LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Under former Governor Rick Snyder’s administration and a Republican Legislature, the Right-to-Work law was introduced and passed within a relatively short period of time.  

At the time, State Senator Gretchen Whitmer was vocally opposed to the bill “petty and vindictive politics at its most disgusting,” and on her first gubernatorial campaign trail released plan to repeal the statute, “so all working people have the freedom to negotiate together with their employers for stronger paychecks, good benefits, safe workplaces, a secure retirement and more time to spend with their families,” the Detroit News reported. 

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During the governor’s next term, the Democrat held governor’s office, Senate, and House have the potential to change this policy that has allowed individuals to be represented by unions without the requirement to support them financially.  Opponents of the Right-to-Work law often criticize how it can weaken organized labor and hurt workers in the union.  

“I just don’t see why it should be so difficult for people to get together and join a union so they can have better conditions, better pay and benefits,”  Charles Bell, President of United Auto Workers Local 1700 in Warren and worker at the Stellantis NV’s Sterling Heights Assembly Plant said recalling what it was like protesting in 2012 against the legislature when they were considering implementing the new union rules. 

The laws went into effect in 2012, and were soon followed by Freedom to Work laws in 2013 which did not “prohibit employees from joining or financially assisting a labor organization or participating in collective bargaining with an employer.”  The former, in some variation, has spread to more than 50% of all U.S. states, and advocates believe that these laws can hold unions more accountable and create a more competitive business environment.  

A UAW member, Brian Pennebecker, was frustrated by the union’s liberal political stances and what he saw as a corrupt, unresponsive leadership according to the Detroit News. 

“They weren’t representing us. They were taking care of themselves and lining their own pockets, and a lot of guys were sick and tired of it,” he said. “So we passed right-to-work so that we could hold our elected union officials accountable. And it achieved pretty much everything we had hoped for. We gained the right to hold them accountable by resigning from the union and not being forced to pay dues anymore.”

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President of the National Right To Work Committee, Mark Mix, had some cautionary words for those in auto industry jobs should the law be repealed. 

“While the Janus decision means public sector workers nationwide have right to work protections, repealing Michigan’s Right to Work law would give union bosses the power to force Michigan’s private sector workers to pay money to a union or else be fired,” Mix said, “That would mean, for example, auto workers could be fired solely for choosing not to fund the UAW union that has been engulfed in a massive corruption scandal that has sent numerous top union officials to jail for misusing workers’ money. Stripping workers of that choice is just plain wrong.”

Though a poll revealed 50% of voters are neutral or undecided about repealing the act under the new legislature, Gov. Whitmer has tried unsuccessfully to overturn it in the past, and two bills from 2019 failed to overturn the law too.