Organized labor and pro-business groups are waging an intense lobbying campaign directed at school teachers who are deciding this month whether to remain in their union, in the first real test of the state's new right-to-work law. Many of the 112,000 active educators and school workers in the Michigan Education Association can now leave the union and stop paying fees under the law that took effect last year.
Michigan's Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, who keeps mostly silent on social issues in favor of focusing on the economy, is stepping carefully on the issue of gay marriage after a judge's declaration that the state's ban is unconstitutional. His detachment is exasperating critics who say he should take more of a leadership role, even if it's an issue he would prefer go away.
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder plans to ask the Obama administration to set aside thousands of work visas to attract talented immigrants to live and work in bankrupt Detroit.
A Michigan state appeals court has ruled that an anti-union right-to-work law applies equally to all state employees. The three-judge panel ruled 2-1 that the law superseded the Michigan Civil Service Commission, which had be tasked with setting compensation prior to the legislation.