How Michigan became the anti-Florida

Michigan, long known as a mainstay of organized labor, on Friday became the first state in decades to repeal a union-restricting law known as “right-to-work” that was passed over a decade ago by a Republican-controlled Legislature.The state’s “right-to-work” law had allowed those in unionized workplaces to opt out of paying union dues and fees. Its repeal is seen as a major victory for organized labor with union membership reaching an all-time low last year.“Today, we are coming together to restore workers’ rights, protect Michiganders on the job, and grow Michigan’s middle class,” Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement Friday after signing the legislation.

one of a handful of progressive policies ushered into law by Democrats since winning the legislature last November. They repealed the state’s 1931 abortion ban. They added LGBTQ rights in the state’s anti-discrimination protections. They passed a Working Families Tax Credit. And they even became the first state in decades to repeal the union-restricting “right-to-work” law, a rare victory for organized labor in the increasingly red industrial Midwest.

In short order, Democrats have refashioned a state that Donald Trump won in 2016 into a laboratory of economic and social policies (not to mention giving Whitmer a possible success story to sell Democratic primary voters should she run for president in 2028.)

“When we got a Democratic trifecta, our first tranche of legislation included things that were social issues and economic issues,” McMorrow said. “And we as Democrats have to prove that those things go together.”

McMorrow says Michigan’s transformation was years in the making, and not just the result of voters rejecting the state’s Republican party over the Supreme Court’s seismic abortion ruling last year. “The important thing is it didn’t change overnight,” she said. “The Senate was under Republican control my entire lifetime.

“We’re not New York or California,” McMorrow said. “We’re a pivotal swing state. And if we can prove that we can do it here, then that’s the signal to the rest of the country that there is a different way forward. It’s the anti-Florida — and we have two peninsulas instead of one,” she joked.

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