![[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.
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By Paul Kersey
CMU Strike: Standing Firm Is Not Bad Faith
Does PERA create unrealistic expectations? … more
They Can Be Taught!
The Legislature learns from its mistakes, heads off the union veto on tenure reform. … more
A Larger Perspective on Unions
Contrasting the oppression that unions face in Iran with the privileged position they have in the United States. … more
Michigan Freedom to Work Kicks Off
A new civil rights campaign is launched in Michigan. … more
PLAs: Some Good News for Taxpayers
No more directing government construction work to union companies. … more
Just Shut It
The Obama administration moves to silence employers. … more
Introducing the New Labor Movement
"Union Conservatives" enter the fray. … more
Are You Kinda Republican, Really Republican or Really, Really Republican?
The SEIU's in-depth survey. … more
'The Single Most Important Thing'
Stephen Moore on RTW in Michigan … more
And Now for Something Completely Different
Tennessee tries a new approach to teacher unions: “collaborative conferencing.” … more
A Little Graft Can Do A Lot of Damage
The real price tag of Carpenters union corruption. … more
Strike Back Harder
The Michigan Legislature can put an end to teacher strikes if it really wants to. … more
Careful There, Bob
Can the UAW benefit from Japan's problems? … more
A New Right-to-Work State?
New Hampshire could become the 23rd right-to-work state. … more
Poached Goose Eggs
Public policy has largely become an exercise in cleaning up the messes that the unions have made. … more
Massachusetts House Passes Labor Law Reform
A new bill would take health care off the bargaining table smorgasbord. … more
Acts of God
Don't like the emergency financial manager law? There's an alternative: Rein in government employee unions. … more
Another Way to Deal With Illegal Strikes
Illegal strikes represent the ultimate abuse, and the ultimate failure, of collective bargaining in government. The Legislature should not flinch from taking privileges away from unions that abuse them. … more
Union Corruption — The Latest from DOL
The latest news on the union corruption front. … more
On (Recent Events in) Wisconsin
It was always hard to imagine how this could end well for Wisconsin’s public-sector labor unions. … more
Bigger Fish to Fry
The frustration over the Civil Service Commission’s recent actions is entirely understandable and healthy. But the real opportunities for the state to save money are elsewhere. It’s a measure of the depth of Michigan’s spending problem that the CSC is far from the biggest challenge confronting lawmakers and taxpayers. … more
With My Mind on My Money and My Money on My Mind
The Child Care Providers Together Michigan union, imposed on home-based child-care providers who run their own businesses from their homes, really accomplished little except to serve as a conduit through which state funds were redirected to a union. … more
Time to Repeal Public Act 312
At a time when governments are struggling to balance their budgets, it is essential that the public have maximum control over spending decisions. The choices that have to be made are not the sort that should be made by unaccountable arbitrators. The time has come for repeal of PA 312. … more
Madness in Mad-Town
As unions in Wisconsin arrange sick-outs and their defenders in the Legislature flee the state, their reaction only buttresses the case for bringing an end to public-sector bargaining. After all, there is seldom much point in arguing with fanatics. Is bargaining with them likely to work any better? … more
This Should Be an Easy Call
At a time where difficult budgeting choices are being made all throughout the state, it would seem that opening up construction to all contractors, not just union shops, should be a pretty easy call to make. … more
The Latest in Union Crime in Michigan
There are a wide range of problems that stem from our unaccountable union culture, and radical union politics and job losses from unsustainable union demands may get the most attention. But plain old theft, sometimes petty, sometimes in the six-figure range, is a very real problem too. Union officials are not above temptation, and Michiganders would do well to keep that in mind. … more
A Reform Movement Is Born
Legislative interest in reining in government unions is a welcome development, but it will be up to the voters of Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan to make sure their elected officials follow through. … more
The Case for Item Pricing Repeal
A friend of mine who works at a Kroger in metro Detroit passed along his thoughts on the "Item Pricing" law, and I figure they're worth sharing: … more
The Bottom Falls Out
During 2010, unions lost 83,000 members in Michigan, a decline in membership of 11.7 percent. … more
Ballot Bluff
Secret-ballot votes aren't an "acceptable" method for workers to determine whether or not to unionize — they're a clearly superior method. The higher the stakes, the dirtier the campaign, the more valuable the secret ballot becomes. The UAW should simply accept that and move on. … more
March Madness?
