![[Photo of Paul Kersey]](/media/images/people/PKersey-MED.jpg)
Paul Kersey is director of labor policy at the Illinois Policy Institute and served as director of labor policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy from September 2007 to May 2012.
Kersey holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Michigan-Dearborn. In 1993, he received his Juris Doctor from the University of Illinois.
After practicing law in Livonia, Mich., for several years, Kersey served on the staff of the U.S. House of Representatives Government Reform and Oversight Committee. He then spent three years at the National Right to Work Committee as director of state legislation. In that role, he analyzed and responded to labor legislation in all 50 states.
Tools
By Paul Kersey
Snyder the Tax Cutter?
If Rick Snyder really wants conservatives and tea party activists in his corner and energized, and if he really wants to reinvent Michigan next January, the next step will be dust off one of his own position papers and show some leadership on business tax relief. … more
...And a Few More Questions for Virg
Mayor Bernero, last week during an interview with Paul W. Smith, you made the case that as governor you would have a better chance of developing good working relationships with government employee unions based on your experience as mayor of Lansing. … more
Another Question for Snyder
Why do you think morale is so low among unionized government employees? … more
The Defendants Plead Guilty, Your Honor
In two separate cases over the last month, two Michigan union officials pled guilty to violations of federal law. … more
Bob King's First Amendment
Actually, workers ought to have the full range of First Amendment rights — to join a union, to not join a union, to contribute to causes they believe in, to withhold support from causes they don’t believe in, and to hear speech that is not screened by union officials first. … more
Mike Bouchard and Right-to-Work Legislation
Whether Mike Bouchard is acting out of principle or pragmatism, one can only hope that more gubernatorial candidates follow his lead. … more
Selective Disclosure
There is no reason, aside from political calculation, why unions should not be subjected to the same level of scrutiny as political parties, companies, or issue groups like the Chamber of Commerce. If anything the scrutiny should be even closer because so much of their funds are drawn from union dues that workers must pay or lose their jobs. … more
Big Waste, Bad News
Two bills are working their way through the House of Representatives in Lansing that would change the process of binding arbitration, which is used to resolve contract disputes between local governments and their employees. One of these bills is, at best, a complete waste of time. The other is just a lousy idea. … more
The Man Who Would Be (Bob) King
Does the UAW need another association with a failed automaker? … more
Throwing Down the Gauntlet
Michigan would benefit from having a few elected officials with the nerve to issue the sort of challenge that Gov. Christie has made. … more
A Tale of Two Counties
Here we have two very similar, fairly wealthy counties; one engages in collective bargaining with its employees on rules similar to Michigan’s Public Employment Relations Act, the other doesn’t. One is coping with the recession well, the other is struggling with political infighting. The implications for Michigan are hard to miss: A lot of local governments in Michigan would be better off without collective bargaining. … more
Live From New York, It's Saturday Night Labor!
The abuses of power perpetrated by government employee unions are well known and established enough to serve as comedic fodder nationwide. … more
The MEA President Lays on the Guilt Trip
At bottom, Michigan Education Association President Iris Salters’ latest commentary in The Detroit News is an attempt to lay a guilt trip on Michigan taxpayers, essentially saying, "If you really cared about your children you’d send us more money." This sort of manipulation can be annoying when it comes from an acquaintance. When it comes from the president of a multimillion dollar government employee union and lobbying group, it’s bound to be expensive. … more
Is This the Death Blow for the Living Wage?
Municipal living wage ordinances are on very thin ice. … more
Checking on the UAW
The LM-2 forms for 2009 are up on the Department of Labor website. Let’s look at some of the highlights. Up first, the United Auto Workers. It was a tough year all around for the crew at Solidarity House: … more
But I Thought That Went Without Saying ...
