It would seem that this would be a violation of Union Members’ privacy, but even if it is not it shows that Unions can carry a great deal of leverage in actions done by Union members. Actions done outside of what would be considered Union activity. The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative is an effort to stop race based preferences in Affirmative Action policies and other hiring efforts. Because hiring based on race is simply unconstitutional. It is a ballot initiative, that has enough signatures to go on the ballot for a vote.

Liberals who support race based preferences have been trying to prevent this initiative from going through the legal process, using literally any means necessary! As part of the Liberal efforts, they have tried to claim that petition organizers lied about the actual intent of the petition.

As Blog Discriminations reports:

So Liberals feel that the removal of race based preferences in hiring does not protect Civil Rights. I must say, regardless of how MLK Jr. would feel about this, that’s just insane! As if it was bad when Whites discriminated based on race to give other Whites jobs, but when done for other races it is fine .

Well Unions are always in the “protection” game. Usually protecting their own existence and have a history of playing on race. In Michigan AFSCME Local 207 and AFSCME Local 2920 realized that the removal of racial preferences does not play into the agenda of their allies in the Democratic Party. So they have joined the fight against the ballot initiative. And they are also pulling out all the stops to assist their Liberal allies. The Union bosses have cross referenced their member lists with petition signers! Then they actually questioned Union members who signed about their actions. Of those questioned by AFSCME Local 207, about 20% (27 in total) of the petition signers have signed affidavits saying they were misled. AFSCME Local 2920 was able to do the same with about a dozen of their members.

This is very disturbing. Because those Union members had no idea that their signature would be used by Union bosses to approach them personally about their actions. To me this is a misuse of a Union membership list. Also, being approached without prior knowledge that Union bosses might spy on them, probably left the questioned Union members feeling pretty intimidated! Although most did not sign an affidavit, it probably scared some of them from ever wanting to do something that might go against the Union again. Not to mention, who knows if others outside of the Union bosses have found out about this. There could be pressure on signers, that trickles down from Union bosses to co-workers that side with the Union.

Zarko Research & Consulting has the full report and audio from the Michigan Civil Rights Commission hearing.

There needs to be a separate initiative to prevent Unions for misusing their member lists in this fashion. Better still, I would prefer an initiative to abolish the Unions completely. Their time has long past us.