(NEWSER) – It's a huge day for labor in Michigan. Gov. Rick Snyder has signed a pair of right-to-work bills thatmake it illegal to require the payment of union dues in order to work, the Detroit Free Press reports.
The state's House of Representatives passed the bills earlier today. Some 12,500 people were in Lansing to protest—which may be the most demonstrators the state capitol has ever seen. "This is a national attack," United Auto Workers president Bob King declared, as the crowd beat drums and chanted. "Unions built the middle class of America."
