For the record, this arbitrary retribution is no
after-school special.
In
Manhattan Beach, CA, a French teacher was removed for some petty, if
non-essential offenses. A teacher
in Redondo Beach, CA was forced out on administrative leave for unclear
reasons. Clearly, union membership did not benefit them. Even tenured faculty
in the South Bay area have told me that their union has not fought hard for
them, but has often acquiesced in the face of administrative pressure and
economic realities.
Despite this lack of protection, these teachers are forced
into a union, or at least to pay those dues, called “agency fees”. Despite the
outrage from concerned educators who resent these legal extortionist measures,
there is little that they can do. In the Golden State, the not so golden California
Teachers Association commands overwhelming influence, regardless of its
substandard representation for teachers, or parents and students.
All of the may change by the end of the next Supreme Court
session.
 |
| Rebecca Friedrichs |
Because of one tenacious Orange Country, CA elementary
teacher, Rebecca Friedrichs, these union dues will face renewed scrutiny from
the highest court in the land. Based on recent legal precedent and concurrent
dicta, plus the political zeitgeist across the country (since SCOTUS seems to
pay more attention to what Americans are believing rather than the rule and
writ of law), public sector union dominance of the individual member’s paycheck
and the political process is numbered indeed.
Here in the state of
California, teachers’ rights are getting trampled upon. We are forced as a condition
of employment to pay these fees, and I started complaining about that
immediately, at the beginning of my teaching career.
Friedrichs faulted the CTA for not protecting or promoting children,
but instead their “narrow, left-wing progressive agenda”. Their opposition to
parental choice moved her greatly, but she also added: “Give us or constitutional
rights to freedom of speech”.
As this case has advanced, CTA
has listened, and they are bracing for the worst. The latest convocation of the CTA,
with info-laden PDF, identified the new concerns and challenges which will
face the union – and implicitly California teachers – if the Supreme Court
strikes down those agency fees. Pro-union advocates contend that these
non-paying employees would become free riders, getting representation without
paying dues. The
Mises Institute established
succinctly that union members, and the non-union counterparts, are actually
forced riders, granted no choice in the representation or the fees.
 |
From Thomas
Jefferson to the National Right To Work foundation, the consensus on freedom
is clear: to force people to pay dues to an organization, which sponsors
candidates and causes against their personal beliefs, is the essence of
tyranny. Individual employees/members should know the rank yet open hypocrisy
of union leaders, like
the NEA leader, who takes in a six- figure salary, regardless of his
service or accomplishments, all while preaching “social justice”.
Despite this moral turpitude of forced unionism, the
California Teachers Association enjoys undue, unjust, illiberal influence in
Sacramento. The UC
Berkeley Student Newspaper “The Daily Californian” commented on their outsized
power, dwarfing other special interest. Two
of my previous South Bay assembly representatives, Betsy Butler and Al
Muratsuchi, were both union-beholden Democrats who had caved to the CTA. Butler
helped kill a teacher pervert bill, SB 1350, by abstaining. LA
Weekly and
CNN both hounded her cowardice on the non-vote. She lost her 2012
reelection bid, then a 2014 bid for state senate.
Muratsuchi, a former school board member, had initially proposed
reforms for removing teachers guilty of egregious misconduct. The
final, doctored version, with input from the CTA, made it harder to remove pervert
teachers, and same-party Democratic Governor Jerry
Brown vetoed the bill. He later lost reelection in 2014.
That veto notwithstanding, Brown has routinely caved to the
CTA, from his 1970s administration allowing them to bargain collectively, to today,
in
which he challenged the Vergara v. CA decision,
which struck down “last hired, first fired” and “teacher tenure”.
 |
| Neel Kashkari |
You had a choice
between fighting for the civil rights of poor kids and fighting for the union
bosses who funded your campaigns. You sided with the union bosses. You should be ashamed of
yourself, Governor!
Even former “Republican” governor Arnold Schwarzenegger fell
under the spell and influence of the Teacher’s Union, trying to a “Can’t beat
‘em, so join ‘em” mentality. The CTA schooled the Terminator, big time. He tried
to cut deals, then got
sued by them. TV ads blanketed the airwaves for months, with the 2004
Teacher of the Year calling the Governator a liar and a failure. For more
information on the overwhelming “Head mistress” power of the CTA, read Taxifornia, which
documents the tax-and-spend prolonged legacy of liberal laboratory California,
dominated by the CTA, which has killed a number of policy reforms through
massive ad campaigns of distortion and frustration, all with forced union dues.
Friedrichs v. CA
will lead to teacher (and California taxpayer and municipality) freedom from the
CTA, if the SCOTUS final ruling ends agency fees, and protects individual
liberty and freedom of expression from forced unionism. The CTA’s undue
influence through forced union dues will cease. With a bankrupted CTA, and
defunded public sector unions to follow, Democrats will have to campaign on the
force of ideas (they have none). California Republicans could gain legislative seats
in 2016, then contest the governor’s seat in 2018.
The potential ruling could impact unions nationwide, and
Democrats will find themselves scrambling for renewed funds to push their left-wing,
special interest agenda, which has left out many who have sought to reform
local governance, entitlements, and education without the waste, fraud, or
cover-up.
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