Unions vow to fight Lansing on public pensions, health care
LANSING — Republican lawmakers are trying to force public employees to pay more for health care and convert their pensions into 401(k)-style plans, confronting the same union forces they targeted in a push four years ago to make Michigan a right-to-work state.
The bills working their way through a GOP-controlled Legislature would bring government workers in line with what has become the norm in the private sector. One of the last bastions of union power in America — public employees — promises to fight to protect their dwindling clout in a state long considered the ancestral home of organized labor.
That December 2012 battle over legislation to prohibit unions from collecting dues as a condition of employment also was fast-tracked during the lame-duck legislative session. It drew more than 10,000 protesters at the Capitol.
House and Senate committees’ decision last week to take up bills intended to control costs of pensions and retiree health care is just as acrimonious.
Read more: http://bridgemi.com/2016/12/unions-vow-to-fight-lansing-on-public-pensions-health-care/