Bromley v MEA/NEA, et al.,117 pending before the U. S. District Court for Michigan's Eastern District, is a suit brought by a Central Michigan University professor and other nonunion instructors against the MEA, asserting their right to meaningful disclosure of the union's accounting figures. They contend that audited reports do not accurately calculate whether the expenses charged to them by the union are properly chargeable. After more than six years of litigation, the Court recently certified these objecting union fee payers as a class for the purposes of bringing a class action suit.
In accordance with the dictates of Miller, Mackinac Center for Public Policy attorneys expect the Court to hold that union financial records are subject to all the discovery provisions permitted under federal law. Few, if any, of Michigan's public school employers have informed their employees of their right to join this class action to participate in discovering the inappropriate ways in which their union fees are often used.