The bill package, labeled "Restoring Workers' Rights," included House bills 4004 and 4007 and Senate Bill 34.
House Bill 4004 removes right-to-work protections for public sector workers.
In a release, the Democratic second-term governor said, "These bills will protect health and safety, ensuring health care 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. Let's continue delivering for working people and ensuring Michigan is open for business." House Bill 4007 requires workers be paid a similar amount to others in the same profession, known as prevailing wage.
Unions support the laws because they require employers to pay non-union workers a similar amount as union labor costs.
Joe Lehman, president of the conservative-leaning Mackinac Center for Public Policy, called the repeal "a massive, unforced error that weakens Michigan's ability to compete globally and signals to the world that there are better places than Michigan to live, work, inves, and create jobs. Compelling support for organized labor does directly and immediately harm tens of thousands who will now be fired if they choose not to support a union. Union coercion is a backward business model, doomed to failure," he said in a statement.
According to Mackinac, 140,000 Michigan workers chose to leave their respective unions since right-to-work was passed in 2012.
Her release said, "Workers' wages in states without strong worker protections are 3.1 percent - on average, $1,600 - lower per year than in states with strong worker protections, after adjusting for differences in cost of living." Michigan Freedom Fund Executive Director Sarah Anderson also weighed in against the repeal.
https://www.thecentersquare.com/michigan/article_50b82902-ca71-11ed-82ff-7b24aa2065ac.html
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