Governor Rick Snyder says he hopes teachers won’t authorize their union to call a statewide strike in response to his budget plans.
The Michigan Education Association is in the process of collecting answers to a member inquiry.
The MEA is querying its 155,000 members and 1,100 local bargaining units.
Union members are mad over Michigan’s new emergency manager law that could threaten collective bargaining agreements in financially troubled school districts. And many of them oppose Governor Snyder’s proposed big cuts to K-through-12 education and requiring teachers to pay more for their pensions and health coverage.
The governor says he’s confident the controversies will not spill over to classrooms.
"We have fabulous teachers in our state and I have confidence that the teachers in our state understand, and really appreciate – because they’re doing it for a living – that the most important thing in front of them is the students they’re teaching, and I don’t think they’ll look at using their students as a pawn in a broader game," said Snyder.
It is illegal for teachers and other public employees to strike in Michigan, but the MEA says cuts in school funding and rollbacks in collecting bargaining rights may demand drastic actions.
They've asked its bargaining units to authorize job actions that could include picketing or walkouts.
They expect to have all responses in hand by mid-April.
