University Employees Break From Union For Better Service At Lower Cost

Michigan Capitol Confidential ^ | 8/15/2014 | Anne Schieber

[MichCapCon]

ALLENDALE — Support staff and technical workers at Grand Valley State University are negotiating their first contract since decertifying from the Michigan Education Association in January.

The group formed its own independent union called the Alliance of Professional Support Staff (APSS). President Coreen Bedford said employees are much more favorable to the new union.

"We have fewer members exercising right-to-work than we had fee payers with the MEA," she said.

Bedford believes had the group not formed its own union, many more members under the MEA would have opted out.

She believes that over the years the MEA failed to represent the best interests of the group, primarily because of its focus on K-12 units and political activities. She said their new union has hired an attorney at a fraction of the cost of dues and will be representing them at the bargaining table.

Bedford says she has spoken to at least one other MEA group in higher education considering decertification and forming an independent union. At the K-12 level, teachers in Roscommon followed a similar path; decertifying to obtain better service at a lower cost.

"My message to others who are thinking of going through this is 'don't wait,'" Bedford added. "You're just wasting your money ... because there is a perception of what they are able to provide you with and then there is the reality. Take a hard look at that reality."

[CharlesOConnell]

Unions Arose in the Period of Monopoly Captialism

Bubba's favorite Georgetown Prof., Carroll Quigley, noted how Henry Ford's acceptance of organized labor was integral with his break free from banks to self-captialize. Ford's unilateral wage raise in the 1930s, very unpopular with other industrialists, allowed him to internally capitalize from his own employees buying his products. This was a spearhead in the American version of monopoly capitalism, the political manifestation of which is the true background to fascism.

Now these union vestal virgins must be scandalized at the notion of actual competition in union representation—these high priestesses of union sacrosanctity are dedicated to upholding the principle of monopoly in management labor relations.

[Vigilanteman]

Independent unions can actually be useful. Their dues are not normally used for buying politicians and, to management's delight, they often clamp down on the slackards in their group before management has to do so.

We had such a union at a company where I worked in Japan. Management appreciated them so much that they actually had their hall right at the plant and union reps were given paid time off to attend the meetings.

[polymuser]

A limited, smaller union governing body, efficiently representing the actual needs and wants of its members, with no politics.

Wow. NEA & MEA will be writhing and gnashing teeth at them, for sure.