If John James gets his way, Michigan could go backward on workers’ rights — and skilled-trades workers would be among those who pay the price.
MICHIGAN —
John James is campaigning for governor on a message that sounds familiar to Michigan workers: more jobs, more manufacturing and more opportunity.
But look beneath the slogans and there is a very different agenda emerging.
James wants to restore Michigan’s right-to-work law, which Michigan repealed in 2024. He has also opposed Michigan’s clean-energy construction projects and voted in Congress for the Trump administration’s sweeping rollback of federal clean-energy incentives that led to fewer construction jobs on projects in Michigan.
For Michigan’s working families, those positions raise a basic question:
Who benefits when workers have less bargaining power and fewer opportunities to build the new industries coming to Michigan?
Right-to-work means weaker unions
Michigan became a right-to-work state in 2013 during the tenure of the most recent Republican governor. Under that system, workers at unionized workplaces could receive the benefits of collective bargaining without being required to financially support the union negotiating and enforcing their contract.
Michigan repealed the law in 2023, with the changes taking effect in 2024. The state’s Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity says the repeal restored the ability of private-sector unions and employers to negotiate union-security agreements.
James now wants to reverse that decision.
That may sound like a question of individual choice. But for the building trades, the consequences are much broader. A union is not simply a place where workers collect a paycheck. It is an institution that negotiates wages, benefits, apprenticeship standards, safety provisions and working conditions.
When fewer workers contribute to the organization bargaining on their behalf, unions have fewer resources and less leverage. That matters to carpenters, millwrights and all skilled trade workers.
The clean-energy jobs question
There is another part of James’ record that deserves scrutiny from Michigan workers: clean-energy manufacturing. Michigan has spent years trying to position itself as a center for batteries, electric vehicles and advanced manufacturing.
Those aren’t abstract environmental projects. They are construction projects first — factories have to be designed, excavated, built, wired and equipped. They create work for carpenters, electricians, operating engineers, laborers, plumbers, millwrights and other skilled trades.
But the national policy environment has changed dramatically.
James voted for the Trump-backed One Big Beautiful Bill in 2025. James himself celebrated his vote, saying the legislation would rebuild American manufacturing. The law also rolled back or shortened major federal clean-energy incentives.
A July 2026 analysis from the BlueGreen Alliance found that Trump administration policies scaling back clean-energy support had been linked to approximately $83 billion in delayed or canceled investments across 223 clean-energy and manufacturing projects, putting more than 111,000 jobs at risk nationwide.
Michigan has been hit particularly hard by the uncertainty surrounding the clean-energy manufacturing boom. Natron Energy’s battery operation in Holland is one example. The company began commercial production of sodium-ion batteries in Michigan in 2024 but ultimately ceased operations in 2025 after the company ran out of funding.
The choice for Michigan workers
There is a legitimate debate over taxes, regulations, energy policy and the role of government.
But Michigan workers should also ask a simpler question:
Does this policy increase or decrease my bargaining power?
Restoring right-to-work would reduce the bargaining power of union members.
Rolling back clean-energy incentives can reduce investment in industries that have been producing construction and manufacturing opportunities. Opposing Michigan’s clean-energy law sends another signal to companies deciding where to invest.
James says he wants to make Michigan more competitive. But competitiveness shouldn’t mean competing to see how little workers can be paid or how weak their unions can become. Michigan already tried that experiment and construction workers paid for it.
For more than a decade, Michigan was a right-to-work state. Now the state has chosen a different path — one that gives unions more ability to negotiate collectively and gives skilled trades workers a stronger voice on the job.
John James wants to reverse it. For Michigan’s carpenters and the rest of the skilled trades, that isn’t moving Michigan forward. It’s turning the clock back.
