(Source: MIRS.news, Published 12/16/2024) With the Michigan Chamber of Commerce on the losing end of several lame duck votes, Chamber Vice President Wendy Block said the Chamber wouldn't rule out a statewide petition drive.

Block appeared on Off The Record this week after taking it on the chin with unemployment insurance benefits expanding, new polluter pay legislation passing the Senate and the tipped wage/sick leave reforms stalling out in the House.

"We're not giving up. We are continuing to push until it's over," Block said.

Block is still trying to convince enough Democrats to vote no on what she terms the worst Lame Duck "anti-jobs and anti-business" legislation ever.

But when the dust settles and the business community adds up the cost to all this, there are only two options if they lose. One is to do nothing. The other is a statewide petition.

"That's a good, good thought … in terms of using the citizen initiative process to our advantage. Frankly, we are not there yet," she said, while speaking for the first time on this possible strategy.

She knows next year, even if the House is controlled by Republicans, there is no way business can revisit this battle and win with the Democrats still running the Senate and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in the front office.

On a petition drive for any number of the items that may pass, Block said:

"We're not ruling anything out, right? It's certainly costly to undertake a petition drive, but all of these bills taken together have a very hefty price tag as well …. Moving forward we're going to have to figure out how we are going to pick up the pieces and what does that involve, and what do we do?"

By the end of the week when the business folks look at the final box score, they may have a better idea on what to do with the only option, other than eating their lunch, is to ask the voters to undo what the D's did.

Meanwhile, the One Fair Wage group, the folks who want to see the tipped wage for wait staff eliminated in favor of a minimum wage and the paid sick leave policy stay as is, applauded the House majority for "standing firm against the Republican-led efforts" and the "corporate pressure" to roll back the Supreme Court's decision "to raise wages and eliminate the sub-minimum wage for tipped workers."

House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit) wrote in a rare social media post that, "MIHouseDems respect the will of the people & support higher wages for workers. House Republicans don't want to give workers a raise – when we refused to make that deal, Republicans walked off the job but still got paid. Ironic & not fair to regular, hard-working folks. The GOP plays politics."

Tate decision not to deal with Republicans on the paid sick leave issue drove One Fair Wage President Saru Jayaraman to declare victory on behalf of working families.

"The Supreme Court's decision was not just a legal milestone—it was a mandate from voters living through an affordability crisis. By refusing to act on a deceptive rollback bill, the Michigan House has shown it is willing to stand with workers over corporate interests," Jayaraman wrote.

Rolling back these wage increases would disproportionately harm women, people of color and immigrant workers, who make up the majority of tipped employees," Jayaraman said. "These workers are already among Michigan's most vulnerable, and reversing this progress would only exacerbate inequities and economic insecurity."

A coalition of workers' rights organizations, civil rights leaders, women's rights advocates and economic justice groups have united to amplify this message, rallying around a simple premise: the results of the 2024 elections made one thing clear—legislators must choose to stand with working families or face the consequences from the working-class voters who put them in office.