The Michigan Civil Service Commission will soon vote on a new proposal which would put limits on collective bargaining for employees of the state of Michigan.

According to an article in the Lansing State Journal this new proposal would no longer allow unions to:

  • negotiate over how employees are recalled after layoffs
  • determine how overtime is assigned
  • determine how performance pay or other incentives are handled

Obviously the unions representing state workers are not pleased with this proposal.  Five of the six unions representing 30,000 state works have issued a joint statement in which they stated that union contracts:

insulate citizens and employees from the very ills that the (commission) was created to protect against

I understand how the unions do not want to lose what they see as their rights but let us look at this with a bit of common sense.

Should the unions or the employer, in this case the taxpayers of Michigan, have the right to determine these working conditions?

Shouldn’t the employer determine how and which employees are recalled, how overtime would be assigned and how performance pay is awarded?

Think of it this way, if you owned a company should you decide these factors or the employees?

I think if you were to honestly ask yourself these questions and put yourself as the business owner the answer would more than likely be that you as the employer should determine these processes.

Do you?

The Civil Service Commission, could possibly vote on the proposal at its next meeting on September 20th in Lansing.

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