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In 2005, the Michigan Education Association had 130,882 voting (active) members that were teachers and support professionals. According to recent disclosure documents, in 2015 the state's largest teachers union has 96,561 members, a decline of about 34,000 since 2005, or 26 percent. The numbers on the most recent MEA membership came from the Portage Education Association’s website which cites MEA Secretary Treasurer Rick Trainor as its source. The numbers significantly differ from the MEA’s federal report from the previous year. The MEA didn’t respond to an email seeking comment on its overall decline in membership. There are four main reasons...

In an apparent effort to make it even more difficult or even stop school employees from exercising their right under right-to-work to not pay union dues or fees, the state’s largest teachers union has quietly set up an obscure post office box address to which members must send the required opt-out paperwork. It's P.O. Box 51 East Lansing, MI 48826. Based on a letter the Michigan Education Association sent to members who had tried to get out, and discussions with some of them, resignation requests sent to the regular union headquarters address will not be honored. An extensive search of...

The National Labor Relations Board on Monday blocked a historic bid by Northwestern University football players to form the nation’s first college athletes’ union, dealing a blow to a labor movement that could have transformed amateur sports. In a unanimous decision, the board said the prospect of having both union and nonunion teams could lead to different standards at different schools—from the amount of money players receive to the amount of time they can practice—and create competitive imbalances on the field. The ruling dismissed a stunning decision in March 2014 by a regional NLRB director in Chicago who said football...

The Michigan Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, routinely submits financial reports to the federal government, as it is legally required to do. But the reports can leave outsiders wondering about the source of the roughly 30 percent of its income that is categorized under the heading of “All Other Receipts.” That’s the only description the Michigan Education Association provides to account for more than $30 million of its annual income. Specifically, on its 2014 LM-2 disclosure form, the MEA reported over $38 million in receipts from unspecified sources under the "All Other Receipts” heading. “This is something that...

Chicago Public Schools officials on Monday proposed a $5.7 billion operating budget for the upcoming school year that relies on $480 million in new funding from state government that might never come. School leaders conceded the spending plan contains a mix of “unsustainable” borrowing and limited classroom cuts that they say they must begrudgingly make because of a $676 million payment for teacher pensions that’s due at the end of the school year. There also are numerous fiscal wild cards in the mix, including budget adjustments that might ensue should CPS reach an agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union on...

Former Broward Teachers Union President Pat Santeramo appeared in court Monday to face new federal fraud charges. According to court records filed Friday, Santeramo, 67, was indicted on two mail fraud charges and is accused of misappropriating more than $35,000 from the Broward school district's accountability program from 2006 to 2011. The program was set up to provide training and teachers programs.

"There will be blood. There will be repercussions." Such is the common threat made against those who dare take on the union juggernaut. Michigan’s State Rep. Shenelle Jackson (D-Detroit) made the threat clear in 2012 during the passage of that state’s law on worker freedom. "What you're doing today will only serve to empower [Democrats]. We will win back this chamber, possibly take the Senate back and certainly win the governorship.” Unfortunately for Rep. Jackson and her allies, the exact opposite happened. Not a single state representative or senator who voted for right-to-work lost in the general election and the...

At the National Education Association annual convention, the nationwide teachers union passed an action item warning its members about right-to-work laws that “undermine high-quality education for every child.” But critics of the NEA say what right-to-work laws really undermine is the union's ability to promote a far-left ideology that violates the values of conservative members the union boasts of representing. In Michigan, teachers pay $183 a year to the NEA as part of membership in the Michigan Education Association. The NEA's Michigan affiliate also tries to make it hard for members of any political persuasion to leave, notwithstanding Michigan's right-to-work...

The principal of an innovative West Harlem public school killed herself the day after her students took the state Common Core exams — which were later tossed out because she cheated ... Jeanene Worrell-Breeden, 49, of Teachers College Community School, jumped in front of a B train in the 135th Street station ... She was pulled out from under the train and taken to Harlem Hospital, where she died eight days later. The city Medical Examiner’s Office ruled it a suicide. The leap came at 9:20 a.m., less than 24 hours after her 47 third-graders wrapped up three days sweating...

"There will be blood. There will be repercussions." Such is the common threat made against those who dare take on the union juggernaut. Michigan’s State Rep. Shenelle Jackson (D-Detroit) made the threat clear in 2012 during the passage of that state’s law on worker freedom. "What you're doing today will only serve to empower [Democrats]. We will win back this chamber, possibly take the Senate back and certainly win the governorship.” Unfortunately for Rep. Jackson and her allies, the exact opposite happened. Not a single state representative or senator who voted for right-to-work lost in the general election and the...

