Michigan worker groups strip union bosses of collection powers, sue others

(The Center Square) – Nearly six months after the Michigan Legislature repealed Right to Work laws, more groups of workers are taking action against what they say are coercive measures of some unions to collect fees.

Mechanics from Brown Motors in Petoskey and drivers from MV Transportation in Ypsilanti successfully voted recently to remove their union officials' powers to collect union dues from nonunion members.

The Brown Motors mechanics voted by 75% against the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, National Right to Work Foundation Legal Defense Foundation said. The Teamsters also faces a new lawsuit filed by nurses at Ascension Genesys Hospital in Grand Blanc Township, who say union bosses threatened to fire them if they didn’t pay union fees.

The MV Transportation drivers voted by 78%, the Right to Work foundation said, against the Amalgamated Transit Union. The National Right to Work Foundation covered the legal fees for all three worker groups.

“Despite the fact that an overwhelming majority of Michiganders wanted Right to Work to remain in place, Michigan legislators repealed it on a narrow party-line vote as a giveaway to the union boss puppeteers that fund their campaigns,” National Right to Work Foundation President Mark Mix said in a release. “We at the Foundation are proud to help Michigan workers reclaim their freedom.”

The 2018 U.S. Supreme Court case Janus v. AFSCME ruled it unconstitutional for labor unions to extract agency fees from nonconsenting, nonunion member employees in the public sector. Right to Work laws guaranteed private sector workers those same protections.

With the repeal of Right to Work laws in Michigan five months ago, some union bosses are now making nonmembers pay union dues or risk losing their employment. The only way workers in Michigan can end forced dues is by a majority voting to remove the union’s power to do so – a “deauthorization vote”–or by voting out the union entirely.

The votes must then be certified by the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency in charge of enforcing labor laws in the private sector.

The Transit Union’s website says it “fights for transit workers by helping them organize local unions, negotiate collective bargaining contracts between its members and their employers, representing members in disputes with management, and making sure that employers adhere to the provisions of their collective bargaining agreement.”

Teamsters Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman said in a release that repealing the Right to Work law means “workers have better safety standards, higher wages, a louder voice on the job and the uninhibited freedom of association in the workplace that they need and deserve.”

The Center Square was unsuccessful getting comment from the Transit Union and Teamsters before publication.