Robert Mann, professor of journalism at Louisiana State University, describes the effort by Louisiana business leaders and sympathetic legislators to drive “a fatal spear to the heart of the giant,” meaning the teachers’ union.
“Public school teachers, firefighters, state troopers and other law enforcement officials can have their dues deducted from their paychecks and remitted to their respective unions. House Bill 418, sponsored by Rep. Stuart Bishop, R-Lafayette, would outlaw that practice. The bill is among the highest priorities in the current legislative session for the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI). The House Labor Committee approved the legislation last week in a 9-6 vote.”
The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry is hoping to pass legislation cutting off automatic deductions for union dues, known euphemistically as “paycheck protection.” Ostensibly, the goal is to save money. But Mann obtained a secret video where the business leaders revealed their real goal, which was to starve the union of funds to cripple it.
Mann saw the bigger picture after watching the video:
“Last month, when I first saw that this bill was among LABI’s top priorities for the 2015 session, I wondered how a supposedly minor issue could be so important to the state’s top business organization. Now, thanks to [industrialist Lane] Grigsby’s candid comments behind closed doors, we know. It’s about killing the teachers unions.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reptublicans are really big on the Sanctity Of Contracts …
unless of course it’s contracts with peons.
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They are big on liberty, freedom, and The Constitution, unless they are not. The Party of Arbitrary.
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Amen.
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We have that law in Michigan. And yes, it was supposedly to save money and reduce the cost to the school district. That’s an obvious BS claim. Checking a deduction box in an automated payroll program is every bit as difficult as checking the box for FICA. The purpose is to complicate union dues collection. That’s it.
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There is no war on unions in Finland (with an approx. 75% unionization rate) but there is a definite all out nuclear war against unions in the US with an 11.2% unionization rate. In the 1950s, the unionization rate was in the 30% – 34% range. After Reagan signaled a “new” effort to destroy unions, the past 30 plus years have been horrible for unions. This country has always been hostile to unions, labor-management conflicts have often been bloody and brutal. Unions have often been suppressed and crushed by police, private security forces, National Guard units, special police forces such as the Coal and Iron Police, and/or use of the United States Army. Significant incidents have included the Haymarket Riot and the Ludlow massacre. After FDR, unions began to have a foothold in the country. Things are quite different now with one party rabidly against unions and the other party merely paying lip service to unions with very little actions to back up the blather.
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Public employees unions are dramatically different from those in the private sector and represent a much higher percentage of ‘public’ employees. Unfortunately, the interests of both employer and employees cannot be effectively/reasonably served if both parties don’t have “a dog in the fight”.
This has resulted in public employee union negotiators doing a much better job of protecting their members interests than negotiators representing the schools. After all, benefits granted teachers didn’t cost the negotiator anything personally and his or her share of increased taxes to fund the new benefit was of little consequence. Hence, no dog in the fight.
Another obvious cause of what some call ‘unrealistically generous’ concessions to teachers unions over the years is general agreement teachers have a very difficult job and should be supported in every way possible. That’s still the general consensus. But teachers unions must acknowledge, much as GM auto workers did, management can and did give too many ‘benefits’ for their schools to function effectively.
Ultimately, schools have to be about the kids. They have to get a good education or things will change. Charter schools is one way. Another is legislated action to restrict public Union bargaining power. The smart, honorable way for school unions to proceed is to let ‘management’ hire and fire as allowed by traditional methods where there must be ‘due cause’ but years or rehabilitation isn’t mandated by union contract. Advocates like Dr. Ravitch must put the interests of the kids ahead of teachers and lead the effort to give schools back to school board and take legal action against them when too many kids fall through the cracks.
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Charter schools are anything but about kids. They are about enriching the operators at the expense of good education and public schools. Eva Moskowitz has a salary of about $500,000 for 7000 or students. Her students education consists of endlessly practicing for exams. Imagine if the Chancellor of NYC schools was paid the same salary per student. Comes out to about 78 million. Would the public stand for that?
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Mr Harris,
“…teachers unions must acknowledge, much as GM auto workers did, management can and did give too many ‘benefits’ for their schools to function effectively.”
