LANSING – Michigan Senate Republicans established a new Compliance and Accountability Committee on Thursday that will focus on complaints from teachers about alleged difficulties and intimidation they have encountered in trying to resign their Michigan Education Association union membership.

Senate Majority Floor Leader Arlan Meekhof (R-West Olive), the committee chair, said the goal of the committee is to examine the implementation and application of laws passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Rick Snyder. First, the committee will investigate complaints from teachers who wanted to resign their MEA membership, but were told they could not do so until August.

“The tactic, if proven true, is in direct violation of the Michigan Freedom to Work Act,” he said. “Today we are sending a message to those who would circumvent state law or violate the rights of our state workers: You will be held accountable and you will have to answer to the people of Michigan.”

Additionally, the committee will hear stories from teachers who say they were threatened retaliation for quitting the union, Meekhof said.

Meekhof, asked to describe what accountability measures would be taken, said that would play out in the committee process.

Named to the committee were Sen. Jack Brandenburg (R-Harrison Township) as majority vice chair, Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker (R-Lawton) and Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood (D-Taylor) as the minority vice chair.

Last year, the Legislature passed and Governor Rick Snyder signed into law legislation prohibiting employees working under a collective bargaining agreement from having to compensate the union either through union dues or a non-member fee.

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is representing several teachers in a complaint to the Michigan Employment Relations Commission on the issue of the August resignation window. Susan Bank, a special education teacher in the Novi schools, said at a news conference announcing the new committee that she hopes the committee will improve enforcement of the right-to-work law. She plans to testify at its first meeting next Wednesday.

“The union that I paid thousands of dollars to over the years refuses to communicate with me about my rights under the new law,” she said about her efforts to resign her union membership. “It is my sincere hope that by sharing our stories, we can all protect current and future workers who want to exercise their rights under the worker freedom legislation.”

But MEA spokesperson Doug Pratt said MEA members sign a contract when they become members in which they agree the only time they can resign their membership is in August.

“Two sides enter into an agreement,” he said. “And that’s what our membership agreement is.”

MERC already has upheld the August window as a legally binding agreement, Mr. Pratt said. He said 99 percent of MEA members stayed with the union, and that is galling to the Mackinac Center and Republicans.

“The vast majority of members do want to stay with MEA because are out there as a voice for public education, for school employees and for students,” he said. “The fact that so many members decided they wanted to stay has them completely befuddled and hence they’re trying new tricks.”

Meekhof, told of the MEA’s previously stated defenses for the August resignation window, said he hoped MEA officials would testify. Asked if he would seek subpoena power for the committee to compel testimony under oath, Meekhof said it is possible, but not something he is considering at this point. Brandenburg said he would encourage seeking that power if necessary.

Pratt said it was premature to say whether the MEA would testify. He noted the ongoing proceeding before the MERC.

Senate Democratic spokesperson Robert McCann said he questions the motives for creating the committee, saying it smacks of political opportunism. He said it is baffling that majority Senate Republicans would jam a hugely consequential bill moving all lawsuits against state government to the Court of Claims, which would be shifted from the Ingham Circuit Court to the Court of Appeals, but take time conduct hearings on this topic.

“It certainly appears that it’s creating little more than a charade for themselves,” he said.

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