Opponents of a ballot initiative in Michigan continue to speak out in advance of the November vote.
The measure is called Proposal 2, a ballot initiative in Michigan that aims to grant public and private employees the constitutional right to organize and bargain collectively through labor unions. Opponents argue the measure would enshrine unionization in Michigan's constitution. (See earlier article on Prop. 2)
Fred Wszolek, conservative columnist and spokesman for the Washington, DC-based Workforce Fairness Institute, offers these thoughts.
"Collective bargaining for private sector employees is protected by federal law," he says. "It doesn't need any further enshrining in any state constitution to be protected.
"But what they're trying to do is to make it so that public employees can basically veto the state legislature; that anything negotiated in a union contract that they agree to would supersede any law passed by any government body."
Wszolek provides some examples of what such a law could mean.
"One of the laws in Michigan requires criminal background checks for school employees" he explains. "There's a law that requires certain safety standards for school bus drivers. The union could try to negotiate a contract to undo those laws."
While it does not use the word "enshrine," the ballot language presented to the voter does state, among other things, that Prop. 2 would "invalidate existing or future state or local laws that limit the ability to join unions and bargain collectively."
Meanwhile, Prop. 2 would "override state laws that regulate hours and conditions of employment to the extent that those laws conflict with collective bargaining agreements."