WORKER'S CHOICE PETITION

 MICHIGAN CONSTITUTIONAL INITIATIVE

    Michigan is bleeding jobs, especially good-paying, top-benefit manufacturing jobs. Supporters of making Michigan a right-to-work state say monopolistic unions no longer serve their captive members, and actually chase manufacturing businesses out of the state. The solution is choice. Unions make compelling  arguments about the value they add to a workers life, so why do they need the government to compel workers to belong to a union at all.

    The Worker Choice Amendment won't make unions illegal or even disadvantaged. It's a misconception that right-to-work states don't have unions. Workers just aren't forced to join unions as a condition of employment. Right to Work simply means that a Michigan employer cannot compel a worker to join or pay dues to a labor organization as a condition of employment. It empowers individual workers with a choice whether or not to use and pay for union resources, and that creates a competitive drive to provide better services and makes union leadership more accountable. Union leaders depend on compulsory dues dollars and are scared of the idea, but overall labor trends and public opinion polls show strong and growing support for the Right to Work.The Right to decide.

    “It’s time to look at this as a way to get the residents in this state a way of having jobs,” said Mark McDaniel, president and chief executive officer of Lansing-based Great Lakes Capital Fund, which he said has discovered investors leery of investing in Michigan because of unions.

    Presently, management and unions in collective bargaining decide whether the workplace will be a closed shop, which requires membership and payment of dues as a condition of employment. A handful of union-represented workplaces in Michigan have open shops, where union-represented employees don’t have to join or pay dues.

    “Whether it’s the Legislature taking it up or an initiative, people are certainly discussing it,” said Michael LaFaive of the Midland-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy, citing the loss of manufacturing jobs to right-to-work states in the South. “It’s the smartest choice to ignite economic growth.”

    State Rep. Kevin Elsenheimer, R-Bellaire, who has introduced right-to-work legislation, said he put his name on one of the bills because “the state is at a turning point, and we need to identify what kind of state we’re going to be in 30 years.”

    He added, “I think there’s an absolute psychological barrier that some people in this country that are looking to invest have with closed-shop states.”

    Jim Barrett, president of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, said the state should examine a right-to-work law for economic benefits and personal freedom. “The growth in our economy is very dramatic in those states that have chosen to be right-to-work,” he said. “Everyone should have the right to choose their respective affiliations.”