Your opinion, stated as fact above, is still just your opinion.
There is absolutely no reason for teachers to agree that they have been paid too much in exchange for their professional services.
Though you did attempt to pay appropriate lip service before putting forth your opinion… “(there) is general agreement teachers have a very difficult job and should be supported in every way possible. That’s still the general consensus. But……”
All I know about you is that you like really BIG buts 😉
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We all know corporations always put the interest of kids over profit. That is why corporations gave us Happy Meals, Miley Cyrus, and Easy Bake Ovens.
But realistically, teacher’s professional organizations, some call unions, are simply a voice from the classroom. The reason they exist as they do today is because of too many people with anti-teacher views like yours. Let me rephrase, if people in America respected teachers as professionals and valued education, our teacher’s organizations would look and behave very differently. Teachers would not be constantly looking over their shoulder, fighting clueless billionaires and self serving politicians, and dealing with constant demonization. Teachers might actually get to teach.
Fifty years ago, the largest employer was GM at $35 an hour (today’s dollars). Today, it is Walmart averaging $9 per hour. Today, a starting teacher in a nonunion school might clear $25,000 a year. Not much higher than Walmart. Perhaps your teacher bashing is misplaced.
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We’ve all seen this anti-union boilerplate hundreds of times, Kent Harris.
Teachers unions are among the best defenders of public education. Teaching, as a job, is done by teachers and is best done by teachers who have the freedom to think for themselves, without being threatened by their bosses.
That does not make unions perfect. Unions are a necessary protection, but not sufficient for good public schools.
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Right. Education should be all about teachers and kids. It’s NOT about testing companies and privatization promoters who use kids as hostage through intimidation and threatening.
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They tried this in Utah as well. The union fought back by having members create an automatic payment from the bank outside of the district. This was a great thing, the district no longer knows how many members belong to the union. This provided some sense of privacy. The state made the unions separate the payments to the PAC funds a separate issue. PAC funds must be paid separately. The union PAC is suffering from lack of funds. This has made it more difficult to collect funds and to support candidates.
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That’s weird that you say that, though. I’m in Utah, in Davis county, and my union dues are still deducted from my paycheck. I didn’t know it was different in other districts. The PAC funds are separated, though.
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Beware the greedy right wing political machine. Scott Walker, Andrew Cuomo and the Koch Brothers are out to destroy the well-being of those who perform public services.
John Matthews Madison, Wisconsin
Sent from my iPad
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This seems to be the goal of the 1%.
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When are we having a general strike?
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As I’ve stated before on this blog I have mixed emotions about automatic deductions for union fees. I believe the UFT (NYC) has become much less effective after the Taylor Law was amended in 1977 guaranteeing the union its dues whether or not a teacher joined the union. In the case when a teacher joins the union I believe dues should be deducted automatically. I believe a union should earn my dues by aggressively fighting for their members rights. In my opinion the UFT has done the bidding of the “reformers” while trying to give the appearance that it protects its members. Bedrock tenets of unions are job security and seniority rights. Both tenure and seniority rights no longer exist for NYC teachers.
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Meanwhile, deep in the heart of Texas, legislators don’t even bother to try to make it seem like they aren’t doing this ONLY to the teachers:
“Previous laws that allowed payroll deductions from a public employee’s paycheck for a union are narrowed under S.B. 1968 to apply only to fire, police, and emergency medical services employees. All other state, county, and municipal employees are prohibited from directly collecting union dues from employee paychecks.”
SB 1968 heads to the House next…
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They always exclude the police and fire because they are “boy” unions and teachers are “girl” unions. Republican misogyny knows no bounds or shame. Plus they need the police happy to muscle the others and suppress opinion. Police are just doing their job, but they now become tools of Reformers.
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Similar scapegoating tactic corporatist J-media employers in my country use to make foreign employees their beck and call. When they get a complaint from national government spokesman, they shift all the blame on foreign employees for publishing the articles that challenge the government, even though that is exactly the job they ask their employees to do. That’s how powers-that-be effectively bust dissenting opinions.
Whether it’s state or private enterprise, the effect is pretty much the same.
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