MEA staffers' salaries rise as local teachers sacrifice
ALAN MILLER AND KATHLEEN LAVEY • ALANMILLER@GANNETT.COM • KLAVEY@LSJ.COM • MARCH 7, 2010
Lansing teachers got a half-percent pay increase last fall and took a hit on health care
to help the cash-strapped school district.
After two years without a contract, Leslie teachers settled last fall for a 50 percent cut in so-called step increases, or annual raises for increasing seniority.
And some staffers and officials of the Michigan Education Association got pay boosts last year ranging from 6.8 percent for the mailroom coordinator to nearly 15 percent for President Iris Salters.
At a time when local teachers' unions are struggling to maintain salary and benefits and the union's statewide membership is declining, many MEA negotiators and executive director Luigi Battaglieri also got hefty pay increases.
That's the cost of doing business, said Doug Pratt, MEA director of communications.
"Do we compensate our officers well? Do we compensate our managers well? Yes," he said.
"We believe in attracting and recruiting the best possible candidates."
Pratt said the size of pay increases for some staffers can be attributed to a deferred-compensation deal union employees agreed to several years ago.
"They're one of the most powerful teachers' unions in the country, and that's probably what those salaries tell you," said Michael Van Beek, director of education policy for the Mackinac Center, a conservative Midland-based think tank.
He said the MEA, like the United Auto Workers or any other union, is responsible for its members' best interests. But there's a key difference.