Right-to-Work is on the minds of a lot of people who make their living paying close attention to Michigan politics. … more
Intellectually Bankrupt
One reads and rereads Hoffa’s musings in vain for some hint of a solution to the state’s problems — even a misguided one — but there is none. Hoffa has no answers. … more
Unfinished Business
The actual competitiveness of the Big Three never rated highly as a value for the government’s restructuring of the industry, and the UAW has shown it is prone to act cavalierly towards those same companies as they struggle back toward profitability. … more
Becker Appointed to NLRB
If we are to treat the workplace as political rather than as an economic arrangement, its politics ought to be fully democratic, respecting the rights of all interested parties to speak. … more
'Cause You Know It Don't Matter Anyway
There is a bitter irony in seeing the president of the state’s most powerful union lecture the people of Michigan about decisions she disapproves of from her perch in one of the safest jobs in the state. … more
Local Officials Call for Help
If Michigan wants to recover from its economic doldrums, it would help if local governments could get their finances back in balance. And if local governments are going to balance their books, it would help if they could get some relief from labor laws that empower unions at the expense of taxpayers. … more
Union Corruption Update
Recent charges and guilty pleas involving union officials. … more
Quick! Change the Subject
Teamsters President James Hoffa would love to manipulate Tea Partiers for his own purposes. … more
Nicely Played, MEA!
The MEA gave up nothing in the "Race to the Top" deal. They made no concessions in terms of teacher compensation or performance. They may — depending on just how the law is interpreted — have made privatization, which has saved school districts and taxpayers across the state millions of dollars a subject of collective bargaining again. Oh, and the state hasn’t gotten a nickel in federal funds so far. … more
35, 34, 33...
Wages for state employees have gone up half again as fast as they did for workers throughout the state. Certainly they can afford to go without an across-the-board raise this year. … more
36 Days
The bottom line is the Legislature has always had the authority to prevent pay raises authorized by the CSC, and collective bargaining agreements between the state and unions representing its employees have always been subject to the Legislature’s acquiescence. … more
37 Days
The process of collective bargaining cannot be allowed to trump the will of the people or the public interest; otherwise, our representative government is in danger of morphing into a plutocracy controlled by government employee unions, who could use collective bargaining to lead the rest of the state around by the nose.
We have 37 days to restore fiscal sanity in Michigan. … more
We have 37 days to restore fiscal sanity in Michigan. … more
Kermit the Frog Meets the Underpants Gnomes: Ron Gettelfinger's Pitch for Green Auto Jobs
The UAW chief tells us that there are 190,000 new automotive sector jobs about to be created, and we can have them all right here if Republicans and Democrats do…something. What exactly Gettelfinger hopes they will do isn’t spelled out or even hinted at but it probably involves gobs of taxpayer money. … more
Don't Look Now
The important thing is that the leadership of the GOP in Lansing thinks, at a minimum, that it can score political points by promoting right-to-work protections, which is a big shift for a state in which unions have held sway for so long. … more
Give. It. Up.
Binding arbitration isn’t a last resort in EFCA: It’s the specialty of the house. … more
Whatever
If you had the UAW’s record, you’d be tempted to hide behind a great man’s rhetoric of 40 years ago, too. … more
Welcome to Bizarro World
It is a bizarre world indeed when the MEA claims to be the taxpayers' champion. … more
Respect My Authoritah!!!
While labor law can be complicated and intimidating, school districts and the public should take a union’s claims about its own authority with a proverbial grain of salt. … more
At Ford, Grievances Are Job One
Since UAW workers are looking forward to profit sharing, it shouldn’t come as a shock if the company restores some perks for its white-collar work force as well. … more
Senator Prusi's Bright Idea
Prusi says: "If they're negotiating out of fear, then they don't belong at the negotiating table."
He has a point. … more
He has a point. … more
Anybody Got a Sword?
Sometimes the best answer to a complex problem is the simplest one. … more
Creatures of the State
The American labor movement reached what may prove to be a critical milestone last year when government employees, for the first time ever, made up a majority of union members. … more
Bishop Unveils Reform Proposals
A quick take on the Senate GOP's reform plans for Michigan. … more
Cadillac Hacks
Okay, it’s a cynical deal, but union workers can at least take comfort in knowing that their unions are looking out for them, right?
Well, maybe not... … more
Well, maybe not... … more
Busted
Investigations by the US Department of Labor Office of Labor Management Standards led to two officials from AFSCME Local 100 in Pontiac being brought up on charges from the embezzlement of nearly $40,000 of union funds. … more
MASStroturf
You see a lot of union members at political rallies. One can’t help but wonder how many are genuine volunteers who are motivated by support for the union’s agenda, and how many are there for the money. … more
Union Corruption Update
Nevada contractor pleads guilty to bribing Michigan union official. … more
We're Not in Kansas Any More
And we've never been anywhere quite like Pandora. … more
While I Was Away
Catching up on a couple of items left over from before my Christmas vacation. … more
Rebutting Gaffney on PA 312 and Binding Arbitration
A point-by-point rebuttal of AFL-CIO President Mark Gaffney's defense of PA 312, which establishes that bargaining impasses between local governments in Michigan and unions representing police and fire department personnel will be resolved via binding arbitration. … more
Stop the Madness!