Gov. Snyder in his State of the State speech gave us no idea what his goal is for employee benefits or how to reach it. If there's one thing a manager should know, it's that if you fail to set a target you're guaranteed not to hit it. Let's hope he sets it in March. Preferably early March. … more
Advice for Gov. Snyder
Forced to make a snap decision with little guidance, a legislator could do a lot worse than to find out what proposal government union officials object to the most and vote for that. … more
Burn Notice
The union establishment's position of influence and privilege is liable to become more and more precarious unless they can re-establish themselves in the private-sector workforce — which may be why a labor board appointed by an administration that benefited mightily from union support is going to great lengths to help unions out in any way they can. … more
The Return of the Company Union
A weakened union that is overly compliant with the company's priorities is what used to be known as a "company union," and unionists used to treat them with suspicion if not contempt. But that was when the union movement was a genuine worker movement. … more
All The Cool Guvs Are Doing It
Rick Snyder has yet to tackle collective bargaining directly, but he has taken a pretty firm line on government employee benefits something that’s bound to make union officials in Michigan uncomfortable. … more
Two Governors
Leaders of our fellow upper-Midwestern states are starting to zero-in on government employee unions. It will be interesting to see if Michigan's incoming governor takes a stand on this issue. … more
Exactly What Unions Are Expected to Do
Government employees have every right to lobby and hire lawyers, but the public is not obligated to give in to their wishes or pay for those lobbyists and lawyers. … more
Right-to-Work: Resistance Is Feudal
The notion of "fundamental privileges" that government cannot withdraw without causing some sort of "disruption" is antithetical to republican government, though it would fit well in a feudal society, with its complex web of privileges and obligations that tied individuals to their stations in life. … more
How to Swipe $200K From Your Union
A UAW Local's bookkeeper cut herself an extra paycheck every week for four years. It would seem union financial reporting standards could afford some tightening up. … more
Governor's Picks for the Civil Service Commission Will Matter
Snyder has promised “customer oriented” government. If he wants to influence how state employees do their work on a “retail” level, or address state employee compensation, he will need to pay attention to this panel, be patient and put serious thought into his CSC appointments when they come up. … more
Mike Barone Gets It
Government employee unions have morphed into a permanent, taxpayer-funded lobby for big government. Any movement, like the Tea Parties, that wants to reduce the scope of government will need to confront and defeat government employee unions — and if they are to have any lasting success, it will be essential that government employee unions lose taxpayer funding. … more
Go for the Movie, Stay for the Audience Reaction
Well-meaning progressives may hope that the teachers unions will embrace reforms at some point, but by now they should realize that the chances of that happening are infinitesimal. Failing that, they face a stark choice between allowing public schools to continue to fail, or confronting a teachers’ union movement that is both one of their most important creations and most generous political benefactors. Davis Guggenheim has shined a light on the progressives’ predicament. It will be interesting to see how they handle it. … more
Pocket Full of Kryptonite
The problem isn’t individual teachers, it’s a larger system that protects mediocrity and incompetence, and elevates political correctness over the fundamentals of reading, writing, math, science and history. And teachers unions like MEA have been both the strongest defenders and the largest beneficiaries of this system. … more
A Little Good News for Kids and Taxpayers
Taxpayers and students won a small but potentially very important victory Friday when administrative law Judge David M. Peltz found that the Legislature did not give unions the authority to sidetrack privatization of non-instructional services by school districts. … more
Reconsidering Worker Rights
Federal labor law isn’t supposed to provide for workers to be unionized after the company makes an agreement with a union. Union representation is supposed to be the workers' own choice. … more
Ain't No Party Like a Chrysler Party
Last night, Channel 2 News in Detroit busted a group of about half a dozen workers at Chrysler's Jefferson North plant drinking and smoking pot during their lunch break. Do we really need TV cameras to prevent UAW workers from getting buzzed on their lunch breaks? … more
Storm Front
If anyone in Lansing is serious about helping Detroit, this would be a good time for a bill that would suspend collective bargaining for government employees in the city, so that Detroit's leadership can make the tough choices and make the most of the resources it has. … more
Studying Right to Work
A new poll shows 51 percent of likely voters in Michigan support right-to-work. … more
It Would Be a Living...
New non-union auto jobs in right-to-work Mississippi pay $15 an hour and even in a tough economy they are relatively easy to find. … more
