In a letter to the editor titled "Think tank's efforts to discredit union fails" published earlier this week by The Detroit News, MEA President Steve Cook attacked the Mackinac Center's position as an advocate for worker freedom and educational choice in Michigan.

Mackinac Center Executive Vice President Michael Reitz published a rebuttal in The Detroit News on July 31, reminding readers of Cook's pension spiking deal (a story broken earlier this year by Michigan Capitol Confidential) and explaining reasons why teachers might wish to leave the MEA:

…Steve Cook writes that “public school employees have not been treated well by … special interest groups in recent years.”

Thousands of Michigan teachers agree, but the group they feel mistreated by is Cook’s own union. The MEA is ruining the personal credit scores of the very employees he represents by sending them to collection agencies for exercising their right to opt out of their union. For some who exercised their rights, MEA affiliates published their names in an attempt to publicly shame them and pressure them into paying again.

The full letter to the editor is available at The Detroit News.

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