EAST LANSING, Mich. – Recent revelations in Michigan highlight an important fact about teachers unions that many people fail to understand:

Their leaders will say anything, regardless of the level of truth or accuracy, to further their interests.

The Michigan Education Association’s misleading tendencies were recently on display as part of an ongoing dispute between the union and teachers who want to leave the union under terms of the state’s new right-to-work law.

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In October, the MEA officials told members at their Fall Representative Assembly in Lansing that “ninety nine percent of MEA members chose to stay with their union when given the chance under Michigan’s new so-called ‘right-to-work’ law …,” according to the MEA website.

At the time that statement had a slight ring of truth, but not because anyone believed that nearly every member really wanted to stay in the union. It was believable because many local teachers unions rushed through new long-term collective bargaining agreements before the state’s right-to-work law went into effect, trapping members into paying dues for years to come.

The right-to-work law only affects school districts after union contracts that were in place when the law took effect expire.

But this week union officials were singing a different tune while under oath before the Michigan Employment Relations Commission to answer to a flood of teacher complaints that the MEA won’t let them resign their memberships, Michigan Capitol Confidential reports.

MEA Executive Director Gretchen Dziadosz told MERC that roughly 8,000 members are not currently paying dues, because they haven’t filled out the necessary paperwork to pay E-dues, the union’s new system for automatic deduction that became necessary when the state prohibited school districts from deducting the money from paychecks.

What’s interesting is many Michigan educators contend they were contacted several times about the MEA’s E-Dues policy, but never received information about how and when to opt out of the union. MEA officials are refusing to allow members to leave outside of the month of August – the union’s long-standing opt-out window – despite the state’s new right-to-work status.

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Two teachers who filed unfair labor complaints with MERC over the union’s refusal to honor their request to leave outside of the August window recently settled their cases after the MEA relented, but countless other school employees remain stuck in the same situation.

William “Ray” Arthur, one of the two teachers recently released by the MEA, told Michigan Capitol Confidential that he believes the MEA intentionally makes it difficult for members to drop their affiliation.

“Why would you have a window in August when teachers aren’t even in school; a window that is just 30 days, about 10 percent of the year, during a time they’re not working?” Arthur said. “In my mind, they purposely kept the opt-out date from the membership to stop the bleeding of the membership and the money.”

Other teachers like John Ellsworth from Grand Ledge Public Schools and Dusty Fairfield from Ravenna Public Schools believe many members have good reasons for ditching their teachers union.

“Some of my peers were upset with the lack of information about the open enrollment period. Some of my peers think the dues are expensive. Some of my peers decided the only pay raise they would get was by not paying dues since their paychecks were diminished and their expenses increased,” Ellsworth told MCC.  “Some of my peers did not want to sign up for automatic deductions.”

“They (unions) are sinking fast and they refuse to let go of a fistful of money to grab a life jacket,” Fairfield said. “Eight thousand teachers are not paying dues because they have families to take care of. With all the financial cuts made recently, they need every dollar they earn to survive. Homes are being lost. Priorities have trumped being represented by a union.

“It’s a matter of survival for some.”