The Michigan House Labor Committee voted Wednesday morning on repealing the state’s controversial “Right to Work” policy.
The committee voted along party lines to support House Bill 4004: Yeas, 7: Nays, 2. The bill will go to the House for a full vote.
House Bill 4004 would repeal Michigan’s “Right to Work” policy, which is formally known as the Freedom to Work law.
The FTW policy was passed by Republican lawmakers and took effect on March 28, 2013. The law prohibits unionized workplaces from requiring employees to pay union dues and fees. Michigan is one of 27 states to carry the so-called non-union practice and could become the first state in several decades to repeal such a law.
What is Michigan’s ‘Right to Work’ policy?
The Freedom to Work law prohibits union security agreements.
A union security clause is a provision in a collective bargaining agreement that requires all members of the bargaining unit either join or financially support the union.
A bargaining unit is the grouping or classification of employees that the union represents. Union members are members of the bargaining unit who choose to join or support the union. The FTW law does not allow employees to opt out of the bargaining unit.
When a union is recognized as the exclusive bargaining agent of an employee group, that union has the exclusive responsibility to represent all employees.
The FTW law made it so employees who opt out of the union do not have to pay, but are still afforded the rights and benefits as members of the bargaining unit.
In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. AFSCME that mandatory membership fees among public sector, or government jobs, violated the First Amendment. That means public sector unions cannot take agency fees from employees who do not want to join.
The legislation introduced this year would repeal “Right to Work” in both the public and private sectors. The public sector portion of the law is expected to be canceled out by the Janus ruling.
The argument to repeal ‘Right to Work’ in Michigan
The Michigan House Labor Committee gave people time to speak during Wednesday’s hearing.
People who support repealing FTW cited a decline in benefits, pay, protections and safety in the workplace.
Rep. Regina Weiss (D-Oak Park) was one of the people who spoke on Wednesday. Weiss said there has been overwhelming support to repeal the legislation.
“In the early morning hours of Dec. 11, 2012, over 10,000 workers poured into Lansing in and around the Capitol standing in solidarity against passage of the so-called ‘Right to Work’ bills. This anti-worker legislation was a direct attack on organized labor, making it incredibly difficult for unions to have the necessary resources to provide adequate representation to their members,” Weiss said.
It has been more than 10 years since the bill passed. Weiss said since then, unionization rates in Michigan have steadily declined and many people have stopped paying dues that fund labor unions.
She said that this decline has weakened the ability of labor unions in Michigan to be able to effectively bargain on behalf of their workers. Weiss said workers in states with full collective bargaining rights make, on average, $1,500 more and have better benefits and fewer incidents in the workplace.
“Michigan, considered the birthplace of the modern American organized labor movement, dropped from being the fifth state with the most union representation in 2012, to the 12th state in 2021. And along with that decline in unionization, there has also been a decline in benefits, pay and workplace protections and safety,” Weiss said.
Ryan Sebolt, director of legislative affairs at the Michigan American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, said there were no hearings when FTW was originally put in place, and the testimony heard on Wednesday was more than what was heard a decade ago.
“These bills expand the rights of working people in the state of Michigan. For decades, working people in the state have been under attack. Bill after bill has been passed to chip away at their rights and weaken their ability to collectively bargain to improve their quality of living and have their fair shot and a chance at a decent life. The current law on the books only serves to harm the ability of working people to improve their wages and make their working conditions safer. The current laws should be a source of shame,” Sebolt said.
Jessica Smith, a United Food and Commercial Workers member and meat department manager at Kroger, shared how the passing of FTW impacted her and her workplace.
Smith said she has worked in the meat department for Kroger at various stores for 23 years. She became a department manager in 2003 and at the time, she was one of a handful of women in that role. Those meetings look different now and there are many more women in that position; she attributes that success to the union.
“In December 2012, when Michigan passed anti-worker laws, it made me feel like my state thought I was less important than the employers’ bottom line. To me, it said they didn’t care if I made less or if I was unsafe at work. Now we have a historic opportunity in front of us today. It’s time for us to do the right thing, right a wrong, and restore the rights that were taken from Michigan workers 10 years ago.”
Smith is a single mother with a daughter that she is putting through private school. She said she believes that is possible due to the work her union has done for contracts.
- Rep. Doug Wozniak: “This is the fourth witness already and they’re all opinions. Facts. I need facts. If you’re gonna testify, give me facts. But I’ll give you one fact: 28 states have ‘right to work’. Why is that? I’m asking for your opinion on this now.”
- Jessica Smith: “Well, because laws are passed by politicians, and many times politicians get to hear from the highest bidder. And the highest bidder gets the loudest voice many times. What these laws do is make sure that the people who don’t have the money don’t get to be heard. They get less of a voice, and that’s my opinion and my experience.”
Smith said the FTW has negatively impacted her and created a divide between workers.
“When you’re in a workplace and you have most of the people in the union, and then there’s a few people who decide -- and this is the way they word it, not me -- ‘I don’t have to pay, you guys are paying for it. I can get it for free.’ It causes divide, it causes workplace anger, all kinds of negative feelings that don’t need to be there. We need to stick together so we can get what’s best for everyone,” Smith said.
The argument to keep Michigan a ‘Right to Work’ state
People who support keeping the FTW law in Michigan argue that it allows employees to decide where their money is spent and makes the state more competitive when trying to bring in more jobs.
Jonas Peterson, the CEO of Southwest Michigan First spoke in favor of keeping Michigan’s Freedom to Work law. He said SMF is a regional community and economic development organization.
“Southwest Michigan First, in addition to being a regional economic development organization, we operate a subsidiary organization called Consultant Connect. Consultant Connect is one of the largest networks of site selection professionals in North America, corporate site selection leaders. Through Consultant Connect, we’ve hosted hundreds of conferences all around the country in markets like Atlanta, Chicago, New York, L.A., Houston, Columbs with leading site selectors. Through that experience, we’ve gained insight into their priorities and their processes for locating job creation projects. Here’s what those site selectors tell us: “Right to Work makes states more competitive. They also tell us that for some job creation projects, states that do not have “Right to Work” are simply not considered. We’re not even in the game,” Peterson said.