St. Clair Today

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is praising Michigan Civil Service Commission’s proposed rule change that would end the automatic deduction of union dues from the paychecks of public employees.

“Michigan workers should be able to know where the money from their hard-earned paycheck is going,” Steve Delie, legal counsel and director of the Mackinac Center’s Workers for Opportunity, said in a post on the Mackinac Center's website. “Implementation of these rule changes would be a positive step towards protecting workers across the state.”

Mackinac Center reports the Civil Service Commission’s push to make it a state requirement to obtain consent from public employees to remove union dues from their paychecks would fall in line with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling in the Janus v. AFSCME.

“We are beginning to see individual states work to further protect the First Amendment rights that were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2018 Janus decision,” Delie told the Mackinac Center.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton recently issued an opinion in which he expressed that the state of Texas should comply with the Janus ruling, thus echoing the sentiments of the Michigan Commission and crediting The Mackinac Center.

“Public employees cannot be forced to support inherently political organizations like government unions,” Delie said on the Mackinac Center's website. “We applaud the Texas Attorney General in this clear and correct reading of the Janus case. This policy will provide the proper protection of public employees’ constitutional rights.”

The Mackinac Center’s Workers for Opportunity is an initiative advocating for post-Janus labor reform policies around the nation. The initiative was launched last year and is a collaboration with various stakeholders to expand freedom in the workplace.