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Attempt to Persaude MD Teachers to Drop Union Membership

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BALTIMORE (AP) - Maryland teachers are among public employees across the country being targeted by a Michigan free-market think tank's campaign urging them to drop their union memberships.

The Baltimore Sun reports teachers recently started getting emails through the "My Pay, My Say" campaign organized by The Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

The effort was spurred by a recent Supreme Court decision that said government workers can't be forced to contribute to labor unions that represent them in collective bargaining.

Lindsay Killen is the center's vice president for strategic outreach and communications. She says the group has been building email contact lists for years, often by obtaining the available information through public records requests.

A spokesman for the Maryland State Education Association says the groups behind the emails don't have educators or students' "best interests in mind."

Don Rush is the News Director and Senior Producer of News and Public Affairs at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.