Report from the political trenches
By Leo Sell, Legislative Committee Chairperson
LGBT
Redistricting
Voting disenfranchisement
To look at what the Michigan Legislature has continually focused on since 2010 you would think that our state’s biggest issue is not jobs but that it is teachers and public employee union rights. For APA members, the following new or pending laws are of particular importance:
Public Act 54 (passed) essentially is designed to force bargaining units to a settlement on the employer’s terms. It freezes wages after a contract expires – prohibiting automatic increases such as the APL (Automatic Progression Level), passes on health care benefits cost increases to the employees and bans retroactivity. There are valid legal questions to be raised about whether this act applies to unions representing employees at MSU (or UMich, or Wayne). However, it is an onerous law that has had a seriously chilling effect on effective bargaining.
Public Act 62 (passed) reduces education funding by one billion dollars.
Public Act 152 (passed) requires public employees to pay no less than 20% of their health care insurance premium. This act (which applies after a labor agreement such as the Joint Health Care Agreement expires) essentially forces a “one size fits all†solution to reduce employer costs. Of course, the legislators ignore that this is a crass cost shift and effective massive pay reduction. What is particularly galling is that other efforts to contain costs, even when determined by labor-management cooperation, are completely ignored. Though the bill did pass, and though the bill does specifically include MSU and other State Universities, the APA/MEA and MSU have valid reason to believe that Public Act 152 does not apply to MSU. This issue is long from decided at this point, but is certainly cause for concern.
A pending Right to Work (for less!) bill has morphed into a proposal that would affect ONLY the MEA and not other public employee unions or unions generally. Obviously the targeting of our state organization is intended to reduce our voice substantially.
Other pending bills attack unions’ ability to use public facilities (OK for a church or scout troop but not for union members to use for union purposes!!??); collection of union dues; release time; and more.
And, when they’re not busy directly attacking unions and union member rights, they have focused on voter redistricting plan that very likely violates the Voting Rights Act as well as the benefits provided to those who are Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual or Transexual. A grossly discriminatory action!
Meanwhile, all of us wonder why our standard of living seems to be constantly reducing while the overall wealth in the country increases vastly. A good explanation of this issue is available at http://i.minus.com/iiWpK.png
No wonder the “Occupy†movement has struck a cord. We are well on the way to a government that is entirely “privately heldâ€. This has to be stopped!
So, we have to be in a position to fight back and elect people who SUPPORT human rights including union rights; who support public education and its funding; who support fair taxation  and other policies.
A good step to take toward that end is to make a political action contribution via http://meavotes.org/contribute