Michigan's Prop 2 a Threat to the Fair and Open Competition

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Michigan’s Prop 2 a Threat to the Fair and Open Competition

1 November 6, 2012 State & Local Construction

Michigan’s merit shop contracting community, taxpayers, small businesses and newspapers overwhelmingly oppose Prop. 2, a state ballot initiative supported by millions of dollars worth of Big Labor spending that would kill crucial common-sense reforms, increase costs to taxpayers and permanently instill favoritism towards private and public sector unions in The Wolverine State.

UPDATE: Prop 2 was soundly defeated by a 58 to 42 margin. Thanks for protecting reform and free enterprise, Michigan.

“This is probably the most anti-merit shop proposal that any state has ever seen,” said ABC of Michigan President Chris Fisher. “Michigan’s constitution is the framework for how the state government should function; it is not a place to institutionalize special-interest handouts to union bosses at the expense of the taxpayers. If adopted, this initiative would claw back the critical reforms that have helped pull Michigan out of the economic crisis that really started in 2001 for our state.

As this piece points out, Prop 2 would undermine Michigan’s Fair and Open Competition Act, which prohibits government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) on Michigan construction projects.

In addition, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette criticised Prop 2 in a memo sent to the Gov. Rick Snyder and the Michigan Board of Canvassers, asserting it would nullify at least 170 state laws without following proper channels.

Of interest to the fourteen states that have passed measures prohibiting government-mandated PLAs, Prop 2 “also threatens to set a precedent for other states to follow suit by providing a pathway to permanently repeal key labor reforms, including open competition laws,” said Fisher. TheTruthAboutPLAs.com agrees that if this passes in Michigan, Big Labor will push for similar measures in other states.