LANSING – A group of current and former Michigan union workers announced Thursday an effort to push the Legislature to enact a right-to-work law in the state, saying it would help unions as well as business.

And even though Governor Rick Snyder has said repeatedly that he was not pushing for a right-to-work law, saying it would be too divisive, backers of the proposal said they trusted he would sign such a bill if it came to him.

While union workers held a press conference calling for a right-to-work law, dozens of union members stood outside the room in protest of the effort.

In fact, the union members protesting the effort threw off some of the logistics of where the press conference was to be held.

There is already a bill introduced, HB 4054 , to allow local right-to-work provisions, but the supporters of MI Freedom to Work said a statewide measure would go a long way to helping the state’s economy grow.

Not conspicuous at the press conference were any officials representing businesses or business groups.

Terry Bowman, who directed the press conference and is a member of United Auto Workers Local 898, said financing the effort will be a broad coalition accepting contributions.

Bowman described himself, as did all the participants at the news conference, as a longtime union worker and supporter.

But a requirement that persons join unions whether they choose to or not is antithetical to traditional American values, he said.

Also, states with right-to-work laws have seen their economies grow even at a time when Michigan’s economy collapsed, he said.

And Melinda Day, a graduate student at the University of Michigan and a member of the Graduate Employees Organization, said she should have the same rights that students had in the 1970s to vote to create the union. Those students had the right to decide to create and join the union, she said, but in so doing took away her right to decide not to join the union.

Creating a right-to-work law might not harm overall union membership, Bowman said. He expected that if large manufacturers chose to come into Michigan because a right-to-work law had been enacted, one could see as many as 75 percent of the workers in a plant unionize.

Union protestors, many of whom were with the Michigan Education Association, issued statements following the press conference saying that workers in right-to-work states typically earn $5,333 a year less than workers in non-right-to-work states. Fewer of those workers have health care benefits too, they said.

One of the main criticisms of right-to-work laws is that they allow those who choose not to join the union to reap the benefits of the contract those in the union negotiate with management even though they do not pay union dues to pay contract negotiators.

The union members protesting the press conference were so numerous that at one point the organizers of the press conference considered moving it from the ground floor Capitol conference room where it was scheduled. When the protestors heard the press conference was being moved, they began heading upstairs. Once they had left, organizers decided to put the press conference back to its original locale.

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