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When Michigan became a right-to-work state in 2013, Angela Steffke, Rebecca Metz and Nancy Rhatigan thought they were free from their union. The three teachers in the Taylor School District had seen wage freezes, benefit cuts and increased class sizes in their financially strapped schools. Paying money to a union wasn’t worth it, and the law now gave them the freedom to choose not be belong.
From left to right: Nancy Rhatigan, Angela Steffke and Rebecca Metz
But there was a loophole. The right-to-work law didn’t go into effect until three months after it was passed — and it didn’t apply until current contracts expired. The teachers union in Taylor was one of the most strident in the state, even winning an award from the state union after shutting down the schools to protest the right-to-work law with an illegal strike. The local union subverted the will of the law and entered into something dubbed a “union security agreement,” which cut the wages of teachers and forced them to continue paying membership dues or fees for 10 years. As a result, they were forced to contribute money to a union, which gave its president a 20% raise and spent $125,000 on a controversial ballot proposal.
But the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation was there, arguing that this decade-long agreement did not represent the best interest of teachers and denied them the ability to decide on their own whether or not to financially support the union.
The court agreed. And unions for school districts in Clarkston and Ann Arbor also lost lawsuits because of similar agreements. By stepping up to the plate in the face of immense pressure to stay quiet, the three Taylor teachers helped hundreds of other school employees keep more of their hard-earned money.
