Big Labor must be part of state's effort to reverse Rust Belt image By Daniel Howes / The Detroit News
MACKINAC ISLAND--Amid all the talk here about making Michigan globally competitive and launching foreign trade missions to deliver new jobs, one thing is missing: Big Labor.
That must change faster than it is.
Like it or not, organized labor is and will be a cornerstone of the Michigan economy, and it must be a partner in many bids to sell the state to would-be investors — or most of those efforts will fail. Where a Republican governor largely ignored unions as an economic development ally, reinforcing the adversarial labor-management rap on Michigan, the state’s top Democrat is taking a new tack.