Collective Bargaining
“…You get a contract. That doesn’t happen from thin air, but from dedicated work by your colleagues, with excellent legal and pragmatic advice from your MEA UniServ director, backed by a skilled organization.” – Gary Thompson, Saginaw Valley State University Faculty Association president, English professor
With passage of Michigan’s Public Employment Relations Act (PERA) in 1965, teachers went from begging to bargaining.
Now all school employees have the right to negotiate
fair wages and decent working conditions. The MEA staff
helps you do just that. Your dues pays for the professional
bargainers, lawyers and other experts you need to uphold
all aspects of your contract.
Did You Know?
- MEA has more than 160,000 members.
- MEA members include employees of traditional
K-12 public school districts and intermediate districts,
charter public schools, community colleges and public
universities, as well as public school retirees and future
teachers. - MEA employees help members bargain more than 3,600
contracts. While some contracts cover two or more years,
a large percentage of contracts last just one year, which
means that bargaining is nearly continuous from year to
year.
The federal Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure
Act guarantees certain rights to union members and imposes
certain responsibilities on union officers. You have:
- Equal rights to participate in union activities
- Freedom of speech and assembly
- Voice in setting rates of dues, fees and assessments
- Protection of the right to sue
- Safeguards against improper discipline