Michigan Senate committee advances right-to-work repeal

Full Senate could take up bill as early as Tuesday afternoon

By Jamie A. Hope | March 14, 2023

The Michigan Senate Labor Committee moved Tuesday morning to advance legislation to repeal right-to-work. It will move to the full Senate and could be passed in the afternoon.

If the bill does pass, it will head to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s desk to be signed into law. The House passed its right-to-work repeal last week, taking the bill from committee to a full House vote in a single day.

Sen. Dayna Polehanki, D-Livonia, bragged about the development on Twitter.

Polehanki tweeted: “It has been a long time coming—but it’s happening today in Lansing. I couldn’t be more proud to vote for workers and their families.”

Polehanki’s tweet was posted at 8:56 a.m. As of noon, most responses to Polehanki’s tweet pushed back on the senator. Of the dozens of responses, only two favored the repeal.

Andrew Brandt tweeted: “Forcing someone is the opposite of choice; how exactly does that help a family? Please explain Senator.”

The tentative Michigan Senate calendar for March 14 shows three bills on the agenda, none of which are right-to-work repeal.

But the final sentence of the agenda indicates that anything can happen.

“Any item properly before the Senate may be acted on,” the notice reads.

That includes House Bill 4004 and House Bill 4005, the right-to-work repeal efforts for the public and private sector, respectively.

The Detroit News reported that Whitmer would sign a right-to-work repeal with an appropriation attached, so as to make the bill referendum-proof. As The News reports:

Opponents of right-to-work repeal could still gather signatures to challenge the law on the ballot in 2024 but it would take a constitutional amendment, instead of a referendum, and twice the (number of) petition signatures: 446,198 instead of 223,099.

Whitmer opposed the appropriation tactic when Republicans used it in 2012 when Gov. Rick Snyder signed a right-to-work bill, and said she would not do such a thing.

The News report continues, quoting Whitmer:

‘I have fought against the creation of this barrier in the first place. I did not ask the Legislature to put that part into the bill and it certainly is not on my agenda.

‘But I am going to sign a bill that restores workers’ rights.’

The ‘not on my agenda’ line was an apparent reference to former Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, who once said right-to-work wasn’t on his agenda before signing the policy into law in December 2012.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.

On CNN, Whitmer misrepresents COVID record, suggests Florida data inaccurate

Whitmer echoes a debunked talking point and admits to seed-section folly in 9-minute interview

By James David Dickson | March 14, 2023

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer joined CNN host Chris Wallace for an interview that aired Sunday night. During a nine-minute stretch on national TV, Whitmer misrepresented her COVID-19 record and used a false talking point to question Florida’s COVID data.

Wallace asked Whitmer what she would do differently with lockdowns in Michigan.

Over the last three years, Whitmer has usually spoken in generalities when asked this question, and she started her answer to Wallace that way.

But when Wallace pressed for specifics, Whitmer admitted that closing down the seed section of stores was not her finest hour:

There were moments where we, you know, had to make some decisions that in retrospect, don't make a lot of sense, right? You went into the hardware store if you go to the hardware store, but we didn't want people you know, all congregating around the gardening supplies. People said oh, she’s outlawed seeds.

It was February in Michigan. No one was planting anyway.

Whitmer declared the COVID emergency March 8, 2020, when two presumptive positive cases were discovered in Michigan. A week later, Whitmer issued a stay-at-home order, better known as a lockdown.

It was April 2020 when Whitmer issued the directive about seeds. At some stores, the seed section was physically taped off. Whitmer now admits this doesn’t make a lot of sense.

But it never did. If people aren’t planting, why would they be congregating at the seed section? This was not a sound public policy decision. This was a governor using emergency powers to tinker with everyday choices for 10 million people. Don’t put boats in the water! Don’t golf! These are orders, not helpful hints!

This is why the Mackinac Center supports limited government and sued in 2020, winning when the governor’s reach became unlimited.

Read all about it: 2020: Mackinac Center Legal Foundation sues over Whitmer executive orders

Whitmer did not come into her emergency powers reluctantly, or use them reluctantly. As Wallace noted, Michigan had some of America’s worst lockdowns. In a 2020 survey, one in three Michigan businesses, or 32%, reported government-mandated closures during 2020.

Wallace asked why Florida, whose lockdowns were much shorter than Michigan’s, had fewer deaths per capita: 39.6 per 100,000 versus 97.3 per 100,000 in Michigan between June 2020 and 2021.

Whitmer answered by questioning the data, even though the numbers came from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“I've seen a lot of reports about some of the numbers that you've just cited from Florida and perhaps the lack of confidence in the accuracy of that,” Whitmer said.

Those questions about the Florida data come from one source: a woman named Rebekah Jones, an outspoken critic of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Whitmer avoided mentioning Jones by name.

But a May 2022 report from the inspector general for the Florida Department of Health specifically debunked Jones’ claims. For nearly a year, it’s been in the public record that Jones’ claims were false.

Yet Whitmer repeated them on national TV anyway.

Back in Michigan, people will remember that Whitmer used the full weight of the state to pile on dissenters.

For the sake of the governor’s executive orders, Michigan turned an elderly barber into an enemy of the state.

It arrested a restaurant owner in high-profile fashion. Another arrest was pondered to prevent the owner from speaking out on national TV.

Closing down the seed section wasn’t the half of it in Michigan. During the lockdown era, absolute power corrupted, absolutely.