DMCC members should take note that a couple of trades contract expiration dates are upcoming including:

• Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers - #3 4/30/2023
• Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers - #142 5/31/2023
• Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers - #74 7/31/2023

If you have any feedback on these upcoming contract expirations, please notify BHammes@MBI.Build and share any insights for the betterment of the DMCC members.  

In a major victory for labor unions, Michigan on Friday became the first state in more than half a century to repeal a right-to-work law.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation passed by the Democratic-controlled Legislature, overturning a 2012 GOP law that allowed workers to choose not to join unions or pay union dues as a condition of employment, even if the union represents them in negotiations.

“Michigan workers are the most talented and hard-working in the world and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect,” Whitmer, who was the Democratic leader in the state Senate at the time the right-to-work law was enacted, said in a statement.

Republicans, however, said the move would backfire by discouraging employers from locating or expanding in the state.

“Dramatically transforming our policies to harm workers and job providers will hang a ‘Closed for Business’ sign at our state’s borders and take Michigan off the list for future projects,” House Republican Leader Matt Hall said in a statement earlier this week during the vote on final passage.

The anti-union law’s repeal is a particularly significant symbolic victory given the special place Michigan holds in the organized labor movement.

“For us, being the home of labor and getting attacked 10 years ago was a gut punch to workers across Michigan,” state Sen. Darrin Camilleri, the sponsor of MI SB34 (23R), told POLITICO. “We are a state so steeped in union activism and union history that we knew this was a policy that our constituents wanted for the last 10 years as well.”

Even with the move, more than half the states in the country have right-to-work laws on the books. The Michigan Legislature’s repeal is the first since Indiana did so in 1965, before reverting in 2012. (Missouri voters in 2018 blocked a right-to-work law passed by Republican lawmakers.)

Proponents of such laws say they allow workers to freely choose whether to support union causes and make states attractive to businesses. It also saps membership and financial power from labor unions — a key part of the Democratic coalition — another reason right-to-work appeals to Republican lawmakers and conservatives.

Michigan’s law was highly contentious when Republicans pushed it through during the lame-duck session following the 2012 election, with unions rallying thousands of people to the statehouse in protest of the legislation. The state’s then-governor, Republican Rick Snyder, at the time pointed to voters’ overwhelming rejection of a state constitutional amendment that would have enshrined collective bargaining rights as validation of the GOP’s actions.

“It was a quite a heavy victory,” for opponents of the constitutional amendment, said Patrick Wright, the vice president for legal affairs at the conservative Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “It became a lot easier for people to think about it and take those votes.”

Michigan’s repeal was years in the making and is just one of several high-profile progressive issues statehouse Democrats have taken on in the months after narrowly gaining unified control of the legislature for the first time since the 1980s.

The effort was helped by several factors unique to the state, though by the same token could make it hard for union backers to replicate Michigan’s example elsewhere.

For one, Michigan’s law was far less entrenched than others — some of which date back to the 1940s or have been written into state constitutions — and the memories of the 2012 defeat remain relatively fresh in Democrats’ minds.

“I just remember being so incredibly distraught, outraged, and feeling helpless about not being able to do anything about it and the way in which it was done,” said state Rep. Regina Weiss, a former teacher who sponsored the repeal legislation. “That was the first time I was really starting to pay attention to what was happening in state politics in Michigan.”

Weiss is among the more than 40 percent of state House Democrats — 24 out of 56 — who have been members of a union, according to data from the Michigan AFL-CIO.

Repeal backers also credited the successful 2018 ballot initiative to create an independent redistricting commission as integral to making it possible for Democrats to gain control of the Legislature, as opposed to a state like neighboring Wisconsin, where district lines were drawn to favor Republicans.

“That’s the difference between having a legislative majority that has your back and wants to expand workers’ rights, as opposed to being in the minority and having a legislature that was to suppress workers’ rights,” Ron Bieber, the head of the Michigan AFL-CIO, said in an interview.

Michigan is also the home of several big-name Republican donors, such as financier Ron Weiser and the DeVos family, who have bankrolled right-to-work and other conservative causes and galvanized opponents.

“When you explain that these initiatives that are backed by Betsy DeVos, or whomever, folks here know that’s probably not a good thing for most working people because that’s not who they’re here for,” Weiss said.

A spokesperson for the former secretary of Education did not return a request for comment.

Along with the right-to-work repeal, which applies to private-sector workers, Michigan lawmakers passed legislation MI HB4004 (23R) that would apply to public-sector jobs in the event the U.S. Supreme Court revisited its 2018 Janus decision, which held that requiring non-union public employees to pay agency fees to unions was unconstitutional.

Democrats also passed a measure reinstating prevailing wage requirements for publicly funded construction projects MI HB4007 (23R) previously repealed by the GOP.

“Michigan in 2023 is not the same as Michigan in 2012,” Bieber said.

Union members and others around the state protested Saturday against the proposed loosening of Iowa's child labor laws.

The protests were held in front of the Iowa Capitol and in Keokuk, Peosta, Sioux City, Council Bluffs, Iowa City and Davenport. In Des Moines, critics of the legislation including House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, said the proposed changes would put kids in danger and encourage low-income families to place their children in the labor force instead of allowing them to concentrate on their education.

