Kathleen Gray

Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau

LANSING -- The Michigan House of Representatives passed a pair of anti-union bills Wednesday night that make it harder for workers and unions to picket and easier for employers to hire workers to replace striking employees.

One bill would increase fines against picketers to $1,000 per person per day of a picket and $10,000 per day for an organization or union involved in the picket that is deemed to be an illegal mass picket. That bill passed on a mostly party-line vote of 57-50.

The other would repeal a law that requires employers to include information about an ongoing strike when they advertise to hire employees who will replace existing, but striking employees at a company. That bill passed on a vote of 59-48 on a mostly party line vote.

Democrats said the bill was an affront to peaceful protests and would allow companies to file complaints about pickets without showing any actual harm was done to their business.

►Related:Bill would cut Michigan communities a break on road costs

►Related: Increased speed limit nears final passage

►Related: Wrongly convicted could get compensation under new bill

State Rep. Leslie Love, D-Detroit, recalled the protests surrounding the civil rights and Voting Rights acts.

“That landmark legislation didn’t pass because we had polite protesters. We did it on buses and bridges and lunch counters. And those protesters were attacked by dogs, water hosed down,” she said. “I’m deeply appalled by these bills because I grew up in a union household and my mother took me to pickets and it was always a safe environment.”

But Republicans said the bills are needed to protect businesses from protesters who are restricting access to places of business. State Rep. Gary Glenn, R-Midland, mentioned a picket at a McDonalds in Detroit and picketers who protested at the home of Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette as two incidents that need to be stopped.

The current law, which makes mass picketing a misdemeanor carrying a sentence of up to 93 days in jail and a $500 fine, "has proven to be insufficient to serve as a deterrent," Glenn said. This just increases the penalties for already illegal activites."

Rep. Andy Schor, D-Lansing, noted that laws already exist and have been working.

“We don’t need more laws,” he said.

The bills – HB 4643 and 4630 – now move to the Senate for consideration.

Contact Kathleen Gray: 313-223-4430, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal