The Southwest Michigan Regional Chamber is voicing its opposition to efforts in Lansing to reinstate Michigan’s prevailing wage law and do away with its Right to Work law. Chamber President Arthur Havlicek tells us the Right to Work law prevents workers from having to pay union dues as a condition of their employment. He says when the state passed Right to Work in 2013, it put southwest Michigan in a better position to compete with locations to the south.
“We have a unique perspective in Berrien County, given our proximity to Indiana, which is itself a Right to Work state,” Havlicek said. “Essentially because business investment amounts to competition on a global scale, when our neighboring communities have an advantage, you can see very clearly where that investment ends up choosing to go.”
Havlicek says Right to Work keeps costs down for some employers. Also, he says reinstating the prevailing wage law would cause construction costs to rise. The prevailing wage law, repealed in 2018, required that workers on publicly-funded construction projects be paid union-level wages. Havlicek says schools, in particular, have expressed concerns about bringing that law back as they plan capital projects.
