A full floor of committee hearing rooms next to the Capitol were packed by union members and activists Wednesday morning, less than 18 hours after Democrats announced they would move a repeal of “right-to-work” and a restoration of prevailing wage through the House in a single day.
After a long procession of witnesses testifying to the House Labor Committee in a nearly two-hour meeting, all three bills passed along party lines.
“My colleagues and I have pledged to deliver on our promise to restore workers’ freedoms,” Rep. Regina Weiss, D-Oak Park, a bill sponsor, told the committee. “A yes vote on these bills deliver on that promise.”
She was co-opting, in a way, the argument from “right-to-work” proponents that have emphasized their policy is about the freedom to choose whether or not to join a union. That was the argument Rep. Tom Kunse, R-Clare, retorted with.
“So people have clearly spoken; they don’t want ‘right-to-work,’” Kunse responded. “Why are you trying to take away person’s right to choose?”
Repealing “right-to-work,” which prevents workers from having to pay union dues in unionized workplaces, has been an aim of labor activists and Democrats ever since the law was first passed in December 2012.
It was signed into law just five days after Gov. Rick Snyder and Republican legislative leaders announced the bills. It never received a committee hearing and drew thousands of union protestors to the Capitol for days.
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