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Mich. Teachers Fight Union’s Attempt to Lock Them Into 10-Year Agreement Ahead of Right-To-Work Law

Mar. 5, 2013 7:06am Becket Adams

Three Teachers & Mackinac Center Legal Foundation Fight Union Attempt To Lock Them Into a 10 Year Union Security Agreement That Expires in 2023

Mich. Governor Rick Snyder. (Getty Images).

Republican Gov. Rick Snyder in December 2012 accomplished the seemingly impossible task of turning Michigan, a longtime stronghold for unionized labor, into a right-to-work state.

However, in anticipation of the new law, which goes into effect on March 28, 2013, one union has approved of a deal that locks its members into paying dues well after they have a choice in the matter.

“Three Taylor Public School teachers … sued the union that represents them, the school board and the school administration over an agreement that forces them to pay dues or fees to the union for 10 years or be fired for not doing so,” Michigan Capitol Confidential reports.

Angela Steffke, Rebecca Metz, and Nancy Rhatigan allege that they were misled when the Taylor Federation of Teachers Local 1085 passed and the school district approved of a deal ahead of the right-to-work law that forces them to pay dues for another decade.

Union supporters protest the passage of right-to-work legislation. (Getty Images).

But with the help of the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, the three are fighting get out of the 10-year “union security agreement” that expires in 2023.

“The decade-long extended payment requirement is outside the five-year contract the school board and union reached, which is a violation of the Michigan Public Employment Relations Act,” said Derk Wilcox, senior attorney for the Legal Foundation.

He notes that it’s illegal to have two separate contracts with separate expiration dates running at the same time.

“This is really a union insecurity clause because rather than proving its worth to members, the union is forcing all teachers to continue paying dues or agency fees through 2023,” said Wilcox. “This is a desperate attempt by the union to circumvent Michigan’s right-to-work law and preserve its own power at the expense of teachers.”

The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation offers a little background:

The district and union had been working without a contract since 2010, and the district was forced to file a deficit elimination plan with the state in light of a self-created $14 million overspending crisis. A new four-year contract was ratified in early February, along with a separate 10-year dues clause. Such clauses are generally part of an overall collective bargaining agreement, rather than a stand-alone agreement.

“The union is throwing teachers under the proverbial school bus with a contract that includes a 10 percent pay cut just to continue padding its coffers,” Wilcox said.

“This is the same union that thought it was a good use of its members’ dues money to spend $125,000 on the failed Proposal 2 ballot measure. The president of AFT Michigan got a 20 percent bump in total compensation. Our clients simply don’t want what the union is selling,” he adds.

Steffke says the union and the district “colluded and conspired to circumvent” the state’s right-to-work law.

“The so-called ‘security clause’ guarantees nothing for the teachers except that dues will continue to increase,” Steffke said. “Their money will continue to flow into union coffers, to pay inflated salaries of state and national union cronies.”

“This is about our civil rights,” she said. “This is about fighting for our freedom of association and fighting against coercion in the work place.”

Left to right: Steffke, Rhatigan, Metz. (Michigan Capitol Confidential).

Metz clarifies that she’s not “anti-union” — she simply disagrees with the idea of being forced into one.

“People should have the right to make their own decision about joining a union,” she said. “I understand our district is facing financial difficulties and the four-year contract can help solve that, but I don’t see any benefit to a 10-year union clause. I respect the TFT’s executive board, our negotiating team and my fellow union members, but I resent having my money used to prop up political positions and candidates I do not support.”

LANSING, MI – DECEMBER 11: Michigan State Police in riot gear push back protestors who are blocking a street during a rally at the Michigan State Capitol to protest a vote on Right-to-Work legislation December 11, 2012 in Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation is urging the court to rule the insecurity clause as void, or “in the alternative that the clause only be found valid if it lasts for the same length of time as the four-year collective bargaining agreement,” the group’s press release explains.

“It’s as if the union has put teachers in a dues purgatory,” Wilcox said. “They’ve been sentenced to pay the union for an extended period of time or be fired. If the union truly cared about teachers, it would let them decide for themselves as per Michigan law, rather than treating them like children.”

–

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Featured image courtesy Getty Images.

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Comments (40)

dmerwin
Posted on March 7, 2013 at 2:19am
This is one of my basic disagreements with unions. What gives you the right to hire/fire? What gives you the right to FORCIBLY take money from people as a condition of employment? What gives you the right to confiscate wages of people who do not work for you and which you have NO legal lien against to spend on political candidates or causes for which they may not support? Would not their wages be higher if the unions not steal their wages? And finally why do union organizers get special preference in the Whitehouse? Who is working to support the scam? Sorry union workers you are dupes.

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Moliminous
Posted on March 6, 2013 at 3:08pm
Golly gosh! I voted for them/him, and this is what I got! When you vote for tyranny, you get it. When you vote for zero-tolerance, you get it. When you for for stupidity, you get it. This is the moral content of the argument about the right-to-work.

