$23K School Employee Upset that MEA President’s Pension Spiked by $200K Union Salary

Michigan Capitol Confidential ^ | 3/12/2015 | Anne Schieber

[MichCapCon]

LaKiesha Allen is a 35-year old Lansing school secretary who pays the Michigan Education Association $38 a month in union dues from her $23,000 annual salary. Local union officials have threatened to get her fired if she stops paying those dues.

So Allen was stunned to learn that MEA President Steve Cook, a man she has never met, swung a deal with her employer to parlay his six-figure union salary into a richer pension payout. Cook's payout will come from the same pension fund that Allen is counting on for her own retirement – a fund that is currently underfunded by nearly $26 billion.

“It terrifies me,” Allen said. “And if others knew what was going on, I’m sure they’d be frightened, too. Secretaries are severely unpaid. We, the working class, are the ones who are going to suffer behind the Steve Cooks of the world and the school district for allowing this to happen.”

Allen said she is hardly surprised by the deal. Her observation is that the administration and union look out for their own interests ahead of district employees and schoolchildren. She enjoys her job as a secretary in an elementary school, but her relationships with the Lansing School District and union have been troubled. Allen endured recrimination and what she describes as outright hostility that forced her, at one point, to take time off to recover from stress.

[shotgun]

For those that don’t have children in school, you should see for yourself the number of principals and assistant principals that each school now has, plus their Admin staff. I can’t fault the teachers for wanting more money when the school administration are the real hogs in the tough.

[tflabo]

‘Lakiesha’—— betchya a Unionist pension that she votes for the DemoRats who keep her enslaved. So it is..

[NEMDF]

Nothing is stopping her from seeking and obtaining a job in the private sector. There must be something “good” about her deal now, for her to stay in spite of all of the abuse she reports.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Unions exist only to enrich the leaders and elect DemocRats.

[Don Corleone]

Is she just learning that the Unions, all unions, are corrupt at their core? Geeez lady.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

I am shocked...another conservative in the making?

[wally_bert]

Just as infuriating to me is the million dollar state salary paid to a football coach outside of whatever private deals he gets and USC cries poor.

[BlueMondaySkipper]

Just as infuriating to me is the million dollar state salary paid to a football coach outside of whatever private deals he gets and USC cries poor.

That's because you are likely uninformed.

At most colleges, the head football coach is indeed highly paid. BUT, the football program is typically a cash cow for the university with a lot of profit. Most D1 football programs fund the entire athletic budgets of their universities with money left over.

[wally_bert]

I know sports is a cash cow for colleges but its still infuriating.