Great news from Michigan. Volunteers filed 650,000 signatures—more than twice the number required—to place a proposal protecting collective bargaining rights on November's ballot.

Says Michigan State AFL-CIO President Karla Swift:

This is a tremendous kick off, and now the real work begins. We must also prepare to counteract the corporate special interest money that is about to flood into our state to confuse the issue and defeat working families at the ballot box.

The "Protect Our Jobs" campaign began in March after a continuous Republican assault on the rights of working families by Gov. Rick Snyder and the state legislature. The campaign needed 322,609 signatures by July 9 to qualify the ballot initiative.