Into law in Michigan, the focus shifts to how working people can overturn the legislation. Unfortunately, Republicans purposefully designed the law to make this task more difficult. By attaching Right-to-Work-for-less to a budget appropriations bill, Republicans made it harder for Michigan voters to repeal the law down the road. According to the Michigan Constitution, voter referendums do not apply to budget appropriations bill. However, ballot initiatives do. And also according to the Michigan Constitution, voters have “the power to propose laws and to enact and reject laws, called the initiative.”
In other words, Michigan workers can restore any of their lost wages and collective bargaining power as a result of this law by gathering enough signatures for a ballot initiative. It would only require roughly 260,000 signatures to put Right-to-Work-for-less up for repeal through a ballot initiative.
So now it’s time to get to work. Let’s hope this was a “Todd Akin” moment, and that Governor Snyder and Republicans, who drastically overreached with this latest attack on unions, will eventually regret it. If working people stay organized, then the right wing’s assault on working people will end in Michigan, and organized labor in America can finally go on the offensive once again.
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