When Ann Arbor Public Schools teachers returned from winter break this past January, they were without a renewed contract for the first time this century. Teachers began working to rule, which means refusing to provide unpaid supervision of after-school clubs and programs. In addition to this, teachers organized community rallies, drawing more than 1,500 teachers and students to publicly oppose the district’s offer. After months of negotiation, the district and union reached a tentative agreement, but 99.6% of teachers voted to reject it. This situation isn’t exclusive to Ann Arbor. Across Michigan, teachers find themselves in contract disputes that stretch for months or years with no effective tool to bring them to a close.
Michigan’s Public Employment Relations Act prohibits public school teachers from striking, removing a powerful form of collective pressure and bargaining available to workers in a labor dispute and leaving teachers with few mechanisms capable of compelling a faster resolution. The law mandates an automatic pay deduction, which forfeits an employee’s daily pay for each day on strike. It also includes presumption of guilt provisions; Teachers are presumed to have participated in the strike if they were absent — or did not complete their full duties — without permission on the day the strike occurred. In order to challenge this legal presumption, teachers must file a formal affidavit and request a hearing.
Restoring the right to strike would give teachers an established method to compel their employers to negotiate seriously, resulting in better outcomes for teachers and students. Michigan should repeal that prohibition and restore teachers’ right to strike…