Romney ready to bash 'big labor' in Michigan

As he hinted in his controversial Op-Ed column again advocating “managed” bankruptcy in 2009 for U.S. automakers, Mitt Romney made it clear today that he plans to campaign in Michigan as a union-bashing conservative who will “stand up to big labor.”

(Brian Synder/Reuters)

A press release put out this morning by the Romney camp says: “President Obama has tilted the field in favor of big labor at the expense of American business and employers.

At a time when unions have been under attack in Michigan, as well as in neighboring Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio, the Romney statement may sound a bit strange to some blue-collar families in Michigan and Macomb County.

But it follows hand-in-glove with the positions taken on conservative talk-radio.

Some of Romney’s ammunition is fairly tame, such as opposition to “card check” legislation that would allow certification of a union in a workplace without a secret-ballot election. The former Massachusetts governor also criticizes “project labor agreements” that require non-union workers at government construction sites must receive the same wages and benefits as the unionized laborers on the project.

But Romney also blasts Obama for appointing “big labor cronies” to the National Labor Relations Board. He mocks union-friendly waivers in the healthcare reform plan, and he implies that the president’s former car czar, Ron Bloom, is a union stooge.

Romney says the president’s policies “repaid the favor” to unions who spent millions on Obama’s 2008 election. And the former governor repeats his charge that the UAW received a sweetheart deal in the federal process of reorganizing and rescuing Chrysler.

You can find the entire release here.