Michigan voters very clearly wanted to make changes this year that would give the poorest paid workers slightly more money, and made sure they had at least some sick leave.
This week, a bunch of term-limited state legislators, some of whom were defeated in the election earlier this month, are finishing the process of taking both things away from the people, because that’s what the special interests want.
This is outrageous, undemocratic — and totally legal.
This is what injustice looks like, and why many people have lost faith in government. There is, however, one ray of hope ahead. But first, here’s a little background on what happened:
As every economist knows, since 1981, there’s been a steady and accelerating growth in economic inequality in this country. Months ago, two groups formed to try to do something about this. The first, One Fair Wage, wanted to gradually increase the minimum wage from the current $9.25 an hour to $12 an hour in 2022.
More controversially, they also wanted to gradually increase the minimum for restaurant servers, and others who rely on tips, from the present anemic $3.52 an hour to the same $12 an hour over the next six years. This infuriated restaurant owners.
The second group, MI Time to Care, was established because many Michigan workers are eligible get absolutely no paid sick leave whatsoever. This leaves them at the whims of their employers, and means that many of them lose jobs when they or their children are sick, or they come to work sick, which means they often get sicker and spread disease.
MI Time to Care wrote a proposal that would guarantee workers one hour of paid sick time per 30 hours worked, up to a maximum of 72 hours a year. Hundreds of thousands of Michigan residents signed petitions to put each proposal on the ballot this November.
Polls indicated it was very likely both would pass. But there was one “dirty trick” those in power could play. The Michigan Constitution says that the one way the legislature can keep a duly certified referendum off the ballot is to enact it as written into law.
So that’s what Republicans in the legislature did. They cynically voted to pass the minimum wage and sick time proposals, knowing they could come back after the election and repeal or amend them to take most or all of what the people had gained away.
And that’s what they are trying to do right now. They also believe that Governor Rick Snyder will sign whatever they pass, even if it isn’t “on his agenda,” because that’s what he nearly always does with right-wing legislation. His political career is almost certainly over anyway, after the Flint disaster, and he has nothing to lose.
The only hope is that the courts will recognize that what the lawmakers are doing is unconstitutional. Former Attorney General Frank Kelley long ago issued an opinion stating that lawmakers could not amend a referendum they’d passed during the same session.
Mark Brewer, a constitutional lawyer with a Harvard degree, plans to use that to fight in court, if need be, against the legislators’ effort to take these protections away.
There is, by the way, a way to prevent this from happening in the future. Michigan voters took one giant step this year to end gerrymandering when they passed Proposal Two, the Voters Not Politicians amendment. Now, we need to do one other thing: Get rid of term limits.
That would give the lobbyists less power, and make it less likely that outgoing lawmakers could stick it to the people after elections are over.
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