Hillary Rodham Clinton shed her usual sunny demeanor last week and snarled at Republicans in general and one presidential candidate in particular. “Republican governors like Scott Walker have made their names stomping on workers’ rights, and practically all Republican candidates would do the same as president,” Clinton growled at Manhattan’s New School. “I will fight back against these mean-spirited, misguided attacks. Evidence shows that the decline of unions may be responsible for a third of the increase of inequality among men. So, if we want to get serious about raising income, we have to get serious about supporting union...

City officials are pushing property-tax hikes, sales-tax hikes, and even a commuter tax and financial-transaction tax. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle’s wish for a $474 million sales-tax increase to help pay for the county’s growing pension debt has been granted. The hike pushes the sales-tax rate back up to 10.25 percent in Chicago – the same as it was when Preckwinkle took office in 2010. And that’s not the only new tax residents have to face. Preckwinkle is just the latest local leader to usher in a tax increase. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel created a new tax earlier this...

While Ann Arbor Public Schools teachers union president Linda Carter has claimed the superintendent and school board were trying to "destroy" the school district, that same school board has spent $250,000-plus allowing union officials to work on union activities during school hours instead of teaching. Called "release time," this special arrangement allows union president Carter to teach no classes yet collect a full-time teacher's salary of $77,502, for which the district pays half and the union pays half. However, the school district covers the entire cost of Carter's health care and pension benefits, at an annual cost estimated to be...

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday ended a secret investigation into whether Republican Gov. Scott Walker's campaign illegally coordinated with conservative groups in winning his 2012 recall election. The court's action is a major victory for Walker as he pursues the presidency, though one expert said prosecutors could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. No one has been charged in the so-called John Doe probe, Wisconsin's version of a grand jury investigation where information is tightly controlled, but questions about the investigation have dogged Walker for months. The case centers on political activity conducted by Wisconsin Club for Growth and...

Scott Walker, the political phenomenon who rose to national fame by taking on unions in one of the most blue-collar states, announced Monday that he’ll seek the Republican nomination for president, using his kick-off rally to throw red meat to his conservative supporters. “Americans want to vote for something and for someone,” Walker told the roaring crowd in Waukesha, Wisconsin. “So tonight, let me tell you what I’m for. I’m for reform, growth, safety. I’m for transferring power from Washington into the hands of hard working tax payers in all states across the country, that’s real reform.”…“I realize unlike some...

The Michigan Senate is considering a bill that would prevent taxpayer-funded union “release time” in most settings. There is a real-world cost to this practice, which allows union stewards to spend time working for a private entity when they are supposed to be working for the public. Senate Bill 280, introduced by Sen. Marty Knollenberg, R-Troy, would prevent collective bargaining agreements from offering paid release time used by teachers or other school district employees to conduct union business. While still allowing employees to spend time working on union negotiations, this would be paid for by the union rather than taxpayers....

<p>There’s an old expression in politics, “If you shoot at a king, don’t miss.” In the matter of the unions vs. Scott Walker, unions paid the price for their failed at tempts to stop Walker and his reforms. Amazingly, Wisconsin became a Right to Work state.</p>

To the barricades! Or rather, to the virtual barricades since that requires much less effort. And in the case of lethargic Politico labor reporter the less real effort the better since according to his "work" schedule, Elk has produced only five Politico stories in fourteen weeks with absolutely no work performed by him in over five months.Ironically, Elk is now the one demanding that Politico be unionized. Um, before you advocate for "workers' rights" don't you have to at least do a little work? The most work that Elk has actually done in over five months was producing a semi-literate...

(MILWAUKEE) -- Milwaukee union leaders say they're sorry for a work stoppage last week, but cannot promise there won't be another strike. The county says everyone will be able to ride free today because of the inconvenience of last week's strike. Leaders of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 998 held a news conference overnight to apologize to riders. They say they did not walk off the job last week to punish the public. The union says they are willing to have an arbitrator settle their differences, and accuse MCTS of refusing to allow that to happen. However union leaders gave no...

Despite the scaremongering and bullying from those in Brussels, we are waking today with Greece having delivered a resounding No. That comes despite EU bosses saying that it would mean a Greek exit from the Euro, not to mention the heavy economic pressure placed on the Greek people to go along with the wishes of Brussels. It is a crushing defeat for those Eurocrats who believe that you can simply bulldoze public opinion. Chief bully-boy Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament, and other supposed leaders of the European Union did their best to terrify the Greek people into submitting...