Mackinac Center on TV: Skorup makes case for keeping Michigan a right-to-work state

Last week, the Mackinac Center’s Jarrett Skorup took to the Saginaw airwaves to make the case for Michigan’s right-to-work law.

Since March 2013, Michigan has had a right-to-work law, allowing people in union shops to opt out from paying into unions without losing their jobs.

A decade later, Democrats “hold all the gavels” in Lansing, as one legislator put it. Before even taking power, they named right-to-work repeal, which would force workers to pay into unions, as one of their goals. Right-to-work repeal efforts have already been submitted to target private sector workers, as well as public sector workers. There are constitutional issues affecting the public sector bill, due to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling in Janus v. AFSCME.The court ruled that public sector employees can’t be forced to pay into unions.

Skorup, director of marketing at the Mackinac Center, noted that some companies won’t even open a facility in a state that lacks a right-to-law policy.

“Right-to-work states are growing faster in income, job growth and population growth, and we need it for Michigan to compete,” Skorup argued.

• Skorup on WNEM-TV makes the case for right-to-work in Michigan

WNEM’s James Felton also spoke to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who said a repeal effort is “on the horizon,” but noted that what happens next is in the hands of lawmakers.

One of those lawmakers, State Rep. Amos O’Neal, D-Saginaw, told Felton there is a timeline for the repeal effort, but he did not share it.