I read with interest anti-union rhetoric in Lansing dressed up as disingenuous compassion for the working class.

I refer to a statement Ari Adler, spokesman for House Speaker Jase Bolger, made in the Detroit Free Press after a federal judge in Detroit on Tuesday blocked a new state law, PA 53, that would have banned school districts from using payroll deductions to collect union dues.

“PA 53 was designed to protect school districts and educators,” Adler said. “Schools should not be serving as collection agencies between unions and their members. In addition, the educators in this state are better off when unions have to regularly prove their value to members instead of just presuming everything is fine because the money keeps rolling in automatically.”

What’s wrong with that statement?

Better yet, what’s right with it?

For one, let’s be real . Putting a deduction in a paycheck is effortless. It’s done automatically by computer. The information only needs to be inputted once, after that, the deductions come automatically.

Two: It falsely assumes union members have no say with union officials.

Let’s call this what is: A classic anti-union measure. During negotiations, anti-union companies try to ban automatic deductions all the time. It causes problems for unions. As we all know, some people don’t pay their bills on time. Some don’t pay at all. It simply amounts to a big headache for unions; no headache whatsoever for companies and school districts.

I called Adler a couple times to discuss his statement He hasn’t called back yet.

What I wanted to suggest was that if he’s so concerned about accountability, maybe we should start with state government.

Perhaps employers could stop automatically deducting state taxes. Instead, the government should send monthly bills for state taxes.

That way, if citizens were dissatisfied with lawmakers in Lansing, they could let them know by withholding their taxes.

After all, when it comes to state government, we shouldn’t presume, as Adler says about unions, that “everything is fine because the money keeps rolling in automatically.”