Christina Hall

Detroit Free Press

The Michigan Education Association's top three elected leaders received double-digit percentage raises this year, including a nearly $49,000 bump in one instance that amounted to a 44% pay hike, according to documents filed recently with the U.S. Department of Labor.

The teachers union's 2014 report, received Nov. 25, showed higher gross salaries for President Steven B. Cook, Vice President Nancy Strachan and Secretary-Treasurer Rick Trainor than in its prior year's report.

Cook's gross salary was $203,144, up $20,446 or 11%, while Strachan's gross salary was $144,700, up $20,097 or 16%, according to the reports. Trainor received the biggest pay hike — $48,385 — earning a gross salary of $158,296, according to the 2014 report.

MEA Executive Director Gretchen Dziadosz received a $13,591 or 6% pay bump to a gross salary of $224,858, according to the documents.

The 2014 report is from Sept. 1, 2013, to Aug. 31, 2014.

The MEA declined to comment on the report when contacted by the Free Press.

"The MEA does not publicly comment on the salaries and benefits of its officers and staff," said Nancy Knight, the MEA's director of communications and public policy.

The MEA represents teachers, education support professionals and higher-education employees throughout Michigan, according to its website.

In the 2014 report, the MEA's membership was listed at 142,555, a figure that dropped by more than 5,100 from the 2013 report, which covered Sept. 1, 2012, to Aug. 31, 2013.

In addition, the documents show MEA members' regular dues were $5 more annually in the 2014 report than in 2013.

The 2014 report also shows that at the end of the reporting period, the MEA had liabilities of more than $206 million while assets were listed at more than $71 million. The group had a negative net asset total of nearly $135 million.

The raises come "at a time when the MEA is in various school districts doing negotiations, often times getting teachers miniscule raises or freezes. Some districts are even looking at pay cuts," said Ted O'Neil, spokesman for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a conservative think tank based in Midland.

O'Neil's organization in the past has been critical of teachers, saying they aren't making enough sacrifices.

Earlier this year, the center and another group had an aggressive campaign to get the word out to MEA members that they could opt out of the MEA in August.

"We've been tracking this for more than a few years. There does seem to be some double-digit raises and six-figure salaries," O'Neil said, adding that center has not looked at how MEA salaries compare to other groups or states.

Marcus Napthen, a MEA member and Belleville High School teacher, said he had heard about some different discussions regarding the raises.

"If there's opportunity for someone to get a raise, why would I begrudge that?" he said. "They represent and advocate for us. They are also a business as well. They are providing a service. They're advocating on our behalf."

The average teacher salary in Michigan is $61,560, according to a March report on the National Education Association website.

O'Neil said the outgoing president of the NEA got a $123,000 raise, according to its 2014 report, earning an annual salary of $429,509 and that the group lost 41,000 members.

O'Neil said teachers can opt out of the MEA with right-to-work in place. The right-to-work law, passed in 2012 during a lame-duck session without any public debate or committee hearings, makes it illegal to require dues payment to a union as a condition of employment.

O'Neil said teachers have reported various reasons for leaving the MEA, but the "main theme we heard was they didn't get value for what they were paying."

The MEA's president, vice president and secretary-treasurer are elected; the executive director is hired. The most recent election was in April and the next is in 2017, according to the reports. The positions are full-time.

The MEA board of directors, which has 70 elected members plus the three elected officers, determines the salary schedule for the officers. The schedule is transmitted to the MEA's representative assembly, who are members, as part of its budget. The budget is approved annually by the assembly, which has 938 locally elected delegates from across Michigan.

Greg McNeilly, president of Michigan Freedom Fund, which worked on passing the right-to-work law, said MEA members "continue to have their hard-earned dollars taken and not respected."

"The teacher on the line is making sacrifices and their union bosses are not," McNeilly said.

Contact Christina Hall: chall99@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @challreporter.

CORRECTION: A previous report of this story referred to the outgoing president of the MEA as earning an annual salary of $429,509. That amount was incorrect.