Captioning sponsored by Macneil Lehrer productions woodruff one of the places most identified with the organized Labor Movement, michigan, has approved legislation vastly limiting the power of unions in the state. Good evening. Im judy woodruff. Suarez and im ray suarez. On the newshour tonight, we get the latest on the passage of the right to work laws and the angry demonstrations inside and outside the state capital building. Woodruff then, we turn to protests in another part of the world, egypt, where supporters and opponents of president morsi staged rival rallies in cairo four days ahead of vote on a proposed constitution. Suarez next in our series of conversations about solving the fiscal crisis, gwen ifill talks with representative allyson schwartz, a democrat from pennsylvania. Woodruff we examine an almost 2 billion government settlement with british bank hsbc over charges of Money Laundering for the nation of iran and mexican drug cartels. Suarez Jeffrey Brown profiles chinese artist and dissident ai wei wei, whose work is on exhibit in the u. S. For the first time. If we can change ourselves, that means part of society will change. If more people can do so, then we can change the society. Woodruff and we look at what the federal trade commission calls a digital danger zone, mobile applications that gather data about children. What needs to be done is a way for parents to easily at any time see exactly whats being collected and who they are sharing that information with. Woodruff thats all ahead on tonights newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. And by the bill and Melinda Gates foundation. Dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a hethy, pductive fe. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woouff michigan, atate consided aradlof the Union Movement, today struck a blow against organized labor. The republicandominated state legislature approved laws that deny unions the right to require membership in exchange for a job. More than 12,000 people gathered outside the State Capitol in lansing to protest the move. Inside, they chanted shame on you at republican governor rick snyder. Late today he signed the bill. For more, were joined by micheline mayrd, a contribur to forbecom and former Detroit Bureau chief for the new york times, and by bill ballenger, editor of inside michigan politics. Welcome to you both. Mickey maynard. First, this has all happened very quickly. What precipitated this right now. There were two things that happened, judy. First of all in november there was a ballot proposal that unions floated that would have outlawed righttowork. It would have put that into the state constitution. That proposal failed because it was proposed at the same time as a lot of constitutional amendments. People just sort of cast one vote against all of the the seco thinghatappened was republicans gave up some seats in the house and senate. It will still be a republican majority in january but it will be smaller. If righttowork was going to happen this lame duck Republicancontrolled Legislature was where it was going to happen. Woodruff bill, in a state that voted by ten points for president obama in november, its a state that is striking a blow for righttowork. How do you explain that . There was a mixeded result on november 6. I thi everything mickey said is absolutely true, but republicans still control state government. Theyve got an ironclad grip from the governors office, both houses of the legislature, the state supreme court, attorney general, secretary of state, and the window was closing. There are only two weeks left before the end of the year. And they had to get it done now or they were going to turn into pumpkins on new years eve and only have a slim majority that might not be enough to get right to work to pass early next yr. Woouffmickeyaynar th republicans are saying this is going to help the states economy, what has happened. Is there a consensus in the state about whether that is correct or not . No, absolutely not. But republicans. What they have been saying and ive been listening to this discussion for the better part of a couple of years is that michigan needs to be righttowork so that it can compete with other states for investment. If you look across the american south, all those states that have landed those new japannese, german, korean car plants, theyre righttowork states with the eception of ohi now because indiana has become a righttowork state. Actually theres a great rivalry between indiana and michigan. Mitch dan yells, the governor in indiana essentially said if we want to be competitive with the the south we need right to work. They got right to work. I think indiana was a reason why michigan got right to work. But opponents of this legislation are now saying you hurt the middle class. You lower wages. Its much harder for unions to represent people to look out for their best interests. D ty have essentlly pricted l kind o goom and doom for the state of michigan now that this is law. Woodruff bill ballanger whats your take on that and is there a consensus of what this means for michigan workers and michigan employers. Mickeys right. They are anticipating, most people are, that somehow this is really going to strike a terrible blow to organized lab labor, that theyre going to lose membership. Theyre going to lose money. Theyre just going to wither on the vine and die. Im not convinced necessarily thats true. As governor snyderas said, lookif lab unions can demonstrate to the workers that they can deliver a good product for their members, they should be able to continue to thrive. So im not convinced its going to be as terrible as everybody is predicting. But it certainly is not going