Manistee News Advocate LogoHearst Newspapers Logo

MEA defends itself in teachers’ anti-union complaint: Time frame for leaving is clear, it says

By

By Kathleen Gray

Detroit Free Press

LANSING (MCT) — The Michigan Education Association got a chance to explain its side in a complaint about its compliance with right-to-work legislation Wednesday in a state Senate committee where members encountered skeptical Republicans who said they heard the union had given some teachers a hard time for trying to leave.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Among the chief complaint from those trying to leave has been a rule that says they can do so only during a specific annual window.

The Senate Compliance and Accountability committee heard from two teachers Wednesday who said they were fully aware of the time frame when members of the MEA can opt out of the union.

“Most MEA members that I know are aware of the rules of how to resign,” said Chandra Madafferi, a teacher in Novi and president of her local union. “Two of our members resigned in August. When we sign our membership form, it’s clearly stated.”

Doug Pratt, a spokesman for the MEA, said that for 40 years, the bylaws have stated that members can quit their union membership during the month of August.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

This year, 1,500 people resigned that month; 700 others asked to resign outside the August window. Only about 50 of those who asked outside the window were allowed to resign because of their extenuating circumstances. If a member wants to quit the union, but still is under a contract approved before the right-to-work law was implemented, he or she has to pay an agency fee, about 75 percent to 80 percent of union dues, to compensate for the MEA’s cost of negotiations.

“The MEA’s goal with the resignation process is to treat all members with fairness and respect,” Pratt said. “The only way to ensure fairness is to be consistent.”

The opt-out window is included on membership contracts and on the union’s bylaws, which are displayed on the MEA’s website, he added.

Republicans on the committee, however, weren’t buying it. They’re considering legislation that would require the MEA to expand the opt-out window and notify members about their rights to leave the union.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

“The MEA position with the August window loses me,” said state Sen. Jack Brandenburg, R-Harrison Township. “I think you’re trying to keep people in. If MEA was truly for their people, they wouldn’t try to confine their leaving.”

Pratt acknowledged that one of the union’s missions is to inform members about why they should stay.

“In a membership organization like ours, we don’t market how to quit. We market why you should stay,” Pratt said.

The right-to-work law passed in the final frenzied days of last December’s lame-duck legislative session with no committee hearings or public input. It makes it illegal to require financial contributions to a union as a condition of employment.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

The Mackinac Center, a Midland-based think tank, is representing seven teachers and one paraprofessional in a lawsuit based on the employees’ inability to leave the union. Two of those employees testified before the committee last month. The lawsuit is pending before the Michigan Employment Relations Commission.

State Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker, R-Lawton, said she thinks the MEA made it too difficult for teachers to leave the union.

“This is not about being anti-public schools, it’s about freedom of choice,” she said.

By