The planning started months ago, even while hope remained a solution would be reached. When it became evident the Legislature was not moving fast enough toward a solution, on September 3, 2025, that plan became action. Early that morning, thousands of workers, contractors, union members, and small business owners poured onto the East Lawn of the Michigan State Capitol. Orange safety vests mingled with hard hats. Rows of heavy construction machines framed the grass. Dozers, excavators, trucks, and pavers — parked in solidarity and each boasting banners — formed a powerful visual: this was not just a rally, but a statement.

Operating Engineers 324 was front and center. The message was simple and urgent: funding the roads means funding the future. Even though it was in Lansing, it wasn’t partisan or political — it was personal. No one was demanding a handout; they were demanding a stable future for the work we do and the communities we help build.

The Real Roots of the Problem

Michigan’s road-funding crisis did not begin in 2025. It is the result of decades of postponed decisions by lawmakers from both parties. OE324 members see the consequences every day. Every disintegrating bridge, every pothole that keeps returning, every shoulder that collapses after one bad winter — it all points to long-standing underinvestment.

In 2017, The 21st Century Infrastructure Commission laid out the needs in stark terms: Michigan had an annual infrastructure funding shortfall of nearly $4 billion. That wasn’t the price tag for gold-plated roads — it was what it would take just to bring the system up to standard. Instead of a long-term plan, the state kept relying on temporary plugs and short bursts of funding that didn’t keep pace with the needs.

To their credit, both Governor Gretchen Whitmer and President Joe Biden delivered major boosts between 2020 and 2024. Whitmer’s bonding program, while temporary by design, poured much-needed money into long-overdue projects and kept thousands of workers employed. Meanwhile, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act — championed by President Biden and passed with support from both parties — provided a historic infusion of federal dollars. It launched critical projects and prevented a full-scale collapse of Michigan’s contracting workforce coming out of the pandemic.

Those investments helped stabilize the industry, but everyone knew they weren’t permanent. Bond payments would reduce available road dollars beginning in 2026, and federal BIL funds were finite. The cliff was coming, and everyone — labor, contractors, business groups, and drivers — could feel it.

Voices from the Field

On September 3, the Capitol steps became a platform for the workers and business owners who live with the consequences of inaction. The press conference in Lansing featured several speakers representing the people building and depending on Michigan’s roads.

Journeyman Operating Engineer Jon Hudgins opened the event. “I grew up in Alcona. My dad is an Operating Engineer. So is my brother,” he told the crowd. “I’ve had to leave Michigan to find work. Other states are investing in their infrastructure. Their roads are better, their bridges are stronger, and their workers are busier. I don’t want to leave my state to do my job. None of us do.” He closed with a message for lawmakers: “We need a long-term, sustainable road funding plan. The future of our state, our economy, and our families depends on it.”

Fourth-year apprentice Josh Peil followed, speaking about the meaning of a stable career path. “I’ve worked on the largest projects in Michigan,” he said. “Without a long-term plan, everything I’ve trained for — my apprenticeship, my future — is at risk. We’re not talking about numbers on a page. We’re talking about real people.”

Third-year apprentice and mother Jessica York added a family-centered perspective: “Almost 40 percent of Michigan’s roads are in poor condition. The average driver pays hundreds of dollars a year just to fix what bad roads break. Without a sustainable plan, projects stall. Workers get fewer hours. Families like mine feel the strain.”

Rachel Lutz, owner of the Peacock Room small business in Detroit,  spoke next, highlighting how poor roads affect local shops. “Deliveries take longer. Vehicles take more damage. Michigan drivers already pay a hidden tax in car repairs caused by poor roads. For small businesses, it’s thousands wasted on fixing what should never have broken.”

All were speakers at the Lansing event because their lives tell the real story behind the policy debate.

Simultaneously, in the Upper Peninsula, OE324 Business Representative Dan Kroll led a satellite press conference and rally in Negaunee. “Up here, roads aren’t a convenience — they’re a lifeline,” he told attendees. “When they fail, it’s families, communities, and businesses that pay the price. Yoopers don’t expect miracles. We expect our legislators to do their jobs.”

These speakers represented every corner of Michigan — young and longtime workers, parents, business owners, and rural communities — united around a single message: fix the roads for real.

A Capitol Moment

The rally itself felt historic. Workers arrived from every region. Some came on buses coordinated by their employers. Others volunteered on their own time. Apprentices stood next to equipment owners, and union workers stood next to non-union contractors. The Michigan Chamber of Commerce stood beside trades leaders. That mix doesn’t happen often — and it doesn’t happen without a crisis that touches every part of Michigan’s economy.

The visuals were striking: thousands of people on the Capitol lawn, with heavy construction equipment ringing the building and more machines circling the surrounding blocks with banners. Capitol staff and lawmakers stepped to the windows to watch. No one could ignore what they were seeing.

But rallies alone don’t move budgets. OE324 members supported the public pressure campaign in other ways as well: thousands of letters to lawmakers, targeted digital outreach, coordinated advocacy from both labor and contractors, and strategic media engagement. Public support was overwhelming too — polling in the spring found that nearly nine out of ten Michigan voters believed a long-term road funding plan was important and were frustrated with political inaction.

These efforts created one of the broadest coalitions Michigan has seen on an infrastructure issue in decades.

The Budget Breakthrough — and the Work Ahead

After months of negotiations and mounting pressure, state leaders reached a deal on the FY 2026 road funding budget. The result was a significant step toward sustainable, predictable investment.

The plan dedicates every cent collected at the pump directly to roads — ending years of confusion about fuel taxes flowing into unrelated areas of the budget. It also provides nearly $2 billion annually for state and local roads, along with several new and diversified revenue sources:

• A 24 percent wholesale marijuana tax is expected to generate roughly $420 million a year.
• Adjustments to corporate income tax will shift roughly $600 million to transportation.
• Additional revenue from a phased-in corporate growth component could yield around $440 million more.
• The budget sets aside $100 million specifically for local bridge repair and replacement.
• Rail safety and congestion mitigation efforts, including grade separations, also receive targeted funding.

For Michigan’s construction workforce, this represents stability that has been missing for a long time.

OE324 Business Manager and General Vice President Douglas W. Stockwell put it clearly: “This budget accomplishes two essential but long-overdue goals: it ensures that money collected at the pump is used as intended and establishes a sustainable, long-term funding plan. For the 16,000 members of Operating Engineers 324 who build, operate, and maintain Michigan’s infrastructure every day, that commitment means stability and continued progress. Directing funds from the pump to the pavement is a major step forward — and we see it as the start, not the finish, of the investment our roads and bridges deserve.”

It is a real victory — but it is not the final answer. The funding gap is still far larger than the dollars in this budget. Inflation, climate impacts, aging infrastructure, and years of deferred maintenance continue to push needs upward. The work ahead remains significant.

What This Moment Means

For Operating Engineers 324, this was more than a policy win. It was evidence that when working people stand together — when labor and contractors, business leaders and apprentices, rural communities and major cities all speak with one voice — they can move a state.

Members should feel proud. They wrote letters, they traveled hours to rallies, they brought equipment, they spoke from the heart, and they showed decision makers exactly who is affected when the state delays action.

Now, when an OE324 member climbs into heavy equipment next season and gets to work rebuilding a bridge or paving a highway, they’ll know they helped secure the funding that made that job possible.

The budget passed this year is a solid foundation. It sets Michigan on the right path. But as Stockwell said, it is the start — not the finish. OE324 will keep pushing to ensure the state continues investing in its roads, its workers, and its future.