David Littmann, senior economist for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, predicted anywhere from 17 percent to 20 percent unemployment by the end of the year. He said the key to attracting jobs is to become a right-to-work state.

But a Michigan State University labor and economics professor, a spokeswoman for Gov. Jennifer Granholm and a local union leader disputed Littman's assertions.

Currently, 22 states have right-to-work laws that allow employees to decide whether to join a union. Michigan has a union shop provision allowing employers and unions to negotiate rules that mandate employees join a union or pay union dues and fees.

Littmann said unions have "strangled this state to death." Without a right-to-work provision, he said, the state will continue in its "graveyard spiral."

"And it's going to get worse," said Littmann, who is MIT educated and a former Comerica Bank senior vice president and chief economist.

Richard Block, an MSU professor in the School of Labor and Industrial Relations who studied labor laws in states, said there's no evidence that being a right-to-work state has an effect on economic growth.

"Whether or not there should be a right-to-work law is a philosophical question," Block said. "It is not an economic question."

University of Michigan economist Don Grimes said the state is in trouble because it can't decide which path to choose when trying to create jobs.

Grimes said the state will have trouble competing for manufacturing jobs against states from the South that are almost all right-to-work. And Michigan doesn't have the educated work force to get the knowledge-based jobs, he said.

"We have not figured out what we want to be. ... You can't do both," Grimes said. "We have boxed ourselves into the worst of all worlds. Michigan is in deep trouble."

If Michigan wants to go after manufacturing jobs, it should consider right-to-work laws, Grimes said.

Albert Berriz, CEO of the Ann Arbor-based McKinley real estate company, said being a "right to work" state has become a criterion for where his company does business.

Berriz said McKinley has investments that are flourishing in right-to-work states like Virginia, South Carolina and Florida. Outside Ann Arbor, McKinley has pulled out of Michigan, he said.

Berriz said he believes the investments are working in the southern states because of pro-business government environments, low taxes and right-to-work laws.

Proponents of right-to-work say the laws eliminate costs and regulations associated with unions; some studies have shown employees in right-to-work states are paid 6 percent to 8 percent less.

"(Michigan) should be all three," Berriz said. "If we want to attract jobs, we need to look at the tax structure and explore right-to-work."

Liz Boyd, a spokeswoman for Granholm, said a 20 percent unemployment prediction is out of step with U-M experts' predictions of just above 13 percent at the end of 2009.

Boyd said Littman's call for right-to-work laws is "misguided" and said Michigan's woes are tied to "severe restructuring" in the domestic auto industry, as well as the financial crisis.

Don Skidmore, president of the UAW Local 735 - which represents workers at General Motors' two Willow Run transmission plants, said unions are not to blame for the woes of the auto industry. He said union wages and benefits account for just 7 percent of the cost of a vehicle.

"I don't understand how he would think we are strangling anything," Skidmore said. "I make $28 an hour, and I can hardly raise my family. People don't get it. ... We set the wages for everyone - non-union and union. Somebody had to do it or they'd pay everyone $5 an hour."

Block said the state's economic problems are tied to the reliance on the auto industry and "questionable" strategic decisions by auto company management.

"The view that is the union's fault is outdated and incorrect," Block said.

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