Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) on March 24 delivered a huge win for labor unions – and for all working families – across the United States when she signed legislation (Senate Bill 34 Restoring Workers Rights) that repealed the state’s so-called “right to work” law (RTW).
In addition to this main bill, Whitmer also signed a pair of companion pieces of legislation. The first, House Bill 4004, erased the state’s RTW law for public-sector workers as well. That bill’s sponsors acknowledged public-sector unions will still be blocked from requiring government employees to join or pay dues under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Janus v. AFSCME.
Finally, the governor signed a third bill (House Bill 4007) as part of Democrats’ pro-labor package, restoring Michigan’s prevailing wage law to set minimum pay requirements for workers involved in state-funded construction and infrastructure projects.
“Michigan workers are the most talented and hard-working in the world and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect,” Whitmer said in a statement released by her office. “These bills will protect health and safety, ensuring healthcare workers can put patient care ahead of profit, construction workers can speak up when there’s a safety issue, and employees can call attention to food safety threats and other problems.
“Today, we are coming together to restore workers’ rights, protect Michiganders on the job and grow Michigan’s middle class,” the governor concluded after she signed the legislation.
Reaction to the Michigan RTW law’s demise was swift, especially from those who supported the governor’s action. “Unions made Michigan a hub of American business, and an engine of America’s middle class,” tweeted President Joe Biden. “A strong middle class benefits everybody. Michigan is leading as a great place to be a worker and a great place to do business.”
Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the U.S., also chimed in. “This is what happens when we elect union members to halls of power,” she said. “We fight and we WIN for working people. Right to work, hit the curb!”
Michigan AFL-CIO President Ron Bieber issued a statement outlining his stance shortly after the RTW law met its demise. In part, that statement read: “After decades of anti-worker attacks, Michigan has restored the balance of power for working people by passing laws to protect their freedom to bargain for the good wages, good benefits, and safe workplaces they deserve. Ten years ago, Governor Whitmer was standing side by side with well over 10,000 working people who showed up in Lansing to protest the devastating attack on their rights. Today, she has demonstrated yet again her unwavering commitment to putting working families first. After decades of attacks on working people, it’s a new day in Michigan, and the future is bright.”
Passed more than decade ago, the Michigan RTW statute allowed people in unionized workplaces to opt out of paying union dues and fees as a condition of employment, even if the union represented them in negotiations. According to several sources, Michigan State Democrats had long viewed the law as contentious, arguing that it allowed for “free riders,” or people receiving union representation without having to pay fees or dues for it. With the law now abolished, unions can require all workers in all unionized workplaces to pay fees for the cost of representation in bargaining.
Michigan, when the RTW law was enacted in 2012, enjoyed the nation’s seventh-highest percentage of unionized workers, but that plummeted to 11th in 2022. Union membership over the last decade in Michigan has decreased by 2.6 percentage points; U.S. union membership overall has been falling steadily for decades, reaching an all-time low last year of 10.1%. Michigan became the first state in 58 years to repeal a RTW law, with Indiana repealing its in 1965 before Republicans there restored it in 2012. In 2017, Missouri’s Republican Legislature approved a RTW law, but it was blocked from going into effect before voters overwhelmingly rejected it the next year.
In total, 26 states now have so-called RTW laws in place.
###
Comments are closed.