Court must hear teacher right-to-work case

LANSING (AP) — The state Court of Appeals has ordered Wayne County Circuit Court to decide whether a union violated state law when it entered into a 10-year deal requiring teachers to be union members or pay a fee for collective bargaining.

Derk Wilcox is senior attorney for the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, which represents three Taylor School District teachers. He told The Detroit News  that the recent Court of Appeals ruling
favored the teachers, who say the union and district illegally entered a collective bargaining agreement to avoid Michigan’s right-to-work law.

The deal came weeks before the right-to-work law kicked in. The law says workers can’t be forced to support a union to keep their job.

Wilcox says he doesn’t know when the Circuit Court will hear the case.