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Mess23
Posted on March 5, 2013 at 8:57pm
Unions are ONLY concerned about UNIONS!!! And Obummer, who funds unions.

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zgomer
Posted on March 5, 2013 at 4:06pm
That is what all unions want to do…

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Micmac
Posted on March 5, 2013 at 1:03pm
And where do the children come into the debate? Teachers have lost their values. I have very little respect for teacher anymore, and I use to be one.

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- searcher619
  Posted on March 5, 2013 at 2:03pm
  Getting the unions out of the way is an important first step towards fixing our education system. Unions have been one of the biggest blocks education reform has been facing.
  
  Report this comment
- bartjoebob
  Posted on March 5, 2013 at 4:16pm
  Perhaps the great awakening is underway. Teachers and other govt workers will soon understand they exist solely to obey and support the union, an extension of Obama’s thug machine. These ladies did the right thing. Chicago style tactics don’t work in the Wolverine state.
  
  Report this comment
Bulldog Kisses
Posted on March 5, 2013 at 12:10pm
The union is showing their true colors; they are about making money/gaining power and control for themselves not looking out for workers. Experience has taught me this repeatedly. A pro-union fellow employee once told me not to work so hard because it “makes the rest of us look bad.” She loudly declared herself my “adversary” and followed up on the threat when I didn’t comply. IMO unions have made a large contribution to the erosion of the American work ethic. Kinda feel sorry for these teachers, however, when you lay down with dogs you get up with fleas.

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iamnotu
Posted on March 5, 2013 at 11:34am
Simple work around for this union extorsion/cohersion, simply don’t pay the dues, get fired, and get rehired without the union. It would seem that the school administrators would do this if the teachers are good and they wanted to keep them.
Die unions DIE! Just a little more time and a couple more states to go right to work and these parasitic organizations will be no more. This will also eliminate the perpetual democratic control of several major (dying) cities in this country.

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- mrunner
  Posted on March 5, 2013 at 1:12pm
  I wish it were that easy. If they are rehired during the current contract, they will be bound by the terms of that contract. Don’t know if after the current collective bargaining agreement expires that would still hold true- but I don’t think the 10 year dues thing will hold up in court. In order for there to be a contract- there has to be consideration on both sides- in the case of the union teachers, when the labor agreement expires thy are no longer receiving any consideration so I think that added 10 year agreement will be tossed.
  
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- searcher619
  Posted on March 5, 2013 at 2:04pm
  If you are no longer a member of that union nor are you employed through the union how is that binding in any way? I would expect the contract to be null and void after that.
  
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MrKnowItAll
Posted on March 5, 2013 at 10:59am
Union: Legal Criminal Enterprise.

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cassandra
Posted on March 5, 2013 at 10:23am
when the teachers unions needed more money they raise your taxes while crying it’s for the kids BS it’s for their pensions and administrators that get paid while doing work for the UNION, tenure is nothing more than a ruse to get teachers to want the union job, WOW keep your job even if your lousey at it not to mention kids graduating that can’t even read or speak proper english public school is a discrace and the UNIONS have to be BROKEN and lets get back to education our children in Math,English,History,Reading and Writing and get rid of all those social studies classes that teach our children Marxism

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- LakeHartwellSailor
  Posted on March 5, 2013 at 2:53pm
  cassandra -
  
  That is one LONG run-on sentence. Public school education?
  
  Report this comment
- curmudgeon60
  Posted on March 5, 2013 at 5:52pm
  Cass….you are absolutely right, teachers can at retire at 52 and have wonderful lifetime benefits with out having to pay nothing or very little into health benefits.
  
  To…LAKEHARTWELL…Must you make yourself superior in answering. We’re you perhaps educated in a Lutheran school. I’ve known a lot of your type there. Please try not to be snarky. ;-)
  
  Report this comment
Army_of_One
Posted on March 5, 2013 at 9:35am
Union members around the country need to fight for their rights. Quit these pathetic unions! DO NOT give into the thugs that are now running these unions. They no longer have your best interests in mind, it’s all about how much money they can make to contribute to idiots like the one we currently have running this country. Fight for your own rights. You are Americans, not sheep! Stand up for yourselves. You have the right to work, and you shouldn’t have to pay for that right. It’s legalized extortion. Don’t stand for it!

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- G-WHIZ
  Posted on March 5, 2013 at 10:07am
  COMMIE-PROG-UNIONS have been ruining our economy for over 50years by keeping salaries so expensive that jobs left to go overseas. “THE UNION LABEL” WAS ALWAYS THE MOST EXPENSIVE IN THE WHOLE U.S.A.!!
  
