WILX-TV10 in Lansing is reporting on proposed legislation that would prevent unions from bullying members who choose to opt out. Michigan Capitol Confidential reported that the Operating Engineers Local 324 printed in its newsletter the names of 19 former members who left under Michigan’s right-to-work law, calling them “freeloaders.” Now, more than 500 members have opted out of the union.

Nancy Strachan, vice president of the Michigan Education Association, told WILX that her union “stays away from” calling former members freeloaders, saying it is “a term that’s probably been picked up from others within the education community …”

Strachan apparently forgot to tell her boss, MEA President Steve Cook, who used the term no fewer than eight times in this official Michigan Education Association press release.

Mackinac Center spokesman Ted O’Neil told WILX: “Now that employees are not forced to financially support a union as a condition of employment, unions will have to realize that they need to convince members of their value, rather than attacking and bullying those who simply choose to exercise their rights under Michigan law.”

Reason.com has weighed in on the matter.

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