(Source: MIRS.news, Published 07/10/2024) The largest of the three unions that work for the Michigan Education Association (MEA) has filed an unfair labor practice charge against the MEA for failing to bargain in good faith. 

The Professional Staff Association’s (PSA) National Labor Relations Board filed charges alleging MEA preconditioned the bargaining, retaliated for failure to pass two tentative agreements, spread inaccuracies regarding the nature and status of talks, and repudiated the contract by hiring an outside attorney to perform PSA bargaining unit work.  

“It certainly is troubling when one of the state’s largest labor unions engages in ongoing tactics at the bargaining table usually reserved for the most anti-union employers we see in our work advocating for public education employees,” said Keith Sauter, PSA vice president and a bargaining team member.  

Earl Wiman, MEA interim senior executive director, said in a statement that MEA and staff unions have been collectively bargaining a 2024 wage re-opener and MEA has settled with all but one. 

“We are still working toward an agreement with MEA's Professional Staff Association,” he said. “MEA is fully committed to the collective bargaining process and looks forward to settling an agreement that works for our dues-paying members and employees alike.” 

Talks began in January concerning an economic re-opener in the final year of a three-year contract.  

After two failed tentative agreements, the employer adopted a take-it-or-leave-it approach and later mischaracterized the talks in communications to other staff unions, including reporting mediation that PSA did not agree to, PSA leadership claims. 

PSA President Capalene Howse, who is a member of the bargaining team, said the most egregious example of bad-faith bargaining is MEA management’s refusal to extend or consider proposals in line with an agreement ratified by its other professional staff union. 

“Two staff unions within MEA represent incredibly hard-working and skilled professional staff doing the exact same work,” Howse said. “MEA management gave a deal to one unit which it denied to PSA and our members in an attempt to demoralize and drive wedges between and among its own staff.”  

Sauter and Howse said MEA also proceeded to hire an outside attorney to do PSA bargaining unit work, which is a “blatant contract violation,” which MEA allegedly acknowledged in conversations with PSA leadership. 

The majority of PSA’s 83 members conduct bargaining and advocacy work serving educators in the field from offices located across Michigan. Other employees represented by PSA include attorneys, lobbyists, statewide organizers, and communication professionals.  

MEA and PSA will begin bargaining for a new contract this fall ahead of a Dec. 31 expiration of the current agreement.