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Michigan teacher's union loses appeal on case involving when members can quit

The Michigan Employment Relations Commission ruled against the union in August 2015 and the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in 2017.
Teacher file photo

A Michigan Supreme Court decision Friday closes out a case that challenged the Michigan Education Association's decades-long practice of only allowing members to withdraw from the union during the month of August.

The state high court denied a request for appeals of lower court rulings that said the union — which represents about 130,000 teachers and other school employees — was violating right-to-work rules enacted in 2012.

Those rules make it illegal to require dues payment to a union as a condition of employment.

The Michigan Employment Relations Commission ruled against the union in August 2015 and the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in 2017.

Doug Pratt, spokesman for the MEA, said the union has been complying with the commission ruling since it was issued. But the union continued to appeal because officials don't believe right-to-work affects business practices and membership procedures.

"We disagreed with the (ruling) so we appealed it. In the end, we're abiding with the ruling," Pratt said.

The lawsuit against the union was filed by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy's legal foundation, which represented several teachers who tried to leave the union outside of the August window.

"The MEA’s efforts to limit school employees’ freedom is finally over,” Patrick Wright, director of the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, said in a news release. "Unfortunately, the MEA’s campaign has caused significant damage. Thousands of school employees have been sent to either a collections agency or court because of the MEA’s hardline tactics.”

The court also denied an appeal the foundation filed. Wright said the foundation believes the union had a duty to inform its members how they could withdraw from the union. Neither of the lower courts agreed with the foundation, and the high court rejected its appeal too.

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