roughly maybe 350,000 workers. the united automobile workers, everybody can own a car in america. the history of unionism has been inextricably linked to the growth of the middle class, as you know, over the last 60 years of american history. the right-to-work legislation that has passed now in 24 states, i don t think you can dem demonstrably prove that it leads to higher wages, that it leads to marginally but what s wrong with giving people the freedom to work where they want to work? there s nothing wrong with it. if i want to work in a shop and not pay a union i disagree with, shouldn t that be my right? it is your right, joe. no, it s not my right if it s not a right-to-work state. i understand that. i understand that. if it s not a right-to-work state. but the problem is that the unions, having felt threatened over the last 20 or 25 years, have taken a stand against right-to-work legislation because why? they lose union dues. they have used the union dues
demonstrators tearing down the tent belonging to americans for prosperity, the conservative advocacy group with ties to the koch brothers. according to politico, the group says it is sharing the video to show, quote, the true nature of unions. the group has already sent out a fund-raiser e-mail including this video. also yesterday a contributor for fox news says he was attacked by union supporters who were unhappy about the new legislation. [ bleep ]. you just assaulted me. that s terrible. steven crowder of fox news says he was trying to prevent protesters from tearing down the americans for prosperity tent as people were trapped inside. he posted photos on twitter of himself claiming he suffered a chipped tooth and a small cut to his forehead. there are a lot of videos coming out. that was pretty rough stuff. yeah, that was rough. really rough stuff.
more than i m the son of a union organizer. and at the same time, unions need to reform, but that s not the answer. okay. cultural warfare. it s definitely a sign of the times. i don t want to finish this sentence, and groaning more. coming up, can president obama and speaker boehner find room for compromise? our next guest explains how the presidential campaign has undermined the fiscal cliff negotiations. we re back in a moment.
howard here. howard, we were making your blood boil when we were talking about the union story. really? help us out here. there has to be a middle ground because if there s not, it s bad news for unions because, obviously, right-to-work is spreading even across michigan. so if i say to you your union shouldn t have a right to compel me to write a check, it s about my freedom to choose, you could then say to me, yeah, but you know what? i m negotiating with management. and you re going to get a free ride off of all the hard work and sweat. right. what is the middle ground there? there isn t a middle ground. i think for me right-to-work isn t to be anti-union. i actually think that hurt obama excuse me, that hurt romney in ohio. all the supposed the white, blue-collar workers who weren t going to support obama. a lot of them in ohio did support him. they did exactly this and then it was reversed on the ballot by a public vote a year later.
legal possibilities to outreach and out speaking, making sure our message gets heard. as we talk about the fact that this is happening in a blue state like michigan, the first of its kind, what do labor organizations like yours plan to do to reverse this in your own state and then keep it from happening in other blue states as we look at pennsylvania or ohio? well, you know, there s a lot of conversation being had right now by all the unions and everything s on the table, like i said. we re not going to commit to any one particular strategy, but there s many out there and we re going to take every opportunity we can to show just exactly how dirty rotten we think this was. and whether you re democrat or republican, you got to look at the way this was handled and you got to look at exactly how they performed, how the republican party and the governor s performed here lately. it should be an outrage to all michigan people.