When I first became involved in politics in the 1960s, my home state of Michigan was one of the most unionized states in the country, with 40% or more of voters in union households (i.e., some household member was a union member). Public employee unions were just starting to ramp up their rolls, and the bulk of union members belonged to the United Auto Workers. Today UAW membership in Michigan is much lower and public employee union membership is much higher—and union issues are much more important in state politics and government.
All of which makes very interesting the recent polling done for Bill Ballenger’s Insider Michigan Politics by the polling firm MRG, the exact wording and results of which can be found here. (Ballenger was a Republican state senator years ago, but his views on many issues are considerably less conservative than those of most Michigan Republicans and he wasn’t a fan of conservative Republican Governor John Engler who served from 1990 to 2002.) Bottom line: unions are not wholelheartedly supported by Michigan voters, who in 2010 elected a Republican governor, Rick Snyder, and a heavily Republican state legislature. Highlights of the results:
Do voters support the state’s Emergency Financial Management law which authorizes the governor to appoint an emergency financial manager to take over bankrupt local governments with the power to void union contracts? Yes, they do, by a 52%-35% margin. EFMs have been appointed in four cities and two school districts, including Detroit, so far; Snyder has tried to get Detroit Mayor Dave Bing to take actions that will avoid an EFM for the city government, so far unsuccessfully.
Do voters support the law, recently passed by the legislature and signed by Snyder, to prohibit school districts from collecting union dues and forwarding them to teacher unions? Yes, by a 46%-40% margin. When checkoffs have been abolished, as was done by Mitch Daniels’s executive order in Indiana and by Scott Walker’s legislation in Wisconsin, the flow of money to teacher unions has been vastly reduced.
Do voters support a right-to-work law, banning union contracts that require all employees in a bargaining unit to pay union dues? Yes, by a surprisingly large 58%-37% margin. Some Republicans in the legislature want to pass such a bill but Snyder has said it is “not on my agenda.” Unions fear he would sign it if the legislature passes it. Union leaders have been threatening a referendum on a state constitutional amendment banning a right-to-work law, but these numbers suggest it would have a hard time passing.
These are pretty depressing results for both private sector and public employee unions, and in a state where unions used to be very powerful and popular.
