Attorney Andy Nickelhoff talks of steps the new coalition group will take to put the middle class back together after "one tough nerd" tore it apart.
FIGHTING BACK! Labor, Faith, Community Groups Organize for Middle Class
'One Tough Nerd' in Cross-hairs of New Progressive Group
December 16, 2012
By: Dave Rogers
A new coalition group of students, seniors and workers has sprung up to oppose "right to work" legislation.
Faith, community, labor and progressive leaders announced formation of a 501(c)4 organization to explore organizing and electoral options to reverse what leaders described as "the devastating effects of Governor Snyder's attempt to unravel the middle class with so-called "right-to-work" legislation passed last week."
We Are Michigan will unite a broad base of coalition partners committed to strengthening Michigan's middle class and protecting critical public services, said Zack Pohl, Executive Director of Progress Michigan.
Jon Hoadley is We Are Michigan campaign manager and Andy Nickelhoff is legal counsel.
Nickelhoff said at a Friday news conference that the group aims to undo the damage done by Gov. Snyder who has won the nickname "one tough nerd" by his conservative policy initiatives.
We Are Michigan is a broad-based coalition of faith, labor, community and progressive groups that have joined together to fight back against Governor Snyder's attacks on working people. "We will 'Re-Invent Michigan' by organizing and building a movement for justice." said Hoadley.
Leaders of the new group said they are taking inspiration from a recent Detroit Free Press editorial that reads in part:
"Watching Snyder explain his right-to-work reversal was disturbing on several levels.
"His insistence that the legislation was designed to promote the interests of unionized workers and 'bring Michiganders together' was grotesquely disingenuous; even as he spoke, security personnel were locking down the capital in anticipation of protests by angry unionists.
"Snyder's ostensible rationale for embracing right-to-work legislation -- it was, he insisted, a matter of preserving workers' freedom of association -- was equally dishonest.
"The real motive of Michigan's right-to-work champions, as former GOP legislator Bill Ballenger ruefully observed, is 'pure greed' -- the determination to emasculate, once and for all, the Democratic Party's most reliable source of financial and organizational support."
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