Insider: Labor unions help sponsor Michigan GOP conference – By Melissa Nann Burke, Beth LeBlanc & Craig Mauger (The Detroit News) / Sept 26 2021
Union groups that usually align with Democratic candidates were sponsors of the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference on Mackinac Island this weekend. The sponsorships from Laborers International Union of North America and Operating Engineers marked the first time the labor groups sponsored the conference.
Representatives from both groups also were featured on a panel at the conference where they expressed common interests with Republicans, such as the building of a tunnel to house Enbridge’s Line 5 oil pipeline, road worker safety, the repeal of pension taxes and fewer restrictions for aggregate resources.
“This is the first time we’ve ever been offered” to sponsor the conference, said William Miller III, political director for Operating Engineers 324. “We’ve had these relationships with the Republican Party for years. …We are truly policy over party. We don’t get involved with social issues.”
As hunters and fishers, the union, Miller said, wants to shut down the 68-year-old Line 5 pipeline through the Straits of Mackinac but wants to ensure the tunnel is built first.
