Roscommon Teachers Quit MEA

Education Policy Director Michael Van Beek told host Tony Conley on WILS AM1320 in Lansing today that the decision by Roscommon teachers to decertify from the Michigan Education Association leaves the state’s largest teachers union with “egg on their face.”

The teachers voted by nearly a 2-to-1 margin to leave the MEA and form their own local union. Roscommon teachers said they did not feel they were getting value from the dues money they were forced to pay the MEA, and said their new association dues will be about half as much.

Van Beek told WATZ AM1450 in Alpena that the move could encourage other teachers around the state to make a similar decision.

Jim Perialas, interim president of the newly formed Roscommon Teachers Association, told Michigan Capitol Confidential that the MEA is “a bureaucratic machine that got out of control.”

Labor Policy Director F. Vincent Vernuccio told the Grand Haven Tribune that the MEA had "priced themselves out of the market" in Roscommon.

Fox32 in Cadillac and TV9&10 in Traverse City also reported on the development. The MEA has yet to comment.

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