to help organized labor. They are going going to lose some memberships. Weve seen that in other states. Weve seen it in wisconsin and for that matter in the last year in indiana. Membership starting to dwindle in some key unions as a result of the laboreformsthatthose republicandominated legislatures have taken. Woodruff mickey maynard, what is the sense of the effect that is going to have on organized labor. You talked about other states. Not just in michigan but beyond michigan borders. One of the things ive watched the Labor Movement do over the last basically four or five years is a lot of the focus was on getting barack obama or a democrat elected president and also getting representatives and senators elected to washington. I think they took their eye off t ball some extnt inhes local races. Well now we see what happens when you dont have the feet on the ground, the money in the local races, you end up with state legislatures that are unfriendly to labor causes. So i think the wakeup call for labor nationally to focus on some of these states. Im thinking about ohio now. Ohio passed and then repealed a limit on collective bargaining for Public Employees but it doesnt mean that the issue wont come up there again. States like pennsylvania are not right to work ates. There aretil oprtunites or the conrvate mement, the antiLabor Movement, to go in for right to work. I think someone maybe in the Labor Movement will say, okay, we draw a land in the sand with michigan. We cant let this spread any further because theres clearly a domino effect. Woodruff what about that, bill . How do you see this in the grand scheme of the faceoff that continues now between organized labor and those who believe its what organized labor does hurts. Can hurt the economy. Well, a couple of things. We shouldnt forget that what was passed today in the legislature affects Public Employees in addition to the private sector. Work force. Weve been talking about the automobile industry, but this affects school teachers. State and local Public Employees. Anybody who is part of a Public Employee union. They are affected by this. They are just as angry as the private sector workers. In fact, the only growth sector in the Union Movement in this country over the last decade or two has been in the public sector. So that was a big target of today. I think youre going to see some recall efforts. Theyre going to start up again although, by the way, the Republican Legislature has now amended the recall law to make recalls tougher. I think there will be a lot of litigation. This is going to be fought out for a long time. This thing isnt a slam dunk over and done with today. This was a major event, but this battle is going to continue for days or weeks into the future. Woodruff a major event for sue. We thank both of you for taing with. Bill ballanger and micheline maynard. Thank you, judy. Suarez still to come on the newshour, egypts worsening political crisis; pennsylvania democrat allyson schwartz; a settlement in a Money Laundering case; a chinese artists First American exhibit; and privacy worries over mobile apps for kids. But first, the other news of the day. Heres hari sreenivasan. Sreenivasan u. S. Exports dropped in october by the most in nearly four years, and the trade deficit grew nearly 5 . The Commerce Department said the gap topped 42 billion. Stl, wall reet managed to make some gains. The Dow Jones Industrial average added 78 points to close at 13,248. The nasdaq rose 35 points to close at 3022. Russia is resisting the latest u. S. Appeal to help force syrian president Bashar Alassad out of office. That word came today in the russian newspaper, kommersant. It said moscow is convinced assad will not go voluntarily, no matter what pressure is applied. Meanwhile, u. S. Defense secretary leon panetta said chances of the Syrian Regime resorting to chemical weapons may be easing. He spoke during a flight to kuwait. We have seen not seen anything new indicating any aggressive steps to move forward in that way, but we continue to monitor it very closely. We continue to make clear to them that they should not under any means make use of these chemical weapons against their own population. Sreenivasan also today, the United Nations reported the number of Syrian Refugees fleeing the fighting has grown to more than 500,000, all across the middle east. And inside syria, rebels captured a second Major Military base near the Northern City of aleppo. New details have emerged from south africa on the health of former president nelson mandela. The government announced today that military doctors are treating him for a recurring lung infection. Mandela is 94 years old. Hes been hospitalized since saturday, but officials said he is responding to treatment. An investigation of paying pro Football Players for causing injuries took a sharp new turn today. The man appointed to hear appeals, former nfl commissioner paul tagliabue, voided the suspensions of four current and former new orleans saints. Tagliabue said actions by team coaches and others had contaminated the case. He did agree that three of the players should be fined. Those are some of the days major stories. Now, back to ray. Suarez cairo is the scene of mass rallies again tonight. Demonstrators on both sides of the upcoming referendum are on the streets of the capital. Their refrain was bread, freedom and sharia or islamic law from supporters of president Mohammed Morsi in cairo. Morsi, morsi, they chanted. Reporters also gathered in the coastal city of alexandria this evening, just days before a referendum on a draft constitution. It would affirm many tenets of sharia as the law of the land. I support the president. I think that opponents of the