Earlier this year, Democrats in Michigan’s state legislature broke with Democratic Party norms by actually using their elected offices to push through a suite of significant pro-worker legislation. This included rolling back the right-to-work law that Michigan passed in 2012, making Michigan the first state in more than fifty years to do so.

Joey Andrews, elected to the state house in 2022 to represent District 38 in southwestern Michigan, championed the repeal of right to work and other pro-union policies, like restoring teachers’ bargaining rights. Jacobin’s Nick French spoke with Andrews about Michigan Democrats’ recent legislative record, the relationship between labor and the Democratic Party, and the current moment in working-class politics more broadly.