Mich. Union Memo Reveals Strategy for Coercing Dues

A recent memo from Michigan Education Association President Steven Cook to the union’s members shows the low ball tactics it’s using to fight Michigan’s decision last year to become a right-to-work state.

Perhaps the worst of it is that the union shows itself more than willing to fight its own members. The union wants to push them to stay and pay dues once the right-to-work law goes into effect in March, according to an opinion article in the Wall Street Journal.

The memo even raises the possibility of suing the union’s own members who seek an exit.

"Members who indicate they wish to resign membership in March, or whenever, will be told they can only do so in August," the Cook memo states.

"We will use any legal means at our disposal to collect the dues owed under signed membership forms from any members who withhold dues prior to terminating their membership in August for the following fiscal year."

The Journal article responded to that line with a quip. “Got that, comrade?” 

"The Cook memo is damning proof that the main goal of union leaders is to enhance the power of union leaders, not of workers," the article concluded.