Three teachers in Taylor, Michigan, a Detroit-area suburb, are suing the Taylor School District, the Taylor Federation of Teachers union, and the Board of Education over a recently ratified collective bargaining agreement. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy Legal Foundation filed on behalf of plaintiffs Angela Steffke, Rebecca Metz, and Nancy Rhatigan over what it calls a violation of Michigan's right-to-work law. That law, signed in December 2012, doesn't take effect until later in March.
Michigan Educator Contracts
The Detroit Free Press reports that Taylor Public Schools' roughly 500-member union approved two separate contract issues earlier this month. They approved a four-year contract that included a 10-percent cut in pay, health insurance changes, and out-of-pocket health care costs. That vote was passed 365-79. In a second vote, teachers agreed by 362-83 vote to a 10-year union security clause.
Teacher Contract Objections
It's the security clause that suing educators object to. This clause guarantees union membership rights and responsibilities. The Mackinac Center contends that this clause is invalid under Michigan's new right-to-work law, passed in the December lame-duck session of the Michigan Legislature. The RTW law prohibits employers and unions from inking contracts that require financial support (union dues) as a condition of employment.
The law didn't get two-thirds support from both houses, required in Michigan for a law to take immediate effect. Without that majority, the waiting period for new laws approved by the governor to go into effect is 91 days from the close of that legislative session. RTW takes effect March 28, 2013.
The Mackinac Center says that the law also exempts contracts in place before that date. Taylor teachers' legal advisors maintain that stand-alone security agreements that extend beyond the date of other contracts are an attempt by unions to lock teachers into paying union dues and fees to the union for 10 years. They say the purpose is to circumvent the part of the law that makes right-to-work effective anytime a contract is extended, renewed, or amended. Legal advisors say stand-alone security agreements are illegal under Michigan's Public Employment Relations Act. Steffke said it's a civil rights issue. She said, "This is about fighting for our freedom of association and fighting against coercion in the workplace," reports the Detroit Free Press.
Teachers Union Stance
Taylor's teachers union is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers-Michigan. AFT-M president David Hecker said the Mackinac Center's lawsuit has no legal ground. "It's obviously a tactic on their part to try to scare employers and unions, which obviously isn't going to work. These contracts were negotiated between the school district and the union. They were ratified overwhelmingly by the school board and the federation of teachers. It's totally 100-percent legal." He added that RTW isn't the law in Michigan yet and that legislators had the option to give it immediate effect but didn't.
The Oakland Press says educators at Wayne State University passed similar long-term contracts just before right-to-work takes effect.
A certified special needs and K-8 teacher, former homeschool parent, and native of Michigan, Marilisa Sachteleben writes about educational issues in her state's most pivotal city of Detroit.
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