UPDATE: LANSING - Recently, a few new state laws recently went into effect, one of the biggest being Right To Work.

Jim Rhodes, President of the local 1585 American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees says, "The law allows those who want to pay union dues to pay dues and those who choose not to pay union dues but take advantage of full benefits of the contracts, benefits in which the union has negotiated."

Some of these negotiated benefits include making the work environment safe and what fair wages consist of, and some fear what these unions provide may soon become obsolete.

"The goal of right to work is to basically bankrupt the unions. where you get enough people who choose not to pay and then the function of the union basically dissolves due to a lack of funding," says Rhodes.

But State Representative Mike Shirkey says that's not the case, "I believe that long term, it will result in unions in Michigan being stronger, more relevant, more responsive to their members and part of the solution we're continuing to harvest all of the natural and developed assets Michigan has into economic prosperity."

Shirkey says 70% of the placement consulting services he's contacted would not advise companies to invest in Michigan due to its compulsory union status.

"We could never ever quantify how many opportunities that we were just excluded from because of that stature," says Shirkey.

As for the unions, the next step is an education process.

"Right now it's going to be a training process, and how do you train your members and assure them that if you don't continue to pay dues that the union will dissolve," says Rhodes.



ORIGINAL STORY: LANSING - Find out what Right to Work could mean for you.