Southeast Michigan Contractors Issue 4 2024 5 FEATURE STORY • When President Joe Biden said he would be “the most prounion President leading the most pro-union administration in American history,” the Michigan legislature was clearly listening and has decided to follow suit. • Repeal of Right to Work and reimplementation of Prevailing Wage within the first four months of taking over the legislature in January of 2023. • Strengthening prevailing wage by passing a bill to implement a yearly pre-registration process to bid prevailing wage work. What May Still Happen? • Barrage of union friendly bills waiting to be passed this fall. • Independent contractor reform bills have been introduced that could significantly limit your ability to use 1099 employees. Under the bill, workers are presumed to be employees and employers are required to bear the burden of proof by a preponderance of evidence that they did not misclassify someone as an independent contractor. The bills also implements fines for misclassification including prison time. • Apprenticeship ratio changes have been proposed that would cut the use of apprentices on a jobsite by 66% or more by limiting electricians to a 1:1 ratio and plumbers to a 2:1 ratio. This would be done at a time when ABC National estimates the national skilled trades worker shortage at nearly 500,000 workers per year. The bills would also implement fines and even give the department the ability to suspend your license. • The Fair and Open Competition in Construction Act protects Michigan’s construction industry from the State of Michigan requiring contractors and sub-contractors to sign discriminatory Project Labor Agreements to do state funded work. A Democrat introduced bill would repeal FOCA and allow the government to require PLA’s which are a form of collective bargaining agreement. These agreements would require your non-union company to pay into the union pension and healthcare funds for the duration of the project. PLA’s can also bar any non-union apprentices from a jobsite. What Can YOU Do? The election is coming up on Tuesday, November 5. The entire Michigan House of Representatives is up for election in 2024 and this is our best chance to elect a Merit Shop friendly legislature. Scan the QR code for a list of merit shop friendly candidates. ABC of Michigan has built out a robust campaign plan to help elect Merit Shop friendly legislators. You can help expand that program by scanning the QR code to learn how to donate to our efforts. ABC of Michigan’s efforts don’t stop after the election. We work year-round to bring you the best possible public policy results in Lansing. Reach out to your Southeast Michigan Chapter or directly to ABC of Michigan by emailing Shane Hernandez at shernandez@ abcmi.com to get more involved and to learn more about our efforts in Lansing.
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