Legislation to Improve Michigan's Labor Climate Under Consideration in State House 

Michigan Chamber backed legislation is being considered in the State House which protects job providers and employees alike in Michigan's labor environment. Employees have the right to know how their union dues are being spent and job providers need protection from illegal strikes. 

House Bills 5023-26 are proactive in nature and are designed to protect employees' wages and help prevent unlawful strikes. The legislative package:
 

• Gives workers a choice about what funds they want deducted from their paychecks so they are not forced to subsidize causes with which they disagree (HB 5025).
   
• Fines public employees a day's salary for each day they illegally strike (HB 5023).
   
• Increases penalties for violation of the mass picketing statute and empowers employers to seek legal remedies to stop mass pickets (HB 5024).
   
• Eliminates the requirement of the employer to announce that a strike is taking place when advertising to fill positions of striking employees, thus enabling the employer to more easily recruit and hire new employees during a labor union dispute (HB 5026).
   

Please send an action alert to your lawmaker today and encourage him/her to support House Bills 5023-26.   

For further information, or an update, contact Wendy Block at 517/371-7678 or wblock@michamber.com.

Senate Committee Considering Workers' Compensation Legislation 

The Senate Reforms, Restructuring and Reinventing Committee is now considering House Bill 5002, legislation that stabilizes and modernizes Michigan's workers' compensation law. HB 5002 was approved in the State House on November 2. This Chamber-backed legislation addresses much needed systemic reforms and is a fair compromise bill, balancing the needs of injured workers and employers who finance the system.

As this issue is debated in the Michigan Senate, the Chamber remains aggressively involved, urging lawmakers to support this important legislation which updates, reforms and modernizes key areas of the Workers' Compensation Law.

For further information, please visit the Michigan Chamber's Briefing Center, or contact Wendy Block at 517/371-7678 or wblock@michamber.com.

 

Unemployment Insurance Reform Moving - Your Action Needed

Michigan's 100-percent-employer-financed unemployment insurance (UI) program is bankrupt. We need your help to urge Lansing lawmakers to do the right thing and implement changes to reform the system and protect job providers like you from harsh penalties from the federal government. Please sign this memo which will be delivered to lawmakers on your behalf. 
  
Because of poor economic conditions in Michigan, the state's 100-percent-employer-financed UI system has had to borrow more than $3.2 billion from the federal government to fund UI benefits. In order to avoid higher, across-the-board state and federal UI taxes on job providers for years to come, we must act now to address the fundamental problems and begin to pay back the federal funds.

The State Legislature is considering three bills - SBs 483, 484 and 806 - to address the UI system. These bills focus on many underlying issues that negatively impact the success of the UI system: from strengthening penalties for those who defraud the system, to tightening the rules regarding who qualifies to receive benefits, to allowing more employers to seek an exemption for hiring seasonal employees. In addition, the bills attack the $3.2 billion crisis through bonding. This issue is starting to get a lot of media attention. We need your assistance to help lawmakers understand Michigan's UI system needs reform now.

Please review this memo and consider adding your name to the hundreds of job providers who have already signed it. To add your name, please contact Kathy Poole at kpoole@michamber.com, with your name, title, company name and city of headquarters. We'll be sure it is added to the list. Please respond by Monday, December 5. We plan to deliver these to lawmakers on Wednesday, December 7.

For further information on UI reform, visit the Michigan Chamber's Briefing Center, or contact Wendy Block at 517/371-7678 or wblock@michamber.com.