Before Detroit Public Schools can return to some degree of effectiveness — let alone excellence — the sheer craziness of its labor relations strife must be resolved one way or another, and that means that DFT, or at least the radicals in DFT who are pushing for a strike, must be confronted and made to pay a steep price for their incompetence and recklessness. … more
Um, What's the Opposite of "More"?
One might think Detroit public school teachers are grossly overcompensated and overprotected, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a legitimate beef with union officials who promised them “more, more, more” without bothering to ask where it would come from. … more
Relationship Problems
The already problematic relationship between the State of Michigan and the Service Employees International Union is becoming more and more troubling as SEIU Local 517M reached terms for changes to their contract with the state of Michigan. As we have reported on this blog, another SEIU subsidiary, the Member Action Services Center, received $2 million in refundable MEGA tax credits last month. … more
The MEA's LM-2 Report for 2008-2009
The MEA's 2008-2009 LM-2 report at your fingertips. … more
Tidbits From the MEA's Recent Financial Report
The union is slightly less bloated, but its top officers are still doing pretty well. … more
SEIU/MASC: Curiouser and Curiouser
MEDC moved fast to secure a union operation for Michigan, but did it really need to? … more
What's Hiding Under the MASC?
The Michigan Economic Growth Authority has granted a $2 million tax credit to the Service Employees International Union that appears to be "refundable," meaning that it's actually a cash subsidy if this union operation has no tax liability. In that case, Michigan taxpayers would be paying for an SEIU office that could also be used for union organizing or political activism. The MEDC's response to persistent Mackinac Center attempts to confirm this has been, well, unresponsive. … more
What The...?
The value of MEDC itself is dubious and this grant to SEIU is especially so. … more
From South Detroit to Shockandawe
A pattern of sorts is starting to emerge: When one hears numbers of “jobs created or saved” by various government programs, it appears to be more and more likely that such numbers were pulled by someone out of the vicinity of his or her own back pocket. … more
Are Detroit City Retirees Being Taken Advantage Of?
This wouldn’t be the first time Detroit city employee unions turned a blind eye toward graft. Did the unions ever register any protests about how the boards operated? … more
No Thanks, I'm Full
Obesity is a real problem, but if there’s a public health problem that can be addressed with the sort of top-down, one-size-fits-all approach that is typical for government, obesity is not it. … more
The Horror of It All
The U.S. House of Representatives has just posted on the Internet its health care overhaul bill, HR 3962, “To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, etc.” All 1990 impenetrable pages of it. But this bill isn’t just longer than a Stephen King novel, it’s also scarier, because aside from the title, this tome is all nonfiction. 
… more
… moreLocal Right-to-Work
A carefully written “local option” law passed by the state legislature could work. … more
Leaving Some Key Facts Behind
Governor Granholm and certain quarters of the state media have been very excited by a recent report from the Department of Energy, Labor, and Economic Growth extolling the success of the No Worker Left Behind Program, but the report leaves a lot of questions unanswered. … more
This Should Get Their Attention
The City of Detroit has stopped collecting dues on behalf of 16 unions that have yet to reach new agreements with the city of Detroit. This is a provocative but much-needed step that serves to discipline city employee unions. … more
Foul Ball
Some advice for the Detroit Tigers on the ticket tax: if you're going to oppose one proposed tax increase, you may as well oppose them all. … more
Pushing on a String
Yesterday, the Department of Energy, Labor, and Economic Growth announced that its “No Worker Left Behind” program had achieved its goal of enrolling 100,000 participants almost a year early ... This is good news if you don’t think about it too much. On closer inspection though it looks more like the state is pushing on a string. … more
Bing's Gambit
Detroit Mayor Dave Bing may succeed in pushing city unions into accepting concessions this time, but ordinarily state labor law would give the unions the upper hand. … more
Is MSU Hyping Project Labor Agreements?
Project Labor Agreements are at best an unnecessary headache for both government and contractors. At worst they are another payoff for uncompetitive unionized construction. … more
