Right To Work Law Repealed

Michigan has repealed its right to work law effective March 30th, the first state to do so in decades. Writing on the Barnes & Thornburg site, David Pryzbylski says that employers with unionized sites in Michigan should expect a big push for new union “security provisions.” In right-to-work states an employee lawfully cannot be required to become a union member or forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment. Union security clauses require employees to be dues paying union members as a condition of employment. Pryzbylski explains that employers don’t have to agree to include security provisions even if the right-to-work law is no longer in effect, but they will have to be mindful of new good faith bargaining obligations to discuss and consider those proposals, and be ready to argue that the organization may not want to have such a clause in their agreements. He also notes that legislation recently introduced in Congress would make right-to-work laws illegal nationally, and would drastically affect many other labor law issues.