By Steve Gunn
EAGnews.org

ROSCOMMON, Mich. – Membership in the nation’s largest teachers unions continues to decline, one school district at a time.

Teachers working for Roscommon Area Public Schools recently voted to decertify from the Michigan Education Association and its parent organization, the National Education Association, by a 44-22 vote, according to a press release from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

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Teachers in the district will remain in their own union, the Roscommon Teachers Association, and will continue to engage in collective bargaining with the local school board. The teachers wanted to have an independent union because they thought they were paying too much dues money for the services they received.

The teachers paid about $800 in dues to the MEA and NEA combined. They will pay about half of that under the new arrangement, according to the press release.

“I am excited that my colleagues have shown the courage to stand up to the MEA/NEA and its bureaucratic machine,” Jim Perialis, the interim president of the local union, was quoted as saying. “We are not anti-union. We are anti-MEA. There were many services that were provided by the MEA that we could do ourselves, at half the cost.”

F. Vincent Vernuccio, director of labor policy for the Mackinac Center, said “the Roscommon teachers saw the MEA for what it is: A big business with big expenses. They chose not to continue to subsidize the big salaries of the MEA officials with their hard-earned wages. This is truly a pro-worker victory for the teachers of Roscommon.”