By Brenda Ortega
MEA Voice Editor

Retired MEA Lobbyist Christina Canfield used to get asked by members in her training sessions at conferences what was the hardest part of her job? Was it watching a vote in the Legislature go the wrong way — as when Republicans rammed through right-to-work laws in 2012?

No, she would answer. The hardest part is the next day, after suffering a terrible loss, when you have to get back up, return to the arena, and keep fighting for what’s right.

MEA members are living that struggle in the wake of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s veto of House Bill 6058 on Friday. Educators fought hard to pass the measure to relieve skyrocketing health care costs, only to see it rejected by a governor they long supported.

Whitmer broke faith with educators, Michigan workers, and her own party when she vetoed HB 6058 and eight other bills. Senate Democrats had waged a lengthy battle through the courts to get the bills — illegally withheld by Republican House Speaker Matt Hall — delivered for signature.

MEA issued a joint statement with the Michigan AFL-CIO and UAW, saying the move by Whitmer “betrays democratic values and abandons the very people who have supported her in office… We condemn her betrayal of Michigan workers and call on political leaders who value our state’s working families to do the same.”

HB 6058 would have fixed Public Act 152, the state law passed in 2011 by a Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Rick Snyder, which limited the amount employers could pay toward health care costs for teachers, school support staff, and other public employees.

MEA members spent months pushing for the bill’s passage, lobbying at the Capitol, writing letters to lawmakers, and testifying before legislative committees.

Comstock math teacher Kim Sandefur, who lives in Speaker Hall’s district, summed up the issue in powerful testimony.

“Playing party politics with people’s health care and income is deplorable,” Sandefur told the Senate Labor Committee in January 2025, a few weeks after Hall announced he would withhold the nine bills instead of transmitting them as the constitution requires.

“We are struggling to recruit and retain highly qualified teachers as it is; they should not have to choose between health care and the job that they so love doing.”

Sandefur told a moving story of her young daughter in the emergency room to detail how spiraling out-of-pocket health costs are driving away workers in public-sector jobs, from public school employees to nurses, municipal and road workers, police officers, and firefighters.

“Nobody’s ever gone into education to get rich, but the rewards through student outcomes and decent benefits have helped to offset the pay,” Sandefur testified. “But this year we’re seeing unprecedented indirect pay cuts… The rising cost of their health care insurance is factoring heavily into how much longer veteran teachers will stay in the classroom.”

Yet Hall refused to forward the bills for another year and a half — until he was ordered to do so by the Michigan Supreme Court, which ruled his actions unconstitutional on the same day the governor used her veto pen.

Whitmer cited “political gamesmanship,” retroactive cost, and administrative burdens for her decision to veto. “Had the House presented these bills to me in a timely manner, as the Constitution requires, today would have looked much different,” she said in a statement.

Sen. Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids), who led the legal challenge against the House, said afterward she celebrated a win for the constitution but was “extremely disappointed” when “quality policy that would lower costs and improve life for millions of Michiganders met an end at the governor’s desk.”

Brinks concluded, “I want to assure everyone that no matter the hurdle thrown at us, Senate Democrats will never give up the fight for the hardworking men and women who make our state great.”

Lead sponsor of HB 6058, Rep. Mai Xiong (D-Warren), said in a social media post she was “completely crushed” by the veto. She leveled her strongest criticism at Hall, “the most powerful Republican in the state,” for openly violating the constitution for more than 18 months.

“Michigan workers, including corrections officers and teachers, deserve better. Now they will have to wait for the legislature to act, to reintroduce these bills, and to get them to a new governor’s desk,” Xiong said.

“Despite this setback, I will continue to fight for and champion the causes that are important to you, and I ask that you look to your other leaders and demand the same.”

The nine bills were passed by Democrats when they held majorities in both the House and Senate. But it wasn’t easy. Powerful special interests, including many school and other public employer management groups, stood in opposition.

Brinks and Xiong, along with Sen. Kevin Hertel (D-St. Clair Shores) who played a key role in HB 6058’s passage in the House, stood firm with educators and other public employees throughout the long fight.

The three appeared at MEA’s Winter Conference in February 2025 in a show of solidarity.

Hertel told the crowd of 1,000 members in attendance, “I want you to understand that people are doing everything they can to get this bill to the governor’s desk, get it signed, and make sure that you can work in the career you want to work in, support your family, and succeed.”

MEA is not backing down now. In this fall’s critical election, candidates we endorse will be expected to commit to supporting healthcare cost relief for educators in the new year – something many allies have already pledged to do.

MEA Lobbyist David Michelson, who has been in the role for more than four decades, has seen plenty of drama in Lansing over the years. The Whitmer veto was a very painful blow, coming from a trusted friend, but it’s important for members to keep moving forward, he said.

“Organized labor’s struggle for collective strength and economic fairness has never been easy or straight-forward,” he said.

Michelson served as a lobbyist through two terms of Gov. Rick Snyder and a Republican-controlled Legislature — the most destructive stretch of Michigan labor history since the Public Employment Relations Act established the legal right of public employees to organize and bargain collectively in 1965.

Veteran educators still remember Dec. 11, 2012, when the Legislature rushed through union-busting bills — with no hearings and a vote along strict party lines — to weaken organized labor’s collective power in both public and private workplaces.

Thousands of protesters from across the labor movement filled the Capitol building and the lawn outside as horse-mounted state police patrolled with batons and deployed pepper spray.

Then Snyder signed the bills on the same day they passed.

That was just the beginning. What followed were school funding cuts and laws to further weaken educators’ compensation, workplace rights, and classroom autonomy. Read more about the Snyder years – and how they relate to the stakes this fall – in the upcoming MEA Voice magazine.

Democrats delivered real wins when they briefly controlled the House, Senate and governor’s office from 2023-25, restoring subjects of bargaining, fixing the broken teacher evaluation system, increasing public school funding, and securing universal free breakfast and lunch.

Much remains to be done. Michelson reminds members of the well-known labor slogan, Don’t mourn; organize!

“We need to take our anger and turn it into energy for the work ahead,” he said. “The antidote to despair is action.”