In August of 2015, the year before he was elected president, Donald Trump had a clear and concise message for auto workers: You make too much money. He said U.S. automakers could shift production away from Michigan to communities where autoworkers would make less. “You can go to different parts of the United States and then ultimately you’d do full-circle […]

The Great Orange Smoke Screen The front pages of any major news outlet, online or otherwise, are full of news of Donald Trump and the corrupt, inept-yet-frighteningly-effective cabal of criminals that make up his administration and circle of advisors. Nearly 40 people tied to him, his administration, his inauguration, and his campaign have been indicted and more are sure to […]

As Republicans in Wisconsin and Michigan work to cement their anti-worker agenda into our states’ laws during their petulant, sore loser session before they lose significant political power in 2019, perhaps the most outrageous is the effort to take away sick time pay for workers in over 93% of Michigan’s firms. This is because they changed the threshold for exemption […]

This week marks the painful beginning of the lame duck (or, as I call it, “enflamed duck”) session in the Michigan State legislature. With a Democratic governor about to take the reins, Republicans are hell-bent to pass as much regressive legislation into law as they can before Gov. Gretchen Whitmer moves into her new office. One of the worst is […]

The following essay was written by my friend Danielle Atkinson. Danielle is Chair of MI Time to Care and the Founding Director of Mothering Justice, a statewide organization working to improve the lives of Michigan families by equipping the next generation of mother activists. Enjoy. Six years ago, I founded Mothering Justice to fill a void for mothers across the […]

In 2016, Donald Trump got around 37% of the vote from members of labor unions. He actually out-performed Mitt Romney in this regard suggesting that his faux pro-worker rhetoric hit its mark. Since then, he’s continued his attempts to appease union workers and convince them — despite a preponderance of evidence to the contrary — that he is on THEIR […]

In Michigan, you have no right to paid time off if you or a loved one is sick. The result is that many of us go to work sick because we simply can’t afford NOT to. The impacts of this, which we highlighted in a four-part series HERE, are devastating to workers and their families. Not only that, it all […]

This past week, corporatists ticked off a major agenda when the United States Supreme Court decided in their favor in the Janus v. AFSCME case. With this decision, SCOTUS has turned America into a “Right to Freeload” country. Will Swaim, president of the California Policy Center, an affiliate of the Koch brothers State Policy Network (SPN), celebrated the decision to […]

We could be running against Neil Gorsuch for the next 50 years The theft you’re most likely to experience is wage theft. And Neil Gorsuch just made it more likely that it will happen to you and you’ll never be able to recover your losses. Slate‘s Mark Joseph Stern: The Supreme Court issued a 5–4 decision Monday in Epic Systems […]

The following post was contributed by my good friend Frank Houston. Frank is the Michigan Regional Program Manager of the BlueGreen Alliance, a group that encompasses a variety of progressive values: labor, environmental, and political action. For this reason, it’s a group that I’m happy to share this platform with. The gains made in federal environmental policy under the Obama […]

It’s well-known that Republican Mike Bishop is deeply embedded in the pockets of the super-wealthy like skabillionaire Matty Moroun so it’ll likely come as no surprise to you that he disdains unions and is all in for gun manufacturers and their corporate front group, the NRA. In fact, his website used to crow about his pro-gun, anti-union stances. Here’s a […]