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- MDECKER
  Posted on March 5, 2013 at 10:13am
  The last and only time the union played a significant role was, in “Norma Rae”. Unions are nothing more than the legs the democrat party stands on. It has never, been about the kids either!
  
  Report this comment
THX-1138
Posted on March 5, 2013 at 9:14am
Get a real job.

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- GroundZero is Nuclear Demolition x3
  Posted on March 5, 2013 at 9:35am
  Anyone who reads SUPERMOB, a non-fiction on Sydney Korshak, knows what the unions are about.
  
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Sargeking
Posted on March 5, 2013 at 9:10am
Here’s your wake-up call teachers. The teacher’s union exists for one sole reason, to protect the high paying jobs of the union thug leaders. Supposedly, most of you folks have a college education and you couldn’t see this coming? You make a private education look very inviting, indeed!

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thegodfather
Posted on March 5, 2013 at 9:00am
You vill pay your union dues…and you vill LIKE it!

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- Sargeking
  Posted on March 5, 2013 at 9:14am
  I like the Soviet inflection. Good post!
  
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- GroundZero is Nuclear Demolition x3
  Posted on March 5, 2013 at 9:34am
  German is a sister language to English, W is pronounced like V. Est ist wonderbar
  
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13th Imam
Posted on March 5, 2013 at 8:58am
Slavery? There you go Sheila Jackson Lee. Real modern day slaves. That haven’t been freed.

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jackact
Posted on March 5, 2013 at 7:58am
To think that this very state was the liberal bastion of organized labor no more than twenty years ago it quite encouraging to the free market and the future financial prosperity of our nation.
Keep up the good fight.
End union domination and finally get your seat at the table America.

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Watcher1952
Posted on March 5, 2013 at 7:58am
The Unions know they are losing the battle for members…..they bring their crony lawyers in…challenge or make new rules…then await the law suits which take’s money from the teachers….if not for these three brave women this would have gone thru…thus screwing a bunch of teachers. When Michigan went Right to Work I was happy….a good number of my fellow educators are happy also…..this isn’t over by a long shot…….it’s people like these women to stand up to the bullies……may take a LOCK & LOAD mind set…..beware America we are changing but not for the good of AMERICA

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dont-care-anymore
Posted on March 5, 2013 at 7:52am
simple ….. decertify

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- Sargeking
  Posted on March 5, 2013 at 9:15am
  Point taken Good post!
  
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DZ-015
Posted on March 5, 2013 at 7:41am
If Michigan has passed a genuine Right to Work law, how can this issue arise? If the law specifically excluded existing contracts, then the teachers could be locked into paying dues for the four years the current contract of representation remains in effect (They should be able to get out of paying the percentage of their dues used for political purposes, though). Requiring the payment of dues for six years beyond the period of the actual contract certainly looks like “taxation without representation” so as to be void under any law that could truly be called Right to Work.

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sta
Posted on March 5, 2013 at 7:32am
There are some really good teachers. I suspect these ladies are three of them.
Union officials are sharks.

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RJJinGadsden
Posted on March 5, 2013 at 7:31am
Where is KEATONC333 to support the union’s decision? Looking forward to seeing his comment here.

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- OldSurfRat
  Posted on March 5, 2013 at 7:42am
  Morning RJJ
  
  But I thought that the unions were there to protect the workers?
  
  Organized crime will shake down the weak until there are no more to shake down.
  They are just like the left. Eat others until there are none and then eat each other.
  
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- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on March 5, 2013 at 7:56am
  OLDSURFRAT, Morning. That is so true. The unions just fool some into thinking that. That is why I was thinking about Keaton. He really seems to express a “unions can do no wrong” attitude. I’ve had to join three unions at different times to even take the job. They did nothing but take money from each paycheck and if questioned we were told to shut up and take it.
  
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- Fubared
  Posted on March 5, 2013 at 8:03am
  Lil Keatie is furiously flipping through its lil red book now.
  
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- OldSurfRat
  Posted on March 5, 2013 at 8:10am
  RJJ
  
  The old saying “if it sounds to good to be true than it is”
  
  Since I was 18 I have been saying that unions will destroy this country.
  I took a lot of slack from union buddies but it looks like I was right.
  
  Sad to think that an 18 year old stoner could see this comming yet others could not.
  
  Report this comment
Ben__Franklin
Posted on March 5, 2013 at 7:26am
Once again the Teachers Unions show its all about the Money and nothing about the Children they parade around their protests.

The Union Bosses do not want to loose their posh lifestyle off the backs of the Teachers.

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jcldwl
Posted on March 5, 2013 at 7:20am
Good for those teachers. The unions are worthless crooks just like politicians.

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ALL4FREEDOM
Posted on March 5, 2013 at 7:18am
The sleepers are waking up!

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- KangarooJack
  Posted on March 5, 2013 at 10:07am
  :) take this as a sign of waking also.
  
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