Restoring Balance to Labor Law
According to the Mackinac Center:
Contracts play a pivotal role in a free economy. Every time we buy or sell something, whether it is a home or a cup of coffee, there’s a contract. Sometimes these contracts are long, complicated things that are the product of weeks of bargaining, like the contract that the UAW just agreed to with GM. Sometimes they are informal things that are made and expire so quickly we hardly notice them. You grab a table at the local diner and the waitress takes your order. You’ve just made a contract. After you’ve finished your meal and you pay the bill, the contract is done.
For a majority of Americans, the most important contracts we’ll ever agree to are the ones that we make with our employers. Those are the contracts that govern how we’ll spend 40 or more hours a week and how we’ll fund nearly all of our purchases. Depending on the specific terms, these contracts may also play a large role in how we finance our retirement or receive health insurance.
But the laws that govern these contracts get little attention considering just how important they are. That applies in particular to the laws that govern union representation, which is unfortunate because Michigan is at a point where it needs to re-evaluate the role that unions play in the state’s economy and government...click to continue.
