Tuesday, August 05, 2014

Mackinac Center offers teachers form to withdraw from MEA during 'August window'

Mackinac Center offers teachers form to withdraw from MEA during 'August window' | MLive.com
LANSING -- The Mackinac Center, a vocal opponent of the Michigan Education Association, is giving disgruntled teachers a form letter to use in voicing their desire to leave the union during the "August window."
Union by-laws require that MEA members submit formal withdrawal requests in August, a rule the Mackinac Center for Public Policy has railed against as violating the spirit and possibly the letter of the state's right-to-work law.
The Mackinac Center launched what they described as an "informational" campaign earlier this year about the withdrawal period, but said in June that the group was not encouraging teachers to leave the MEA.
"We're not encouraging anyone to opt out, we're simply providing information," F. Vincent Vernuccio, the group's director of labor policy, said in June. "We're encouraging people to think about if they want to opt out."
Now that the window is open, however, the Mackinac Center is taking a more active approach toward teachers leaving the union.
The group's "August Opt-Out" site, which previously offered information about the window, now has a withdrawal letter generator for teachers who want out of the MEA.
The form letter threatens legal action against the MEA for failing to honor withdrawal requests, and demands that the MEA legally justify any refusal to honor the request.
Mackinac Center spokesman Ted O'Neill contends the form letter still represents information for teachers in the union and isn't an attempt to encourage members to leave.
"We would prefer that the MEA be the ones to make this information available to their members. Since they’ve chosen not to, we felt someone had to step in and do this," O'Neill said. "It’s up to each member to do what they wish, whether that’s completely ignore it or fully utilize it."

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