LANSING, MI (MPRN)-- Governor Rick Snyder has signed historic legislation that will make Michigan a right-to-work state starting early next year. The governor signed the legislation just hours after it was sent to him by the state House. Michigan Public Radio’s Rick Pluta reports:
The law won’t take effect until the spring, and it won’t change any current union contracts. It also won’t directly affect more than 80 percent of Michigan workers who don’t belong to a union. But it does represent a big symbolic and maybe even a cultural change in a state that helped give birth to the labor movement.
Governor Snyder says it just means unions have to change with the times.
“I don’t view this is anti-union at all," he says. "I believe this is pro-worker.”
Thousands of protesters turned out to oppose the legislation, which will almost certainly strike at union clout. Democrats and labor leaders this is not the end of the fight over right-to-work in Michigan.