Whitmer plans to sign right-to-work repeal despite referendum promise

Detroit — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Monday she plans to sign a repeal of Michigan's right-to-work law even if it includes an appropriation after pledging on the campaign trail to veto bills that feature spending as a strategy to block referendum votes.

Majority House Democrats added an appropriation of $1 million to the repeal legislation last week, making the policy referendum proof if it were signed into law by Whitmer. The state Constitution bars referendum campaigns against laws that include financial expenditures.

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 petition signatures: 446,198 instead of 223,099.

"I have made a promise to restore workers’ rights in Michigan," Whitmer told reporters at an event Monday. "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's right-to-work law bars labor contracts from requiring workers to become union members or pay the union a fee as a condition of their employment. Republicans said the 2012 law would help the state attract businesses and would ensure workers wouldn't have to become union members if they didn't want to.

But Democrats have countered the law was meant to hurt labor unions and to allow some employees to benefit from unions' efforts while not contributing to the cause. Repealing the law has been a focus of Democrats since they won control of the Legislature in November.

The House approved right-to-work repeal, with a $1 million appropriation included to educate people about the policy, on Wednesday. A Senate committee is taking up the bills on Tuesday morning.

As a candidate for governor in 2018, Whitmer said she would block bills with appropriations. Her 2018 "Michigan Sunshine Plan" vowed to end "legislative referendum-proofing to ensure integrity in our legislative process."

"If a non-appropriations bill has a dollar amount added to circumvent the people’s right to a referendum and it reaches my desk, I will veto it," Whitmer's "Sunshine Plan" said.

In 2012, when right to work was passed into law, Whitmer was the Senate minority leader, and Republicans added an appropriation to the right-to-work legislation to block a potential referendum.

According to the Senate journal, Whitmer, in December 2012, specifically criticized Republicans for inserting the appropriation in the bill "to keep the public from having the opportunity to have a referendum on it."

The Michigan Senate Labor Committee is scheduled to consider right-to-work repeal during a meeting at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

cmauger@detroitnews.com

kkozlowski@detroitnews.com

Staff Writer Beth LeBlanc contributed.