How the amendment protects working people

Collective bargaining gives people the ability to come together and negotiate fair contracts, just as businesses do when providing services to other businesses. Collective bargaining agreements help protect jobs, wages, benets and safety for all workers. Without these basic collective bargaining protections, CEOs can and do re workers for no reason and unilaterally change working conditions. The middle class was created right here in Michigan. Now its time that middle class people speak out to protect their wages, benets and workplace safety from continued attacks by politicians in Lansing. The proposed constitutional amendment would specically: Establish the peoples rights to organize to form, join or assist unions and to bargain collectively regarding their wages, hours and other conditions of employment. Prohibit employers from retaliating against employees for exercising those rights. Prohibit politicians from interfering with those rights, and protect current laws establishing minimum wages, hours and working conditions. Authorize the state to restrict or prohibit public employee strikes. Provide a needed counterweight to politicians and CEOs, who care more about protecting their huge bonuses than doing whats right for middle class families.

The recent attacks on the middle class by Lansing politicians include: Cutting $1 billion from K-12 schools Imposing $343 million in new taxes on seniors pensions Providing a $1.8 billion tax giveaway to big corporations that outsource jobs Banning collective bargaining rights for graduate student research employees (SB 971) An additional 80+ bills currently pending in the Legislature that would strip basic protections from working people Gov. Snyder on collective bargaining: We had successful collective bargaining with our own employees at the state level... In the end it was great that when we hit a loggerhead we sat down and talked and got a good agreement done. Stateline.org, Feb. 6, 2012

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