LANSING – The Michigan AFL-CIO issued the following statement today from President Ron Bieber on the Supreme Court decision on Janus v. AFSCME 31.
“As billionaires and corporate special interests seek to further rig our economy against working people across the country, this is the latest attempt to take away our rights to join together in unions. It is a shame that these special interests have manipulated the Supreme Court to further their harmful agenda.
This decision comes at a point in time when thousands of Michigan workers are recommitting to join unions and are launching new organizing drives, and as support for labor unions has risen to its highest level in years. Indeed, Michigan added 52,000 new union members in 2017– the biggest annual jump in union membership in Michigan in over a decade. Even more importantly, it means there are now more union members in Michigan than there were in 2012 — the year Gov. Rick Snyder signed right-to-work legislation into law.
So we have faced these attacks before and we have weathered the storm well. The labor movement remains a strong and vibrant force for working people and will continue fighting to sustain our families, improve our workplaces and make our communities stronger regardless of the court’s ruling.”
