Last November, anti-union groups put a measure on the ballot in California called Prop 32, whose purpose was to reduce the political influence of unions by reducing their funding. Prop 32 was soundly defeated, but its proponents are back with a lawsuit to achieve the same purpose. If they win, they could cripple public sector unions across the nation.
This is a major story in the movement to privatize public education, dismantle the teaching profession, and turn schooling into a marketplace.
“In a little-noticed move in April, a conservative legal organization that has pushed to overturn the 1964 Voting Rights Act filed a lawsuit in federal court in Santa Ana that could accomplish in the courts what Prop. 32 couldn’t at the ballot box. The players behind the suit may not be household names but the millionaires and private foundations covering their legal fees represent a familiar klatch of extreme libertarians who, since the 1980s, have been attempting to move the country in a hard-right direction.
“The main plaintiff, the Christian Educators Association International (CEAI), firmly opposes reproductive rights and marriage equality – two of the same movements opposed by Prop. 32′s various backers. CEAI also supports school voucher programs and the teaching of Creationism – also causes championed by some of Prop. 32′s supporters, who saw unions as an obstacle to imposing their political will on California when it came to these and other issues.
“The lawsuit, known as Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, challenges the constitutionality of laws that allow teachers’ unions to collect fees from teachers who don’t want to be members. The lawsuit also seeks to outlaw an automatic payroll deduction process, under which teachers who don’t want a portion of their fees to go for political activities must “opt out” of funding those activities. It claims that California’s “agency shop” law violates the First Amendment by compelling public school teachers to pay fees to teachers unions involved in political activities.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It’s a good thing the right-wing is so opposed to “activist judges” overturning the will of the people.
Oh, wait….
This sounds like an ALEC backed initiative.
http://www.therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10539
BUT — couldn’t the removal of automatic cash flow be exactly the fire we need lit under our union leadership’s collective hinders? How much of the “sleeping with the enemy” we have been seeing from the AFT leadership and others has been at least in part the result of their confidence that the money will keep rolling in from the rank and file regardless of how many times they are thrown under a bus?
Didn’t happen in Utah when automatic contributions were eliminated. The union just has to make do with much less money. A lot of people have left the union in my building because of the cost.
One of the ALEC reformers top goals is the destruction of unions. Don’t help them! We need strong unions, or we’re all on our own against the ALEC agenda. Rather, be active within the union and demand changes in union stances.
UEA has been fairly toothless for awhile though. Part of that is the Utah culture – obey and don’t question – hence the teachers take on more and more and have no one telling them to stand up and say no.
Ron,
This is a fire to be lit under state education unions and the AFT and NEA.
Yet, many of those executives will at least run to reformer organizations or lobbyists to find work. They are in bed with the reformers.
Either we form caucuses that get their leaders elected as delegates
(no small task, but one worth fighting for), OR our current leaders radiclaly and permanently change their tune (like Randi Weingarten is REALLY going to do that????), OR unions should put everything up for referendum vote to become truly democratic and let the majorty of teachers decide on union moves, directives, and issues, (all referendums would come with public debates), OR we should all become right to work states and not have any closed shops, as our most of our unions now, are not protecting our profession. The one difference in this last scenario would be that if you are not going to have job protections in place so that you, the teacher, can advocate for policy, curriculum, budgets, etc., you may as well not have them in place AND have to pay steep union dues that are doing almost nothing for you, except enriching the pockets of people like Randi Weingarten.
Unions are one of the best things since penicillin, but only when they behave like real unions, not like secretive deal cutting,compromising entities that siply stay in business for themselves and ignore their constituents.
Here in New Haven the NHPS administrator’s union SHOULD be destroyed.
The teacher’s union management SHOULD be replaced because they are in league with the bureaucrats.
The teacher’s union itself should stay until teachers rightfully take over our schools.
Not a bad idea at all.
Prop. 32 was mainly financed by the hugely wealthy son of Charles Munger, Warren Buffett’s partner. Buffett has donated a major portion of his billions to the Gates Foundation for school reform. Munger’s daughter, a California attorney, fostered Prop. 38 in competition with Jerry Brown’s winning Prop. 30 which raised $1B in new tax money. Brown sent multi millions to LAUSD to buy the overpriced tablets (at a cost of more than Best Buy) “for inner city students to practice Common Core and to take the tests”.
Follow the money! See all the red flags!
Jeff Bezos now owns Kaplan Schools, Pearson and Murdoch own the tests. Murdoch and Gates collaborate in ownership of InBloom and that data mining. All of them are only a few degrees apart, not from Kevin Bacon, but from each other and from ALEC.
Seeing today’s results in NY, the prediction for LAUSD will probably be similar. So once again, due to the deeply flawed California initiative system (which also gave us the Parent Empowerment Act of 2010), We, the People, are the cash cows while we have little to no input in the process.
No surprise that there is now Friedrichs vs. CTA. They have deep pockets and will not stop until they win. This is one more coffin nail disproving Anthony Cody’s premature claim that the Rheeform movement is dying.
My understanding is that Kaplan was not included with the sale of the Washington Post.
Forgot to add the Waltons giving endless millions to foster parent trigger laws (and Stand Your Ground laws) and also TFA, nationwide.
They are all in it to break the American union movement and to produce a workforce that is under the control of this insidious 1%. It will be their New World Order as mentioned often by Papa Bush (1991) when he was Prez (about the same time Eli Broad started his Foundation (1999) to this end).
You know, I can’t stand right-wing groups and I also am no fan of education “de”form, but what am I missing here?
As a NYC public school teacher, I found myself disagreeing with a lot of what the union leadership was doing, especially in my younger years where I felt that Randi was prioritizing the needs of older teachers over younger ones when it came to collective bargaining.
It was always a thorn in my side that I had to contribute to the union, no matter what, even if I disagreed. I don’t see why union contributions should be mandatory.
What am I missing?
What are you missing? How about the fact that your contract, as meager as it may be, was the result of collective bargaining. If you decide to pull your union support, then I hope you give back your sick days, salary schedule, health benefits, pension, etc. Or you could simply go work for a NYC charter school. Good luck becoming one of those “older teachers” there.
You’re missing the fact that, as a union member, you directly benefit from the improvements in wages, hours and working conditions that the union negotiates.
The worst union in the world – and the UFT, despite having many smart, hardworking staffers and officers, has devolved into something pretty awful – is still better than no union at all.