Northern Michigan’s Chad Phillips writes that teaching is a team sport, “My coaches taught me that practice wasn’t optional and that that we all had to ‘pay our dues.’”

Anyone who has ever played on a team knows that not everyone is a team player.  Eventually, some of those players will quit the team because they expect to get something, usually playing time, without “paying their dues.”  Those type of players are never really concerned about the greater good.  The same is true for a handful of teachers in every school.  Even after the quitters quit, the rest of us teachers will continue to educate our children, support our families, and pay our fair share.  In my mind, that is how you win at this game.

Read it all here.

How it Happened, Who Was Behind It and What Happens Next

Beginning with his campaign for Governor in 2009, Rick Snyder repeatedly assured the state that Right to Work was “not on my agenda.” This now infamous comment was made during the campaign, was repeated throughout his term as Governor, and suddenly changed after the 2012 election.

The story of how Right to Work came to Michigan is a long one, one that involves Joesph Coors, the Koch Brothers and especially Michigan’s Devos family.

Read the whole story, including the very closely associated national movement to weaken union political power. Find out what they intend to do in the very near future, as well as what you can do about it.

The story of Bobby Crim, autoworker turned teacher, turned State House Speaker, illustrates teaching without a union and the battle to earn the rights we now enjoy. And which will likely be put up to a vote in the next lame duck session.

Read the whole story.

With the loss of almost all public school bargaining rights in Wisconsin, union influence has been vastly reduced. And as a result, working in the state’s schools has changed radically. Wisconsin school boards must negotiate “total base wages” only. Every other aspect of employee work lives is established unilaterally by the school boards.

Replacing bargaining is a process known as ‘Meet & Confer’. Just as it was in Michigan before the passage of the Public Employees Relations Act in 1965, Meet & Confer allows a meeting for employee input, but all decisions are made at the sole discretion of the school board.

There is no longer tenure or seniority rights and all school employees work at-will. Wisconsin school employees have no salary schedule; insurance, retirement and leave days are optional to each school board. School district contracts establish wages but are otherwise replaced by an Employee Handbook. Handbooks control work hours; contact, break and prep times; dress codes; required after-school activities and often impose controls on the personal lives of employees.

Grievances are possible for Handbook violations only. Appeals are often allowed, but only to an Independent Hearing Officer (IHO) hired by superintendent. The IHO findings are non-binding.

Strong unions preserve better classrooms, promote quality careers and secure retirements and support the best possible learning environment for children. A weaker MEA puts all this at risk.

It may be easy to decide to let others pay for your union benefits, but to be an person of integrity, you’d have to believe you’d be better off without a union. Otherwise, you really would be just a freeloader.

But what’s it really like to work without a union? Many would brag that they could take care of themselves, that they don’t need anyone backing them up, but is this how it really works out? A new section in MEAMatters will address this question.

Have a look under the Teaching Without a Union tab.

High school teacher Mark Pontoni takes issue with the Mackinac Center using public school email addresses in a recent issue of the Petoskey News-Review, and concludes that the Center isn’t a real non-profit charitable organization. He suggests we join him in filing a complaint with the IRS questioning their tax exempt status.

My letter to the Mackinac Center. Feel free to share/copy, etc. But if you get a postcard, SEND IT BACK!

To the Mackinac Center for Public Policy:
First I just have to say, your name is laughable. From what I can see, you are as concerned about the “public” as the spider is for the welfare of the fly. You see the public—common people—like teachers and their unions, as a nuisance. You represent predatory business and political entities that care little for the general public.

I received your postcard in the mail today and I found myself asking these questions: Why do you care if I am in a union or not? Why would you bother to try and convince me to “opt-out”? Why waste all of that time and money on convincing little old me to opt-out of my union? And these questions led me to the real question: What are you so afraid of??

I must admit (if I were an uneducated moron), the postcard would have been well done. I especially love the condescending manner in which you assume all teachers spend the summer at the “ballpark” or at “the lake.” Yes, because all of us are rolling in wealth and own summer homes on various lakes around the state. I think you have teachers confused with YOUR membership.

I also appreciate the way in which you make it seem like having only one month (August) to opt out is some type of trick or conspiracy. You know very well that MOST associations and clubs have an opt-out window (insurance companies are another example). MEA, like these other groups, makes budgets based on a year’s membership. It is perfectly acceptable and is accepted practice to have an opt-out window, and you know it.

And as for that dig about what I would do with that extra $1000 next summer? Those dues protect me from incompetent administrators and unfair labor practices. They ensure that I am protected if someone doesn’t like what I teach or how I teach it—even if I follow curriculum, and yes, that actually happens. Those dues help me help my fellow members, especially my youngest members, who need protections the most. So, I know one thing I wouldn’t do and that is I certainly wouldn’t sell my soul to the likes of you for a measly $1000.

I have been a PROUD union member for all 16 years of my career. My local has stood by my colleagues and by me. We have fought for our students and for the welfare of our membership. We actually care about education and our students, unlike your organization, which only cares about beating teachers down and blaming them for all of the (real or imagined) problems in education.

You seem to be forgetting (or just grossly underestimating) the fact that teachers are SMART. We know when we are being manipulated, and we know how to do our research, read the fine print, and see through deceptions.

I am an educator. I am a union member. And I will NEVER give up on either.

Take me off all of your mailing lists.

Cara LougheedTeacherProud REA, MEA, NEA Member

The Mackinac Center is showcasing MEA members who have decided to freeload. Trouble is, they only have a handful.

Their solution? Recycle them! Its Facebook page recently showed a posting from June 9 and then the same post, days later, with different text, but clearly the same person.