country?

A: What it shows is that you are a production powerhouse, both in the large metros and smaller metros. For a long time, we have treated manufacturing differently with the old economy; actually manufacturing is completely fueled by technology innovation. … There is a future for manufacturing in the United States for a lot of different reasons and those places that are manufacturing hubs obviously have a jump on everyone else. The question is whether they understand it and are doing what is necessary to continue to move forward.

Bridge: In 10 to 20 years, how big a share will manufacturing carry in the economy and how many jobs will it provide?

A: Well these are the numbers I think are important to start the conversation: Manufacturing in the United States is 9 percent of jobs; it’s about 11 percent of GDP and employs about 30 percent of all engineers in the country. It accounts for about 68 percent of all private research and development and it generates 90 percent of the patents in the United States.

I just came from a tech-economy conference in Detroit, which is a conference on technology innovation. A large portion of the conference was about manufacturing and, again, I think we had almost a cartoon conversation about manufacturing where we talked about the old economy is manufacturing and the new economy is Facebook. This is a completely absurd conversation.
Manufacturing is still very productive in the United States. We are the third largest exporter in the world behind China and Germany and that is without any policy at the national scale that frankly is even remotely coherent.

 Bruce J. Katz is a vice president at the Brookings Institution and founding director of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program which aims to provide decision makers in the public, corporate and civic sectors with policy ideas for improving the health and prosperity of cities and metropolitan areas.

State and municipal bankruptcies are the financial crisis around the corner - News-Sentinel.com

State and municipal bankruptcies are the financial crisis around the corner - News-Sentinel.com

By Michael J. Hicks

Tuesday, November 13, 2012 - 12:01 am

"Worse still, beginning in 2014 state and local governments will be required to report their pension obligations like businesses currently must. This means that sometime in the next fiscal year the debt that is several times greater than that which is currently on the books will magically appear on balance sheets. Among the worst examples will be Illinois, where reported government liabilities will rise from a few thousand dollars per resident to as much as $100,000 per citizen. No government without the ability to print money can pay this amount, and this will generate a crisis that will test the republic.
On its face, the problems should be easy to fix. Government employees in many places have been made promises that cannot be kept. These are mostly about pension benefits such as compensation, retirement age and health care costs. In the most solvent places, such as Indiana, this will mean modest benefit cuts to teachers and public employees. It will also mean higher tax rates than we would otherwise have enjoyed. In Chicago, New York and Los Angeles it will mean fiscal chaos that is outside of modern memory. This will lead to calls for federal interventions, which must be largely resisted."

Pension Liability: How Did It Get So Big? - WSJ.com

Pension Liability: How Did It Get So Big? - WSJ.com

Michael Moran talks about how companies got into this mess—and how they might get out of it

By VIPAL MONGA

The growing weight of pension obligations is forcing more corporations to take dramatic steps to lighten the load.

WSJ: What are some strategies companies are using to shrink these pension deficits?
MR. MORAN: We've seen a number of strategies undertaken by plan sponsors. Some have shifted asset allocation to more of a dynamic framework, where asset allocation changes as funded status changes. Simplistically, this involves increasing allocations to fixed income as funded levels rise as a way to lock in that funded status.
More recently, we have seen plans instituting lump-sum options to their participants as a way to shrink their gross pension obligations. We've also seen some plans enter into annuity contracts with some insurance providers as another way of moving the liability off their books.
Finally, we've also seen a number of plan sponsors making voluntary contributions, taking advantage of the record amount of cash that's on corporate balance sheets, as a way to help improve funded levels.

Small management risks that make a big difference | SmartBlogs SmartBlogs

Small management risks that make a big difference | SmartBlogs SmartBlogs
By Mary Jo Asmus on November 7th, 2012

A few other small personal risks come to mind that make a big difference to your leadership:
Including others. You are creating a vision, mission or strategy for moving your organization forward. Or maybe you have some decisions to make about the customers you need to focus on. Perhaps you want to decide on organizational values or change the culture. Don’t do it in a vacuum! Invite your team into the conversation so that they have a say and feel ownership for the end product. The perceived risk here is that you might not get exactly what you want. The benefit is a sense of community and team ownership for outcomes.

Admitting your mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. Admitting yours and apologizing when appropriate shows that you are human. People want to see your humanity; it helps them to know that you are more like them than different, thus creating a relationship bridge. The perceived risk is that you may believe they will think less of you. The benefit to admitting your mistakes includes creating an open, safe environment for others to make mistakes and admit them, too.

Asking for feedback. If you aren’t in an organization with a culture of feedback — or even if you are — it can feel uncomfortable to ask for it. However, all leaders have blind spots, and getting feedback is one of the best ways to conquer those. Ask for specifics (not just “How am I doing?”) in order to get specifics (“Was the information I gave about X in our meeting today enough so that you can do Y?”). The perceived risk is that you may feel you are showing weakness by asking for feedback. The benefit is that what you hear provides a roadmap for your improvement.

Listening when you want to talk. Something happens sometimes when individuals become leaders; they talk and talk trying to prove that they know everything. Try more listening instead. Deep listening (mouth shut, ears wide open, attention on the speaker) is rare, and you’ll stand out. The perceived risk is that you might think that listening to others signifies agreement with what they say or that you have nothing to add to the discussion. The benefit to listening is that you learn more and develop deeper relationships with others.

Leaders are supposed to take risks, but sometimes the personal ones are the hardest. However, they can also be the most effective.


What risks have you taken that made a difference in your leadership?