president claim that egypt would turn into an islamic state. But the reality is if they do not want a constitution that contains islamic law and they fear the growth of the islamic political current. Suarez back in cairo, morsis opponents gathered again, separated from the president s Muslim Brotherhood backers by barricades. All these barricades you see here will not stop a million revolutionaries. They will eat these stones, not demolish them. They will eat them. Suarez violence between the two sides last week killed seven and wounded hundreds. And before dawn today, masked gunman sprayed birth shot at protestors in Tahrir Square miles from the president ial palace. Nine people were hurt. Amid the acton in the streets, so in the antimorsi faction urged likeminded egyptians to skip this weekends voting and a group of judges voted overwhelmingly not to oversee saturdays referendum but others opposed the boycott and argued that voting no would be more meaningful. Do not ruin your vote. Not going to vote is a negative act and will be of no use to anything. Go down and vote. Say no so the revolution can unite us, one hand with the civil state and freedom. Suarez meanwhile egypts miliry chief called for nonpolitical National Unity talks tomorrow. Over the weekend, morsi vested the army with new powers to enforce security and safeguard state institutions. Also today funding those institutions was at issue. A nearly 5 billion International Monetary fund loan was delayed at egypts request until the political crisis abates. Im joined by the middle east and north africa correspondent for the financial times. Welcome to the program. Just a w days aft predent morsi asked the army to restore peace to the streets of egypt, the head of the military has called for National Reconciliation dialogue. Whats going on . Well, theres a couple different possibilities. One is that youre seeing a little bit of the army reentering the scene. Viewers may recall that just a few months ago, president morsi made a dramatic move against the army and got them somewhat out of politics. At least visibly. On the other hand, this could also be sethi that msi himself had suggested in an attempt to ease tensions, to bring the opposition to the table. So far morsi has said that he will attend these talks tomorrow afternoon, but the opposition says theyre still debating. Suarez the faceoffs between pro morsi and antimorsi forces on the streets of the country seem to be escalating. Have we reached a point of no return . Can these two groups even talk to each other any longer . You raise a very good point. The polarization in this country right now isomewhat unprecedented between the two egypts, as people are calling it the secular, liberal, more diverse egypt, and the rising islamist juggernaut that seems to be changing the face of egypt and much of the rest of north africa. On these sides theres a lot of mistrust. Theres a lot of anger. Theres a lot of suspicion. I would even call it paranoia on the part of each side. There doesnt seem to be a lot of like a lot of Common Ground between these two sides the other hand, there might be some kind of resolution to this if the liberal forces are able to get their act together politically and field a credible field of candidates for upcoming parliamentary elections and are able to exert their own will and amend this constitution that they seem to despise so much. Suarez meanwhile the constitutional referendum is approaching amid calls for a ycott,mid judges sying they wont oversee the election. Is is this thing going to come off, and is it going to give a result thats not ambiguous . Yeah, i think the absence of the judges is going to really harm the credibility and the transparency of the whole process. Who will vouch to the public that the elections were free and fair . I think its going to. Whatever the outcome of the election, the losing side can credibly say that, hey, this was not a normal ectio in a way its ndfad because, you know, the results of the election aside, weve had a whole bunch of elections in egypt over the last couple years each one seemed to at least on election day bring people together in a spirit of democracy and patriotism. This one seems to be driving people further apart. Suarez in the midst of all this is still a new president Mohammed Morsi. Hes getting his arms and the job. Or is he being swept along by the tide of events . Is he someone who really has thoty in thi coury . I think he has. He and his organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, have a lot of authority with a certain segment of the society. A certain rather large segment of the society. The Muslim Brotherhood is the best organized group in the country and its islamist allies also seem to have their act together as far as getting numbers out for elections and out into the streets. But among the. And this is kind of the problem with the polarization. He does not have aot of Authority Even though he was democratic elected with those who are opposed to his most recent moves. Even some people who voted for him in recent elections have turned against him in a very harsh way. Suarez of the financial times, thanks for joining us. Woodruff you can see more images from todays woodruff you can see more images from todays protests in Tahrir Square, including the efforts to storm a blockade in front of the president ial palace. The photo essay is on our home page. Suarez and we turn again to the budget talks in washington. Republicans have sent the white house a counterproposal in response to a new plan president obama offered up privately yesterday. A boehner aide said the g. O. P. Is waiting for the president to identify spending cuts, a point the speaker made on