What do you say about a billionaire in Idaho who sees unions as the biggest threat to the American way of life?
As most people know, the number of people who belong to unions has declined dramatically in recent decades. As manufacturing jobs were outsourced to low-wage non-union countries, private sector unions shrank. Today, the majority of American workers are hourly workers with little or no job security and no pension.
And yet, here is a man who poured $1 million into a campaign to support Idaho’s so-called Luna laws (for rightwing state superintendent Tom Luna), which would have crushed the unions, which are already weak, initiated bonus pay, and made it easy to fire teachers at any time for any reason.
The good news is that voters across Idaho repealed the Luna laws, while voting Republican for state offices and the presidency.
To see the depth of his obsession, open the link in this comment by a reader.
“Eastern Idaho billionaire Frank VanderSloot, CEO of the direct-marketing company Melaleuca, contributed well over $1 million to the efforts to support State Superintendent Tom Luna’s Propositions 1, 2, and 3. Prop 1 would have eliminated much of the due-process provisions from teacher firings, limited contract negotiations to salary and benefits only, eliminated renewable contracts (so-called “tenure”), eliminated collective bargaining, among other things. Prop 2 would have instituted a pay-for-performance/merit-pay scheme based, in part, on student scores on standardized testing and on parent evaluations of teachers. Prop 3 (defeated by a 2 to 1 margin) would have spent $180 million over 8 years to purchase a laptop computer for every high school student while require each student to take two online courses in order to graduate.
“Mr. VanderSloot’s $1 million investment was in addition to the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent over the last two years placing full-page ads in numerous newspapers throughout Idaho. One such ad in Idaho’s largest newspaper, the Idaho Statesman, has been estimated to cost $20,000 per insertion. These ads are archived in a web site maintained by Mr. VanderSloot at http://www.communitypagenews.com/ . Without exception, they are anti-union, casting the opposition to the Luna legislation as out-of-state “union bosses” financed by union interests. In fact, they rarely address any issues related to education, other than the pernicious influence of unions.
“A few headlines give the flavor of these lurid ads, but they really have to be seen in full to be believed.
“Unions Declare War On Idaho”
“It’s Time To Put Our Kids First!(Ahead of Union Bosses)”
“Union Against Putting Students First”
“Unions Try To Block Teachers From $38 Million in Bonuses”
“Washington, D.C. Union Tries To Buy Control Of Idaho School”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Interesting ad that he took out in the Community Page of the Idaho Falls newspaper.
Click to access 102812%20CommunityPage%20Statesman.pdf
“I vowed that if I were ever in a situation where someone was being hurt or treated unfairly, I would not be counted as a bystander.” (Referring to the Kitty Genovese case in NYC.)
Yet he cannot see that he himself is hurting and treating union people unfairly.
He goes on to say, “If someone is being attacked unfairly by the press, we will get involved. If someone with deep pockets is trying to buy an election, we will try to level the playing field.”
Sounds all well and good and admirable, except it is he that is doing the attacking and buying an election.
Wow.
Destroying unions is the last rule to create a fascist society as was done in Austria starting in 1919 and in existance to today. This is described in the rare book “Hapsburgs to Hitler” which tells the story of how a Catholic priest named Seipel transformed Austria into a fascist country until today. That is about 90 years. Why not copy a proven strategy that worked in a western country.
Does he even understand what he writes? In the last sentence of one his propaganda posts, he states “Henry Clay reminded us ‘Statistics are no substitute for judgment.'” This is after he talks of teachers being judged by student test scores.
The overall unionization rate is down to 11.3%, in the private sector it is hovering around 6%! It’s not just the right wing millionaires and billionaires who are rabidly anti-union. Many ordinary working class people in the private sector are union haters and are especially against public union workers who still have pensions and health benefits. I have ordinary working class neighbors, the very people who would benefit from unions, express derision and contempt for union workers, characterizing them as lazy coddled union thugs.
These people against unions are ignorant of the past and the gains unions made for all working people and they are self destructive of themselves and their friends and family as they support agendas which hurt them all.
At one time, a good middle class job in the public or private sector came with a pension. Corporatists did away with private sector pensions and now they use the meme that private sector jobs have no pensions, so public sector jobs should have none either.
Here’s how GE looted the pensions of their own employees for the benefit of the execs.
http://psc-cuny.org/clarion/march-2012/how-business-elites-looted-private-sector-pensions
We are in a giant fight against the corporatist elites, and not just in education.
The most ridiculous headline, “Unions try to block 38 million in bonuses” How could anyone not laugh when reading that. Oh yes, unions just hate it when teachers get more money. It’s obvious to anyone reading it that something is wrong with the bonus scheme. Why do all the billionaires go around the country trying to destroy teacher protections? Why don’t they spend their time on true philanthropy
I read the attachment and wonder, Where were the unions who were supposed to protect the interests of it’s members? I think big unions were just to blame looking for their conpensation also.
The Idaho Education Association and the National Education Association were the primary source of funds in the successful effort to repeal Propositions 1, 2, and 3 (collectively known as the Luna Laws). “With $1.06 million from the National Education Association and $280,000 from the Idaho Education Association, just $36,000 of the money raised for the Vote No on Proposition 1, 2, 3 campaign came from other sources” (Idaho Statesman, October 12, 2012).
Idaho is a right-to-work state. The Idaho Education Association wields little power and influence, yet they still managed–with lots of grassroots support from Idaho taxpayers–to defeat the Luna Laws and make Frank VanderSloot realize that he had just wasted a million dollars.
It wasn’t just VanderSloot who was throwing big money to support the ballot initiatives. Hiding behind a faux-grassroots PAC calling itself “Idaho Voters for Education” (which was eventually forced to reveal its donors after a lawsuit filed by the Idaho Secretary of State, a group of hedge-fund managers, venture capitalists, and billionaire social engineers contributed over $600,000. NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg contributed $250,000 at the request of Idaho’s Republican governor, Butch Otter, while another $250,000 came from Joe Scott, heir to the Albertson grocery fortune, chairman of the board at the J. A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation, and one of the first investors in K12, Inc., the stock of which has earned him millions.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/10/12/2307045/foes-of-luna-laws-outspend-backers.html#storylink=cpy