Waiting quietly in the Michigan State Senate Appropriations Committee are Senate Bills
55 and
56.
I have found nothing on these bills in any local or metro media source, and am asking for your help in getting the word out, and most importantly, making sure they are defeated.
So what are they? The bills, authored by conservative, anti-labor Republicans . . .
. . . propose to amend Michigan's Public Employee Relations Act (PERA) by removing the right of public school, community, and junior college employees to collectively bargain health care benefits. The bills will place control over the health care of most of our state's educational employees into the hands of an unelected state board.
The language of the bill is clear and ominous: Section 4 of Bill 55 states, in part, that "if a school district or community college chooses to provide medical insurance" then "it shall provide only" the plan determined by the new board (my emphasis).
Under this bill, most of our state's educational institutions would no longer have to provide health care. They provide it only if they choose. And, if they choose to do so, the details of that health care cannot be bargained, and thousands of hardworking and dedicated state employees will have their health care options reduced drastically.
As a reminder, the purpose of PERA was to grant unions and districts the right to collectively bargain over conditions of employment so as to achieve peaceful labor relations for the public good.
By taking control over health care choices away from employees and local districts, the proposed legislation strikes at the very heart of collective bargaining. It is patently regressive, and an assault on self-determination at the local level.
What is more, considering similar past efforts by its Republican sponsors, it is in fact designed with the intent of weakening collective bargaining rights and in turn, destroying public sector unions. Today, the target is educational employees, tomorrow it will be all state employees.
The sponsors of this bill insist that it is merely a "vehicle," awaiting final recommendations from a privately contracted firm hired to investigate whether or not such legislation would save the state money. However, the notion that the legislation may or may not go forward, depending on the findings of this study, is ludicrous. They know what they want to do, and are waiting quietly to get it done, praying that no one notices.
Please help! Contact your representative, Senator, and the Governor, let them know you are opposed to the destruction of collective bargaining rights, and you will cast your vote in the next election based on how they respond to this issue.