MEA VOICE At Issue
With unions under attack, MEA remains relevant by serving teachers, support staff
State association a powerful force in lobbying for school funding and working to protect hard-earned benefits for nearly 160,000 members
There’s a battle afoot for the hearts and minds of Michigan voters.
And as in all conflicts, there are the “friendlies” and then there are foes. In this battle, the MEA wears a white hat.
NEA Secretary-Treasurer Lily Eskelsen warns that the enemy is well-organized. Smart. Resilient. It’s an enemy with deep pockets and a well-orchestrated strategy to advance its agenda: To end unionism as we know it.
Eskelsen speaks of the “reckless and radical agenda of today’s privateers.” She warns of what she calls the “ideologues” who want the market to reign.
In their view, public is bad. Private is good.
And therein lies the problem.
“Theirs is an unquestioned faith,” Eskelsen said. “Privatize everything. There must be a profit opportunity for everything. Deregulate everything. The invisible hand of the marketplace will set all problems right.
”That includes gutting labor protections because, Eskelsen says sarcastically, “if you’re a bad employer, no one will want to work for you—so everyone will be a good employer.”
Right to Work targets Michigan
One fight in this war against unions could come as early as this year when Michigan may be the target of a scam ballot initiative called “Right to Work.” Its out-of-state proponents claim that it’s about workers’ rights to have jobs.
Instead, it would allow workers to receive the benefits of being in a union—without having to pay dues or agency fees. It would force unions to spend resources and members’ dues on “free riders.”
In effect, it’s one more attack that seeks to erode hard-earned benefits such as fair wages, health care benefits and good working conditions won by organized labor.
So have these anti-union tactics suc-ceeded in making unions—the MEA in particular—irrelevant?
The answer is a resounding “no.”“
Are unions still relevant? Absolutely, especially in the public sector,” said John Revitte, a labor and industrial relations professor at Michigan State University.
Unionism strong
There are threats to unionism, he added, such as privatization and a backlash from residents who don’t want to pay more taxes. But unionism in the public sector—including in public schools—is strong.
About 20 percent of Michigan’s 4.3 million workers were part of a union in 2006. That same year, more than half of public sector employees were unionized, compared with about 14 percent of private sector employees. Those numbers have been relatively stable at least for the past 20 years.
Don Johnson, a Holt teacher who has been the local president there since 1980, knows why he’s been active throughout his 35 years in the classroom.
“I care,” he said plainly.
He cares about his colleagues having good health insurance. He cares that they have enough money to buy books and supplies for their students. And he cares that class sizes are manageable so that teachers can reach all of their charges.
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| Charlotte teacher Judy Johnson (left) and Holt EA President Don Johnson are proud that their daughter, Grand Haven teacher Kara Endsley, is part of the education profession and has become a union activist. |
All in the family
He also cares about the next generation of public school employees. One of them is his daughter, Kara Endsley, a Grand Haven first-grade teacher.
Nudged by her father, Endsley attended her first local union meeting early in her nine-year career. She said the other, older members were thrilled to see her.
“They all saw me as fresh meat and they pounced on me,” she said with a laugh. “I was asked to be on 10 committees.
”She chose one, public relations, and has been active since, including writing a newsletter and other member communications.
“Part of the reason I went into education was to impact the future of these students. To do that, you have to work on having better working conditions for your colleagues and you have to lobby legislators and the governor to provide that support.”
But, she said, the value of her MEA membership really hit home when she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2005 and was fortunate that her local had bargained for MESSA health insurance.
“I was involved before that, but that’s eally when I got passionate about how good we have it and how we need to protect it,” Endsley said.
The numbers also show that membership, as they say, has its privileges. Union members’ median earnings are 30 percent higher than nonunion workers’ wages. And less than half of employees who aren’t in a union get employer-provided health insurance. In contrast, 80 percent of union workers do.
Core service: Protection and contracts
Dave Bowman, a Northern Zone UniServ director, shares Endsley’s passion for the advan-tages of MEA membership.
“Educators need their unions more than ever today, not only because of the climate as far as unions in general, but the climate around their ability to negotiate good, fair contracts,” he said. “The core service that we provide for our members is protecting and negotiating excel-lent contracts.”
Cid Rowekamp points to the collaboration between the dif-ferent teacher and support staff units within her large district in Huron Valley as a reason why MEA membership matters.
A member since 1988, Rowekamp coor-dinates and administers state and federal programs in her school district. She was her local’s president for nine years and now is a coordinating council chair.
She tells of a time when she and other local leaders and school district officials participated in NEA-sponsored training—something they would not have had access to without MEA membership.
The training encouraged participants to commit to collaboration.
“Everybody in the district was not only concerned about the teachers or the (support staff), but were concerned that we all work together,” she said.
And even though they have gone through some tough negotiation sessions, Rowekamp added, “our administration has a real respect for the MEA and how we work together.”
“These are real trying times right now,” she said. “But it’s in the back of our minds that we’ve made a commitment to coor-dinate our efforts and we have to make it happen.”