![[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
Let Cintas Workers Make Up Their Own Minds
There is no need to pressure Cintas into a neutrality or card-check agreement. When a majority of Cintas workers are convinced they want a union, they will vote to have one. … more
Why School Districts Can’t Save on Health Care
The MEA and MESSA have set up an obstacle course that prevents public schools from introducing competition for teachers’ health care coverage or putting reasonable limits on the extent of care. … more
A Hard Pill for UAW Members to Swallow
Gettelfinger no longer can shield UAW members from competitive pressure. Instead, the UAW must prepare domestic autoworkers for competition. … more
Michigan Unions Continue to Lose Support among Workers
Labor unions should abandon the old,
outmoded adversarial model of labor relations and instead study ways they can create a better atmosphere; in which labor and management cooperatively solve problems in ways that promote free enterprise. … more
A Way to Ease the Pain of Budget Cuts
By what standard of social justice does the state inflate the wages of workers who would most likely be earning above-average wages without government intervention? … more
If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It
Proposal 3 would impose a slow, expensive labor negotiation process on the state of Michigan, while uprooting a civil service system that has worked well for both the state and its employees. … more
Can Southfield Afford a "Feel-Good" Wage Law?
Southfield's "living wage" ordinance is a prime example of how good intentions, linked with shallow thinking, can lead to terrible policy. … more
Michigan Workers Are Ready for Right-to-Work
Freedom of association is the legitimate basis upon which the union movement helped establish legal protections for workers in national and state labor laws. But what about the freedom to not join or pay dues to a union in order to get or keep a job? Right-to-work laws—operative in 22 states, but not Michigan—respect this individual choice of workers, and a new study shows states with such laws also enjoy greater economic prosperity. … more
New Data Bolster Finding of Right-to-Work Report
Economists calculate half-century cost of union policies at $50 trillion. … more
A Good Time to Cut Taxes on Jobs
Washington is keeping most of the revenue collected from employers under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA), a tax that is supposed to fund the administration of state unemployment insurance programs. Congress should abolish this tax-which constitutes a direct tax on employment-and hand states back the responsibility of running their own unemployment programs. … more
Bill Would Require Public-Sector Unions to Disclose Finances
A bill in the Michigan House of Representatives would require the state's public-sector unions to disclose their finances to the same degree of detail as publicly held corporations. The result would be stronger unions with less waste and a renewed focus on the workplace concerns of union members. … more
Of Bush and Beck
President Bush will have an excellent opportunity in the coming months to revive the drive to enforce the Supreme Court's Beck ruling, the decision that affirmed workers' right to opt out of financially supporting union politicking. … more
Should D-DOT Work Weekends?
Few people would deny that it's normal to want weekends off work. But generous union contracts that stipulate a strict Monday through Friday work schedule for Detroit Department of Transportation employees ensure the city's bus system is less reliable and more expensive. Poor city services in turn contribute to a poorer city, a smaller tax base, fewer jobs, and ultimately lower wages for city employees, including bus mechanics and drivers. … more
Charter School Ousts MEA Union in Historic Vote
The teachers of Island City Academy, a charter school in Eaton Rapids, ousted the Michigan Education Association as their collective bargaining agent in a historic 12-1 vote. … more
