National Review Online today highlights two cases in which the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation is protecting teachers from their unions.

The first involves several teachers around the state who are being denied their ability to exercise their worker freedom rights by the Michigan Education Association. The union claims that its bylaws limiting teachers to resigning their membership only during the month of August trumps Michigan’s right-to-work law.

William “Ray” Arthur, one of the MCLF’s clients, tells National Review: “Pretty much, this is the only negative experience I’ve ever had associated with education. These people have not been transparent and honest with me, and I feel like I’ve been tricked into staying in the union. They’re willing to go to court to make me stay in the union and get my union dues.”

The MCLF has filed unfair labor complaints against the MEA on behalf of Arthur and seven other teachers.

In the second case, three teachers in the Taylor School District are suing the school board and the Taylor Federation of Teachers over a separate, 10-year clause the two sides signed separate from their contract that locks teachers into paying union dues for a decade. The contract was one of many around the state that was signed before right-to-work took effect on March 28.

“The union really wanted to get a contract because they believed, rightly so, that people would leave,” Angela Steffke told NRO. “The school district and the union worked together — they colluded — to come up with this last-hour deal.”

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