BATTLE CREEK - The lawyer leading the effort to combat the ongoing prevailing wage repeal petition drive said the state's building trades unions don't have many "attractive" options available.

The trades have options, but they're either expensive, time consuming or require a great deal of individual membership involvement - or a combination of all three. And none come with a guarantee.

Still, retaining Michigan's Prevailing Wage Act of 1965 is not a lost cause. "We're going to fight the petition, in every way possible," said attorney John Pirich on Aug. 9, to delegates at the Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council's 51st Convention. 

Pirich has been retained by the Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council to counter the ongoing petition drive backed by the Associated Builders and Contractors- Michigan and their front group, Protect Michigan Taxpayers. Pirich and his team smelled a rat in 2015, and the ABC's prevailing wage repeal petition effort that year failed spectacularly, with close examination of the submitted petition sheets finding that some 43 percent of the 390,000 names submitted to the state Board of Canvassers were duplicates or otherwise invalid.

The failed 2015 effort cost the ABC and their big money backers from the Devos family and elsewhere about $1.85 million, some of which they have reclaimed through a lawsuit settlement against the Nevada company that collected the petitions. A similar petition effort fizzled out in 2016 for unknown reasons.

Now in 2017, Pirich said Protect Michigan Taxpayers started collecting petition signatures to repeal prevailing wage on May 25. As of Aug. 4, he said they had collected 183,724 signatures, with a goal of obtaining 360,000 total signatures. They need that many extra names as a cushion, Pirich said, "because they know we will be ready to challenge them if they have anything close to the 255,000 number that's needed to qualify for the ballot proposal."

He said this time, the ABC has hired a much more reputable company, based in Brighton, to collect the signatures, and they are checking the validity of the names as the effort progresses to make sure the entire effort is on track. Their goal, he said, will be to submit the signatures to the state for approval well within the state's 180-window, by the end of October. 

And he said the ABC has a built-in advantage this year, because the company collecting signatures is simultaneously collecting petition signatures to legalize medical marijuana. Get people to sign a petition to legalize pot - usually an easy yes or no decision - and it's also easy to simultaneously put a second petition in front of them, lie about the contents, and get them to sign away prevailing wage. He said the going rate for each signature is $1.25, and that price will probably rise as summer winds down.

Pirich offered delegates a nuts and bolts explanation about the likely course of action for the petition drive and beyond, based on state law and its calendar requirements.

The state's review and certification process for the submitted petition signatures is about a 60-day procedure, so that would likely mean the names would need to be certified by the end of 2017. Then, Pirich said, "lo and behold, what happens, the second Wednesday of January the Legislature comes back into session. There's no question what will happen in the Senate. If they get the petitions certified, the Senate (GOP) will vote for it unanimously. The real fight is going to be in the House. We need about 10 members of the House (GOP) to say no we won't adopt this."

Both houses of the state Legislature are controlled by Republicans, who enjoy strong majorities. They have not fully pursued prevailing wage repeal legislatively because Gov. Rick Snyder has pledged he would veto such a bill - Snyder has declared that construction hiring is difficult enough without lowering wages. 

But the state Constitution does allow for petition drives to initiate legislation, and if this one is successful and is approved by a majority of the Legislature early next year, the governor would have no veto power. If 10 Republican House members can be convinced to vote no, or decline to vote on prevailing wage repeal, the issue, by law, then goes to a statewide ballot question in November 2019. "We'll do fine if we get this to the ballot, I'm very confident about that," Pirich said. Statewide polling from 2015 indicated fewer than one third of Michigan residents approved repeal of prevailing wage.

Among the majority of the state Republican lawmakers, "we know the sentiment is not to let this go to the ballot, the sentiment is to get this jammed through the Senate as quickly as possible in early January," Pirich said, "and  get it through the House as quickly as possible thereafter.

"So theoretically, by the end of January we could face the probability that the proposal will be voted on by both houses of the Michigan Legislature, unless we turn around and convince those 10 Republican votes to come in our direction, it will become the law of the state, and the act will be repealed. And then what do we do?"

Pirich suggested that if the Legislature adopts prevailing wage repeal, a final option for the building trades would be to almost immediately start up a counter petition drive to revive the prevailing wage law. But there are built-in disadvantages. The 180-day window to get signatures to put the issue on the November 2018 ballot would need to be early in the year, during cold-weather months, when people are indoors and harder to approach to sign. The cost would be substantial, similar to what the ABC is paying. 

"Is it the most attractive option available?" Pirich said. "Probably not." Preferably the legislature would vote it down and the issue would go to the ballot, anyway. "We would have a window of mid-to-late January until the end of May to collect 255,000 signatures, plus a cushion to make sure there are no duplicates or unregistered voters and get our own ballot proposal on. It would cost a lot of money to try and do this, but the reality is its the only alternative we have left if that is the scenario we face."