Introduction

Union workers across America are beginning to reclaim control over the hard-earned fruits of their labor as a pro-employee legal reform known as "paycheck protection" challenges union leaders in state after state to become more accountable to their rank-and-file members.

Paycheck protection allows union workers to make their own political, social, and moral choices about how their dues are spent—without having to sacrifice their economic interests as union members. Under paycheck protection, unions are required to get permission from individual workers before spending dues money on political campaigns and other non-workplace-related activities.

The time is ripe for Michigan's union workers to enjoy the fullest legal protection of their right to make their own choices concerning how their dues are spent. Paycheck protection is simply a matter of fairness, union accountability, and the fulfillment of a promise the U. S. Supreme court made to America's union workers in 1988.