by Bruce Walker
A statewide association serving Michigan’s commercial and industrial construction sectors on Monday announced their strong opposition to Democrat-sponsored legislation to repeal the state’s 2011 Fair and Open Competition in Government Construction Act.
Shane Hernandez, president of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Michigan, told The Center Square that the effort announced by House Democrats last March would undo protections for 85% of the state’s construction workers who don’t belong to a union. The current law prohibits union mandates for workers on government building contracts.
House Bill 4231 aims to undo Act 98 of 2011, which banned discrimination in state and local government construction hiring based on a workers’ union affiliation. The trade association contends Act 98 protects workers’ choice to exercise their constitutional rights.
“The House Labor Committee is taking up a bill to enshrine labor discrimination into state law,” Hernandez said in a statement. “Michigan construction workers deserve a fair shake from Lansing, not government-sanctioned discrimination.”
House Bill 4231 would allow state and local governments to block most Michigan workers from state and local construction work based on whether they’re a member of a labor union. The legislation would overturn state labor law that bans government-mandated project labor agreements, or PLAs, tools used in the past to discriminate based on union status.
Hernandez told The Center Square that “elections have consequences,” and it was apparent in November that the Democrats would take advantage of the trifecta they won in the Michigan Senate, House, and governor’s office, moving toward immediately favoring unions. As examples, Hernandez listed the repeal of Michigan’s Right to Work law in March and the reinstatement of prevailing wage rules for government-contracted work.
“State law protects every single qualified worker’s ability to work on projects funded by their own tax dollars, but House Bill 4231 would allow the state to discriminate against those workers based on their union status,” Hernandez said. “There’s no place for discrimination in Michigan. The vast majority of construction workers in the state are asking Lansing to bury labor discrimination once and for all.”
Hernandez said a law similar to HB4231 in California resulted in a 20% drop in residential housing builds in the Golden State.
“If the governor and Democrat legislators are truly serious about moving Michigan forward and stopping migration to other states such as North Carolina and Florida, they should reconsider their stances on right to work, prevailing wage and repealing HB4231,” Hernandez said.
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Bruce Walker is a regional editor at The Center Square. He previously worked as editor at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s MichiganScience magazine and The Heartland Institute’s InfoTech & Telecom News.
Photo “Construction Worker” by bridgesward. Background Photo “Michigan Capitol” by Pkay Chelle. CC BY 2.0.
