Michigan voters have a crowded state ballot to cast on election day. It includes six policy initiatives, five of which would amend the Michigan Constitution. Among them are several measures pushed by unions, including a labor backed proposal to guarantee union collective bargaining rights in the state constitution.
The collective bargaining measure would ban right-to-work laws, which limit unions' ability to collect fees from non-union workers. It also would roll back recent GOP lawmaker moves to take some public employee benefits and staffing issues off the negotiating table.
The passage would give public and private workers in Michigan the constitutional right to organize in unions and collectively bargain contracts. Any current or future laws limiting such rights would be invalidated.
Voters will also decide whether to kill a law that sends powerful emergency managers into distressed communities and school districts to fix their finances.
Other measures would order electric utilities to generate one-quarter of their power from renewable sources by 2025, make tax increases contingent on supermajority votes and prohibit construction of a fiercely debated new bridge between Detroit and the Canadian city of Windsor without voter approval.
