Posts tagged MEA
Union contracts should not protect drunken teachers
March 6, 2025 // The Bay City union contract spelled out the process: A teacher’s first offense resulted in a written reprimand and the teacher was required to go through counseling. The second offense resulted in a three-day suspension without pay and mandatory counseling. Third offense: a five-day suspension without pay and mandatory counseling. Fourth offense: a 10-day suspension without pay and mandatory counseling. Only upon the fifth offense could the district fire the teacher. It gets worse. A teacher using illegal drugs at school got three strikes before she could be fired. Even teachers caught selling drugs could not be fired until their second offense.
Michigan’s largest unions have seen plummeting membership over the past decade
April 18, 2024 // Analysis Michigan’s largest unions have seen plummeting membership over the past decade Jobs and incomes are up, workplace injuries are down By Jarrett Skorup | April 16, 2024Share on FacebookShare on X Photo by Kateryna Babaieva on Pexels In recent years, most of Michigan’s largest labor unions saw massive declines in membership, despite significant job growth in most industries. The reason? A decade with right-to-work law, which gave workers the ability to choose whether to join a union, as a member or through a fee, or not. The reports many labor unions are required to file with the federal government reveal the state of labor union membership, as do reports from the Michigan Civil Service Commission. Every one of Michigan’s 15 largest unions or so has seen a decline, whether in state government, schools, local government, or private industries such as construction or food service. But the declines are uneven. A variety of AFSCME associations, representing mostly state and local government workers, have seen a loss of more than half their members. The SEIU, which mostly represents workers in health care and local government, is down nearly 70%. Despite job gains in the auto sector over the past decade and a highly publicized strike last year, the UAW branches in Michigan have lost 16,000 members over the past decade. Other private sector unions have seen fewer losses. These include the United Food and Commercial Workers (-8.7%), Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters (-6.8%), the Operating Engineers (-2.5%) and Michigan Nurses Association (-3.7%). Losses in the public sector are much more pronounced than those in the private sector. The Michigan Education Association has now lost more than 38,000 members, or one-third, since the right-to-work law went into effect in 2013. The American Federation of Teachers branch, the bulk of which is in the Detroit Federation of Teachers, is down more than 25%. The Michigan public school system added 27,000 employees since 2012, but its largest employee unions have lost a combined 45,000 members. The total number of public sector union members in Michigan has dropped by 80,000 since the right-to-work law was passed. Unions representing state of Michigan employees are down by more than one-third. That may soon change. The Democratic-led Michigan Legislature repealed the state’s right-to-work law in 2023. The UAW and other unions representing workers for private employers can now require them to rejoin or pay fees. A 2018 ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court means that public sector employees such as schoolteachers still have the right to decline paying or joining a union. Repealing the law is expected to boost union membership and financial support for the Democratic Party. In fighting in 2012 against a law allowing workers to opt out, SEIU Healthcare Michigan President Marge Faville said unions needed the forced funds to “make sure Democrats get [elected].” Just before legislators voted to enact a right-to-work law, a local Michigan Education Association leader sent an email out on a public server to tell other public school employees that “[emergency management] is the future in Michigan with a Republican governor and Legislature” and union members need to “[get] everyone we know to vote for Democrats.”
Flint teachers union holds illegal teacher strike
March 14, 2024 // Flint schools have been shut down more than any other district in Michigan in recent years as a result of their response to COVID-19. Still, the school district got $156 million, more than 10-times the state average per student. According to MISchoolData,org, Flint schools have about 2,900 students enrolled in 2023-24.
Membership plunges again for Michigan and national teachers unions
January 5, 2024 // Since school employees got a choice in union membership, the MEA’s total revenue has declined by nearly $40 million annually. Despite a hike in dues, Michigan’s largest public sector union is bringing in more than 30% less each year.
The Michigan Education Association Improperly Took COVID-19 Relief Funds
March 6, 2023 // “The Michigan Education Association applied for money intended for struggling businesses during the height of the pandemic,” said Joseph G. Lehman, president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “The union and MESSA obtained some of the largest PPP loans in the country. They took these funds, for which they were clearly ineligible, while shuttered restaurants, stores, other businesses and their workers struggled to stay afloat.” Private businesses and some nonprofits were eligible for the loans, but 501(c)(5) and 501(c)(9) organizations, like the MEA and MESSA, were clearly prohibited from receiving PPP funds. The Mackinac Center was eligible as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, but did not apply for assistance. In April 2020, the MEA and MESSA both applied for PPP funding. The MEA received $6.4 million while MESSA received a $6.1 million loan. Officials of both organizations certified that they had read the eligibility requirements of the program and asserted they were eligible for the loans. Money from the program ran out within weeks. While the union and MESSA eventually returned the improper funds in December 2020, taking them in the first place denied eligible businesses from receiving them.
More Than 140,000 Michiganders Have Left Their Unions Since 2012
December 14, 2022 // Unions have lost more than 143,000 members since Michigan’s right-to-work law went into effect, according to analysis of state and federal reports from 15 major unions. Numbers compiled by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy found that there are 26.5% fewer people paying dues to the state’s largest unions today than there was in 2012. “As the new Legislature debates whether to repeal Michigan’s right-to-work law, they should wrestle with the fact that the law is overwhelmingly popular — supported by Michigan voters 3-to-1 — and that more than 143,000 people have decided their union wasn’t working for them,” said Jarrett Skorup, senior director of marketing and communications at the Mackinac Center. “Forcing many of these workers back into unions against their will is bad policy and a violation of their rights.”
Michigan teachers unions continue to shed members
December 9, 2022 // The latest report from the state’s largest education union shows that the Michigan Education Association shed 1,000 members since the previous year, continuing a trend. The number comes from the LM-2, a financial report the MEA and other labor unions must file with the U.S. government. According to the report, MEA’s revenue decreased to $84.2 million, and its membership stands at its lowest in at least 22 years. Michigan has a right-to-work law, which prevents unions from getting a worker fired for not paying union dues or fees. When the law was enacted in 2012, the MEA had 117,265 members. The number has dropped consistently in the last ten years, reaching to 79,839, a 31.9% decline.
Teachers Unions Called For Closing Classrooms; Students Now Facing Mental Health Challenges
April 5, 2022 // Chalkbeat Detroit reported March 14 that the Detroit school district has hired additional mental health staffer to deal with a potential mental health crisis among students who were deprived of the classroom experience and personal interactions during the past two years
Former Teachers Union Heads, Staff, Parlayed Big MEA Paychecks Into Jumbo Public Pensions
February 10, 2022 // Maddox is collecting an annual Michigan school pension of $144,276. The outsized public pension Maddox receives is due to a union scheme he took advantage of decades ago. And it’s still available to a certain class of Michigan public school employees.
Michigan Teachers’ Unions’ Desperate ‘Dark Money’ Fearmongering
February 9, 2022 // The unions and their allies are running out of options to preserve the public-school monopoly and deny the state’s families educational choice.