Clinton Township Resident Backs Collective Bargaining in Statewide TV Ad

A Clinton Township woman is the face of a statewide television ad encouraging Michigan residents to "Vote Yes to Collective Bargaining" in November.

Karen Kuciel, a fifth-grade teacher in Warren Consolidated Schools, is front and center in the first ad launched and paid for by Protect Our Jobs, a union-backed committee supporting a proposal on the November ballot that would protect collective bargaining rights in the Michigan Constitution.

“Each day, when the kids leave and it’s quiet, teachers take stock. What worked, what didn’t?" Kuciel says in the ad. "It’s not just about funding – it’s class size, training, supplies, even books.

"And teachers negotiate all of that with the school district when they have collective bargaining. Teachers have collective bargaining so they can fight for things like smaller class sizes and good materials, to help kids learn."

Kuciel closes her comments with a plug for the proposal: "Collective Bargaining helps our kids. So I’m voting 'Yes' for collective bargaining."

The ad had received 44,588 views on YouTube as of 3 p.m. Monday.

The state Supreme Court ruled Sept. 5 to allow the Protect Working Families, proposal, more commonly known as the collective bargaining proposal, on the November ballot. It will join five other proposals on the Nov. 6 ballot.

In a recent poll conducted by EPIC-MRA of Lansing for the Free Press, WXYZ-TV (Channel 7) and three outstate TV stations, this proposal shows Michigan voters leaning 48 percent for and 43 percent against, with the rest undecided.

Protect Our Jobs has received some $8 million in funding from state and national unions, and collected almost 700,000 signatures to place the issue on the ballot, according to MLive.com.