Advocacy News – March 9, 2021
The Michigan Chamber, in cooperation with local and regional chambers across the state, recently announced the “Reopen Michigan Safely” coalition, calling on Governor Whitmer to End the Office Ban (#EndTheOfficeBan) and allow Michigan businesses across all industries to work together toward reopening safely.
Our efforts aim to push for a full and safe reopening of all Michigan businesses, a pressing issue given the rapidly approaching April 14th expiration of Governor Whitmer’s MIOSHA emergency rule that bans most in-person office work. Our goal is to avoid a situation whereby the Governor unilaterally extends the one-size-fits-all MIOSHA rules for an additional six months.
Michigan’s current restrictions on in-person work are some of the strictest in the nation, with the overwhelming majority of states leaving these decisions in the hands of employers and employees, as long as they implement safety protocols. We are pressing for Michigan to change course and allow Michigan to reopen all industries safely. This includes offices and other businesses with strict capacity limits.
The chamber leaders joining us in the coalition’s launch include the Battle Creek, Birmingham/Bloomfield, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Saginaw, Southern Wayne chambers and Traverse Connect. We are looking forward to building out the coalition with other chambers and business and trade associations in the coming days and weeks.
If you are interested in helping with these efforts, please visit the coalition’s website at reopenmichigansafely.com, Facebook at facebook.com/reopenmichigansafely and Twitter at @ReopenMISafely. We encourage you to “sign the petition” and/or “tell your story” about how Michigan’s office ban or other COVID restrictions have impacted your business.
Finally, if you are a member of another trade or professional association, please encourage them to join our coalition efforts by contacting Wendy Block at wblock@michamber.com.
Please let us know if you have any questions about this effort or the coalition.