Ballot issue: Protecting workers' rights or giving them special status?

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/06/ballot_issue_protecting_worker.html

Published: Thursday, June 14, 2012, 6:15 AM Updated: Thursday, June 14, 2012, 10:34 AM
David Eggert | [e-mail] By David Eggert | [e-mail]

LANSING, MI - A union-led group wanting to enshrine collective-bargaining rights in the state constitution turned in so many signatures Wednesday that the measure almost certainly will qualify for the November ballot.

Now, can teachers, police and firefighters persuade voters to go along in what is expected to be a contentious - and expensive - fight for votes similar to battles in Wisconsin and Ohio?


AP file photoUnited Auto Workers President Bob King leads a union rally in downtown Detroit on Thursday, June 17, 2010.


"Collective bargaining lifts up all workers and businesses," Nayyirah Shariff, a small-business owner in Flint, said in a statement released by Protect Our Jobs, the coalition that collected more than 684,000 signatures - more than double the 322,000-plus needed. "Everyone benefits when management and workers can come together and negotiate."

The group said more than 85 percent of the signatures were collected by more than 41,000 volunteer circulators in every county - and were signed by Democrats, Republicans and independents.

FULL story and a poll at link.