Posts tagged Steve Delie
Mackinac Center Joins Amicus Brief Challenging Private Delegation of Government Regulatory Authority
February 13, 2025 // The amicus brief, filed alongside the Institute for the American Worker and the Pelican Institute for Public Policy, argues that delegating regulatory power to private industry groups violates the nondelegation doctrine and due process protections. The case before the Supreme Court challenges the FCC’s reliance on the Universal Service Administrative Company, a private, industry-run entity, to set and administer fees collected from telecommunications companies. These fees are ultimately passed on to consumers. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals found this structure unconstitutional, ruling that it improperly allows private entities to exercise government power.
Michigan University Hospital, union feud over parking spots
January 28, 2025 // Labor unions typically bargain on behalf of employees over paid time off, worker pay and workplace conditions. But unions and employers also fight over unconventional issues such as the price of vending machine food and how many criminal offenses a teacher may have and stay on the job. Nurses prevailed last month in a struggle over parking lot protocols. The University of Michigan altered employee parking arrangements to create more spaces for patients. The Michigan Nurses Association in 2019 demanded that the university make more parking spaces available for nurses and requested to bargain over the issue.
Troy districts’ teacher contract discourages parents’ visits to the classroom
January 17, 2025 // Under the ‘Classroom Visits’ provision, it actively discourages parental visits. There are 17 paragraphs, listed from A to Q, which define the conditions parents and school employees must satisfy. “Given the learning disruption caused by classroom visits, TSD administration shall actively discourage this practice,” the first graph reads. A parent can only visit the classroom once per academic year, for no more than 30 minutes unless school officials agree to it.
More membership losses for National Education Association
January 13, 2025 // The National Education Association is still shedding members, according to the latest edition of a report it filed with the federal government. The national labor union that represents teachers and school staffers saw its membership drop from 2,451,693 to 2,439,963 in the past year, for a loss of 11,730 members. Each year, the union and its affiliates must file an LM-2 report with the U.S. Department of Labor.
As Janus anniversary draws nears, public workers retain right to union representation
June 28, 2024 // A union is required to represent even workers who are not members, due to its “duty of fair representation.” “It’s crucial that public employees understand the duty of fair representation to ensure their rights are protected,” Delie told CapCon. Unions have this duty because they also have the right of “exclusive representation.” Under it, the union negotiates with management as the exclusive representative of a group of employees known as a bargaining unit. Members and nonmembers alike are part of the bargaining unit, and the union must represent them all, including at any disciplinary hearings they may face.
Congressional Testimony Exposes Union Tactics to Undermine Elections
May 27, 2024 // One of the most popular tactics unions use to drive support is a process known as card check. Union organizers hand workers cards to sign as a way to indicate support for the union. Workers are typically asked to sign these cards in front of organizers, adding an extra layer of pressure when a vote is done publicly. Some unions have intimidated workers who may be reluctant to sign, showing up at people’s homes and threatening a worker’s family. As Delie explains in his testimony, a better way to ensure that an election is fair and workers are free from intimidation is to use secret ballots in union elections.
Dearborn schools responds to CapCon story on illegal contract language
April 4, 2024 // Steve Delie, director of labor policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, thinks the contract poorly serves Dearborn employees. “Whether or not this language is enforced, it is still misleading,” he told CapCon. Keeping inoperative language in the contract is not the best practice, he said, as it requires teachers to be up to date on the latest legal developments. “School employees have a constitutional right to work without being forced to pay a union, and their contracts should clearly reflect that.”
Michigan House bill lets government schools deduct union dues from paychecks
May 11, 2023 // Steve Delie, director of labor policy at the Mackinac Center, offered written testimony to the House Labor Committee, opposing the bill. “The Mackinac Center opposes this bill on the simple grounds that public monies should not be used to assist private organizations,” Delie testified. “School funding should be devoted to improving the education of Michigan students, ensuring they have the skills resources and instruction to prepare them for success in the future,” Delie added. “Diverting this funding to exclusively benefit unions offers no such benefit.”
Construction trade association sues state over Whitmer’s ‘unilateral’ prevailing wage policy
July 22, 2022 // "The governor has seemingly revived this repealed procedure, but has not done so by either enforcing legislation or through the procedures of the Administrative Procedure Act," wrote ABC of Michigan, represented by the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation. "The policy has been implemented by unilateral edict from the governor's office. This is not a proper method of governance and is not binding on plaintiff." ABC of Michigan, Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline, Jimmy Greene, Gov. Rick Snyder, Department of Technology Management and Budget, Administrative Procedures Act, DTMB,
State of Michigan plays peek-a-boo, redacting publicly available document
July 21, 2022 // The state included in its response a document with several redactions, even though the same document is publicly available without the redactions. “This is yet another example of FOIA being applied improperly and inconsistently. The records produced in response to this request were available online, and in entirely unredacted form," says Steve Delie, director of labor policy at the Mackinac Center. “It is unclear whether these redactions were legally permissible, but it is clear is that public bodies are not applying FOIA in a way that encourages openness and transparency.”