FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, March 13, 2023
Media Contact: Aaron Pelo, apelo@aflcio.org | 734.355.2741
Poll Shows 75% of Michigan Voters Want to Expand Workers’ Rights, Majority Favor Fair Share Policies
LANSING, Mich. – New poll results released Monday show that 75% of Michigan voters want to expand workers’ rights laws, with landslide support for a number of other pro-worker policies. 58% of likely 2024 voters are supportive of laws that guarantee employees at unionized workplaces equally contribute to the costs of union representation, a policy that passed the state House last Wednesday and is expected to pass the Senate this week.
“Michigan voters want to make Michigan a workers’ rights state,” said Michigan AFL-CIO President Ron BIEBER. They support these laws that will give workers the right to bargain for their own safety and provide Michigan workers the freedom to collectively bargain with their employers without government getting in the way.”
Expanding workers’ rights was popular across the political spectrum, with net favorability at +56% with Independents and +33% with Republicans. Voters also support expanding workers’ rights in the following ways:
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“Changing the Michigan state constitution to guarantee the right of workers to collectively bargain” (62% support)
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“Restore pro-union laws in Michigan” (57% support)
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“Passing laws that guarantee employees at unionized workplaces equally contribute to the costs of union representation” (58% support)
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“Giving farmworkers and domestic workers the right to collectively bargain for better pay and workplace safety” (77% support)
Data from Gallup also shows over 70% support for labor unions nationwide, the highest level since the 1960s. The Michigan state legislature’s action on a number of bills to expand workers’ rights comes during a surge in workplace organizing and unfair labor practice charges across the country, and as illegal union-busting by huge corporations like Starbucks receives public, legal, and congressional backlash.
The Michigan AFL-CIO, Michigan’s largest labor organization, is a federation representing forty different labor organizations, eighteen different central labor councils, and eight constituency groups representing over 1 million union members and their families.
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