Michigan is entering its eighth year as a right-to-work state. Figures show that unions here are feeling the impact, as a declining number of workers in unionized workplaces choose to pay union dues or fees.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, union membership in Michigan fell to an all-time low in 2019, reaching 13.6% of the workforce. This is down from 16.6% in 2013, the year Michigan’s right-to-work law went into effect.

Jarrett Skorup at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy has tracked these figures and says the decline was accelerated by the enactment of this law.

“The number of union workers in Michigan has been declining for decades, but the state’s 2012 right-to-work law has certainly accelerated that drop,” he said. “Most of the state’s largest unions file federal reports and nearly every single one has lost membership — even while the number of workers in Michigan has increased by around 500,000. While a lot of this change is the result of broader economic factors – like fewer auto workers – a substantial amount is more than a hundred thousand people choosing to exercise their freedom and not join a union.”

In 2012, voters strongly rejected a union-backed ballot initiative, Proposal 2, that would have enacted a constitutional amendment prohibiting a right-to-work law. In the wake of this initiative’s defeat, legislators passed a right-to-work bill. Then-Gov. Rick Snyder signed it into law that December.

The 18% decline in membership between 2013 and 2019 compares to a 15% decline in union membership in the 6 years preceding the enactment of right-to-work in Michigan.

Under right-to-work, individuals cannot be required to join a union or pay fees to a union as a condition of employment. This outlaws the “union shop,” where nonunion members could be forced to pay an agency fee to the union to obtain or keep a job.

Skorup does not see a bright future for unions in the state, with right-to-work being only one of the factors.

“The decline in unionization will probably continue,” he said, “especially considering the ongoing scandals with the United Auto Workers and diminished power of the Michigan Education Association – the two largest unions in the state.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Michigan had 589,000 union members in 2019.

A recent Detroit Free Press story highlighted the focus on the Great Lakes in Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s state budget plan for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1.

“Between the high water levels gobbling up beaches, roadways and homes along the Great Lakes ... the environment was sure to be a big-ticket item,” the Free Press reported.

The newspaper describes Whitmer’s proposal to spend $40 million on what the budget calls “Local Climate Resilient Infrastructure Grants” as a response to “the negative impacts of Michigan’s changing climate conditions.”

The Free Press adds that this is what has caused record high water levels.

Around the region, newspapers are reporting that water levels are high and are causing damage. Over the past six decades, regional newspapers have had a lot to stay about Great Lakes’ water levels. Here are some examples:

July 29, 1964

Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, Illinois)
Headline: Great Lakes Water Levels Big Problem

“The conference was prompted by record low levels of the lakes which have been falling steadily since 1960 – due primarily to a lack of rainfall in the Great Lakes basin.”

May 21, 1975

Lansing State Journal
Headline: After 10 Years, Joint Lakes Study Incomplete

“When the IJC [International Joint Commission, US – Canada] study began nearly a decade ago, he noted, the Great Lakes were plagued by low-water levels and as it comes to a completion, high waters have become the chief concern.”

Dec 16, 1986

Petoskey News-Review
Headline: High Water May Be The Norm, Not Exception

“We would all do better to learn a lesson from this increasing tide, a lesson teaching that Mother Nature is consistently inconsistent. Today’s extreme may be tomorrow’s norm and the reverse is certainly true, also.”

Jan. 26, 1987

News Herald (Port Clinton, Ohio)
Headline: Michigan Wants Lake Level Controls

“All the Great Lakes are either at or near their highest levels on record, with erosion and flooding causing millions of dollars in damage to coastal properties and erasing huge sections of the shoreline.”

“The Great Lakes began reaching record highs in 1984, with the rising levels blamed on a 15-year period of unusually high precipitation in the Great Lakes basin.”

April 11, 1996

The Windsor Star (Windsor, Ontario, Canada)
Headline: Great Lakes Water Levels Continue 10-Year Decline

“Water levels in the Great Lakes and Lake St. Clair have declined steadily over the last decade, Environment Canada statistics indicate.”

May 17, 2000

Battle Creek Enquirer
Headline: Great Lakes Water Levels Drop To Record Low

“What makes the dropoff particularly remarkable is that it comes only three years after lake levels reached near-record highs. Then, beaches and even houses were swept away.”

July 19, 2009

The Dispatch (Moline, Illinois)
Headline: Great Lakes Water Levels Rebound After Long Slump

“During the mid-1980s, levels got so high that houses, businesses and even sections of roads were swept away along Lake Michigan’s southeastern shoreline.

Then a sudden deep dropoff began in the late 1990s. ... But if grim computer modeling proves accurate, global warming will cause the lakes to recede up to 3 feet this century.

“‘Climate projections say the lakes will go up and down around a decreasing average,’ said Don Scavia, director of the University of Michigan’s Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute. ‘The lows will be lower than in the past and the highs will be lower than in the past.’”

Oct. 13, 2019

The Times Herald
Headline: Great Lakes Water Levels Could Be Even Higher In 2020

“It appears 2020 won’t bring relief from high Great Lakes water levels – and they could be even higher than this past record-shattering spring and summer.”