Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) signed three labor policy bills on March 24, including a bill repealing the state’s 2012 right-to-work law. Votes for all three Democratic-sponsored bills were along party lines.

Right-to-work is a term used to describe state laws prohibiting an employer from entering into a collective bargaining agreement that requires employees to financially support a labor union as a condition of employment. Opponents of such laws sometimes use the phrases “right to work for less” or “right to freeload” (because collective bargaining agreements still cover, and unions are required to represent, employees who choose not to pay dues).

Excluding Michigan, 26 states currently have right-to-work laws, either enacted by constitutional amendment or by statute.

Senate Bill 34 replaces sections of Michigan law related to private-sector employment that Republican lawmakers passed in 2012, including a prohibition on workers being required as a condition of employment to “[p]ay any dues, fees, assessments, or other charges or expenses of any kind or amount or provide anything of value to a labor organization.” Instead, SB 34 says, “An employer and a labor organization may enter into a collective bargaining agreement that requires all employees in the bargaining unit to share fairly in the financial support of the labor organization. This act does not, and a law or policy of a local government must not, prohibit or limit an agreement that requires all bargaining...

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