Civil Service Commission considers one-time authorization requirement for dues deductions

The Michigan Civil Service Commission might soon allow public sector unions to collect dues without obtaining yearly permission from employees.

It might also remove a requirement that public employees be told each year that they don’t have to belong to a union just to keep their jobs.

The Jan. 17 proposal suggests changing a 2022 rule that requires employees who wish to have dues deducted to affirm that decision annually.

It would allow any employee represented by a collective bargaining agreement to authorize or cancel scheduled deductions anytime, Nick Ciaramitaro, the acting chairperson of the Michigan Civil Service Commission, told Michigan Capitol Confidential in an email. 

“For efficiency purposes, the proposal would eliminate the requirement that an employee renew their request annually,” Ciaramitaro wrote.

Under current rules, the state “shall provide annual notice to all exclusively represented employees of the right to join or not join” a union. The proposed revision would strike the word “annual.”

The Michigan Civil Service Commission is a bipartisan, four-person body with members appointed by the governor. The commission classifies state jobs according to responsibilities, including compensation rates, disbursements, transaction rules, and employment conditions. Administering the commission's powers is vested in the state personnel director, who is a member of the classified service, responsible to and selected by the commission.

In 2022, the commission voted to require state employees who were union members to actively renew their consent for dues deduction, said Jase Bolger, a former civil service commissioner who served as House Speaker from 2011-14.

A change would mean “using the power of government to reduce the rights of employees and give more funding to unions,” Bolger said in a phone interview with Michigan Capitol Confidential. “That’s backward. Employees should be empowered. Individual rights should be elevated. And we shouldn’t be using the power of government to favor big special interests, which is what this proposal would do.”

According to the latest state report covering fiscal year 2024, membership in state employee unions is at an all-time low. There are 49,399 total state employees, of whom 32,303 work under a union contract. Of those, 21,736 have chosen membership. That means an all-time high of 32.7% have chosen to opt out of union membership.

A Feb. 7 hearing is scheduled. After the commission considers written or oral testimony, it will decide whether to enact the change.