The bill, which comes amid a labor shortage, would allow teens as young as 14 work in a variety of occupations from which they are currently barred, including on meat-processing lines, operating powerful machines that bend steel and loading heavy trucks. It would also extend the hours younger teens could work, allow those as young as 14 1/2 to drive solo to work on a special permit before getting their license and, with their parents' permission, serve alcohol in restaurants.

Supporters of the bill say the young workers would be part of school- or employer-based job training programs, with appropriate adult supervision. They say the measure would allow kids to check out jobs at an earlier age and gain valuable skills.

But Konfrst said she was raised by a single mother who was "broke as hell" and, had such programs existed at the time, she would have felt pressured to work to help support her. When her mother got to her feet, Konfrst did end up working at a Dairy Queen as a teen ― not to support her family, but to buy things she wanted.

"Everybody in family started in my family started at Dairy Queen at 14. They stopped when it started interfering at school. We had that luxury. Not every Iowa family does," she said.

Ivette Muhammad, chief operating officer at human development nonprofit Creative Visions, said she is particularly concerned about changes the law would make to hours kids ages 14 and 15 can work. The law would let kids under 16 work until 9 p.m. instead of quitting by 7 p.m. And quitting time would be extended to 11 p.m. from June 1 through Labor Day.

The bill would also change to six from four the number of hours someone under age 16 can work per day outside of school.

"Subtract six hours from 9 o'clock. That's 3 o'clock.," Muhammad said. "When are these kids going to have time to study, in their sleep?"

Al Womble, chair of the Iowa Democratic Black Caucus and the state political director for the Iowa Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, said that under the bill, teens could be placed in dangerous workplaces and that they may not understand the risks they face in certain jobs.

"Right now the conditions in some of these places aren't necessarily safe or acceptable for the adults who are working there," Womble said. "Now you want to put younger kids in there?"

Joe Henry, state political director for the League of United Latin American Citizens#307, warned that nonwhite youths would be particularly vulnerable.

"It is a way to exploit our young people in diverse communities for the sole purpose of greed," Henry said. "If you put kids in dangerous situations, there will be injuries."

The bill originally would have exempted businesses from civil liability if a student was sickened, injured or killed due to either the student or the company’s negligence. But an amendment removed that language.

A company could face fines of up to $10,000 for violations under the bill, but the state's labor commissioner could reduce or waive the penalty. And a business still could face civil liability if a student is injured while driving for work, but not while traveling to or from work.

"It's saying for those lower-income kids, they are expendable. They are a cog in a machine," Womble said. "We should value human life in general more than that, especially our children."

The bill's opponents previously protested at the Capitol on Feb. 27, before the legislative winnowing process called the funnel, which the bill survived.

The U.S. Labor Department’s top lawyer, Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda, this month criticized child labor bills like the one in Iowa, saying the proposals would contribute to the rising number of children who have been found working illegally at U.S companies. 

But a Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll conducted March 5-8 found that 50% of Iowans favor the bill, while 42% oppose it and 8% are undecided.

Terry O’Sullivan, general president of the Laborers’ International Union of North America since 2000, will be retiring effective April 30, the union has announced. Succeeding O’Sullivan will be LIUNA Vice President Brent Booker, a third-generation member of the union.

O’Sullivan, 67, announced his retirement to the union’s general executive board on March 21, which then unanimously elected Booker as his successor. LIUNA formally announced the changes on March 28. With more than 500,000 members, the union is one of the largest among the building trades.

Booker, 48, had been LIUNA’s director of construction until 2012, when he shifted to the North America’s Building Trades Unions as general secretary-treasurer.

Booker moved back to LIUNA last fall and was named a vice president after Vice President Ralph Cole retired.

Brent Booker

Brent Booker has long-standing family ties to the union. His father, Carl E. Booker, was LIUNA’s general secretary-treasurer. Brent Booker’s grandfather, Carl W. Booker, was business manager of the union’s Local #795. 

In another change in LIUNA's leadership team, the board unanimously elected Michael F. Sabitoni as general secretary-treasurer. He will replace Armand E. Sabitoni, who is retiring after more than 22 year in that position.

Michael Sabitoni has been a LIUNA vice president and business manager of the Rhode Island Laborers’ District Council. The Sabitonis are cousins.

Longtime Infrastructure Advocate

Within the union, organizing has been one of O’Sullivan’s top priorities. LIUNA’s spending on organizing programs has risen to $100 million a year from less than $2 million annually, according to the union.

O’Sullivan also has sought to reinforce LIUNA's political presence. For years, he has been a key player in pushing for federal infrastructure legislation, most recently in the drive to develop and pass the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

In O'Sullivan's years as the laborers' general president, the union also has significantly increased its contributions to political candidates. According to the nonprofit political spending research organization OpenSecrets, LIUNA’s political contributions jumped to $24.1 million in the 2020 presidential election cycle, from $3.6 million in the 2000 cycle.

LIUNA has sent the vast majority of its political campaign spending to Democratic candidates, including 87% in 2022. 

However, O'Sullivan broke with the administration of President Obama, whose elections he strongly supported, by advocating for the continued development of oil and natural gas in the U.S.

O'Sullivan also backed building the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which Obama canceled in 2015, and President Trump sought to revive via an executive order two years later. In 2021, President Biden revoked the pipeline's permit.