Posts tagged seniority agreements
Judicial Watch Urges Federal Probe of Minneapolis Schools’ Union Contract Over Constitutional Concerns
September 8, 2025 // Judicial Watch requests the Office for Civil Rights investigate Article 15 of the collective bargaining agreement between the Minneapolis Public Schools, Special District No. 1 (“MPS”) and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers Local 59. The contract violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Article 15 exempts teachers of color from MPS’s seniority-based layoffs and reassignments, which means, when layoffs or reassignments occur, the next senior teacher who is not “of color” would be laid off or reassigned. The contract also mandates that MPS reinstate teachers of color over more senior teachers who are not “of color.” Prior to the contract, teachers were laid off or reassigned in order of seniority, with the least senior teachers laid off or reassigned first, without regard to race or ethnicity.
Op-ed: A right-to-work repeal warning from Michigan
February 29, 2024 // Yet Michigan should be a warning, not a beacon for other states. Evidence shows that reversing right-to-work is bad for workers, businesses, local economies, and even unions themselves. Michigan has already lost out on two major new plants from General Motors and Stellantis (Chrysler’s parent), which recently chose to invest across the state line in right-to-work Indiana. Michigan’s pain is Indiana’s gain. Approximately 150,000 Michigan employees have voluntarily left their unions since 2013. They will now be forced to pay their unions around $1,000 in annual dues, an especially painful tax given the current cost-of-living crisis.