‘Right-to-work’ repeal a big step backward

Michigan nally has momentum again. After years of economic stagnation and even a so-called “lost decade,” we’re again seeing companies announcing major expansions and new manufacturing operations, promising thousands of good-paying jobs.

Now, Democrats are putting our economic growth at risk — and for no good reason.

On Wednesday, House Democrats jammed through, along party lines, repeal of Michigan’s 2012 “right-to-work” law that bans mandated fees for collective bargaining units in union shops.

e legislation now moves to the state Senate, where Democrats hold a slim 20-18 majority. A vote is expected as early as this week, which would send it to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, also a Democrat.

e Democrats do have their reasons.

ey’ll tell you it’s about workers’ rights and a fairness issue, saying an employee in a union job shouldn’t be allowed to opt out of paying dues because they are then “freeloading” o those who do pay.

But let’s be real. is is about bare-knuckle politics.

e Democrats, who now control the House, Senate and governor’s mansion for the rst time in nearly 40 years, are using their newfound power to pay back unions for their support.

is is also about revenge. Democrats and the unions have seethed for more than a decade over the way Republicans and then-Gov.

Rick Snyder, who at that time had total political control in Lansing, rammed through the “rightto-work.” It was ugly then and it’s ugly now. We can do better.

e truth is, no one has been able to point to hard, empirical evidence of whether “right-towork” has helped or hurt Michigan. Both sides can cherry-pick data to make their argument.

But there is an overarching reality that we nd most persuasive in saying keep the law as it is: Michigan is ghting for jobs and economic growth in an increasingly competitive world.

e Michigan Chamber of Commerce and the Michigan Manufacturers Association, and many other business groups, are on record opposing the repeal of right-to-work.

Jonas Peterson, CEO of Southwest Michigan

First, an economic development group that also operates a network of site-selection professionals, urged lawmakers not to make this risky move.

“Here’s what those site selectors tell us: Right-to-work makes states more competitive,” Peterson said. “ ey also tell us that for some job-creation projects, states that do not have right-to-work are simply not considered. We’re not even in the game.” e utility’s failure to invest in their infrastructure has real economic consequences, both for families and small businesses like ours. Our family owns and operates e Bear Factory in Whitmore Lake. Over the summer, we lost power due to the violent wind storms and had to shut down operations — costing us about $100,000 in lost sales. To a small business like ours, that’s a major hit. at’s why we must also support community solar. Two common sense pieces of legis- lation will be heard before the Michigan legislature again this session. Together, these bills would increase access to solar across Michigan by fully enabling community solar projects. Currently, state law precludes these types of projects and instead grants exclusive control over community energy projects to utility companies, like DTE. Under this new legislation, locally permitted community-owned solar projects could proliferate. is would create jobs, increase property tax revenues, reduce energy bills, and help to reduce our carbon emissions. ere is still more we can do to incentivize solar and increase our energy security. We must remove the 1 percent cap on distributed generation in the state of Michigan. Currently, the law hampers job growth, restricts renewable energy investment, and reduces access to a ordable clean energy. Yet, it comes as no surprise that the legislation to raise that cap was actively lobbied against by both DTE and Consumers Energy last year. e solutions are clear and the realities of climate change demand swift action. e Michigan State House and Senate Energy Committees should hold hearings including experts, those of us a ected by the outage, and DTE and Consumers Energy to demand accountability and reform. ey should pass legislation to ensure that community solar and distributed generation can be signi cantly ramped up. e reality is that unless we carve out a path for more clean energy, reduce our reliance on DTE’s grid, and see real utility accountability and investment we’re going to be telling this story all over again. It’s time for Michigan to, quite literally, take our power back from DTE.

In the past year, Michigan has seen a string of economic announcements giving the state momentum: new electric vehicle and battery factories in all parts of the state, from metro Detroit to Marshall to Big Rapids.

Michigan is heading in the right direction. Now, we’re not saying repeal of right-to-work will kill all of that activity. But it won’t help.

With Democrats holding a narrow 20-18 majority in the Senate, it would only take one senator to see the bigger picture and put a stop to this. Of course, Whitmer could as well.

Now is not the time to put Michigan’s economic momentum at risk.

Even though these ice storms hit much of the Midwest, DTE owned the most prolonged and severe outage in the region. To make matters worse, this has all unfolded against the backdrop of the proposed record-breaking rate hike of 14 percent by DTE — ensuring that customers already struggling with nancial hardship as a result of the outage will be even worse o .

Fortunately, we were able to invest in our own energy independence at home, knowing that without signi cant investment in the power grid by DTE, my family would be burdened with another prolonged outage. We purchased a new solar energy installation and battery storage, which proved vital during this latest series of storms. We looked to clean energy to not only be more environmentally friendly, but to also realize a cost savings over time, and provide some independence from DTE’s unreliable grid — a true win-win-win. But not everyone can a ord to make such an investment.

DTE must stop blocking the pathway for distributed solar generation and community solar and it must update its outdated and failing infrastructure across the state.