This is a clear and direct explanation of the Friedrichs v. CTA case. Many observers think the unions will lose because of the conservative majority in the Court. Ironically, unions hope that Scalia might decide in their favor. The article explains why.
Somehow it doesn’t seem especially “conservative” to issue a ruling that not only overturns precedent but disrupts labor relations.
One important issue is free riders, people who don’t pay dues but get benefits. Friedrichs’ lawyers say a ruling in their favor wouldn’t hurt unions, but it is demonstrable that it will.
“The free-rider problem is real and significant. In California and most other jurisdictions, even in right-to-work states where unions operate, unions have a duty to represent and enforce the contractual rights of all employees in a bargaining unit, both members and nonmembers alike.
“Such services don’t come cheap. The fair-share fee for the estimated 9.7 percent of California teachers who, like Rebecca Friedrichs and her co-plaintiffs, have opted not to join their union comprises about 68 percent of full membership dues.
“There is little question that in return they receive a handsome payout. According to figures compiled by The Century Foundation, unionized teachers on average earn an hourly wage 24.7 percent higher than their nonunion counterparts.
“Should Friedrichs and her cohorts prevail in their quest to topple the fair-share system, more teachers no doubt would leave the CTA, reasoning that they could retain the gains of union contracts without paying a dime for them. Public employees in other occupations probably would do the same, believing that they too could free ride without adverse consequences.
“During the oral arguments, attorney Carvin sought to assure the justices that the loss of fair-share fees would have a minimal impact on union membership. The evidence, however, shows that he is dead wrong.
“If the recent labor strife in Wisconsin is any bellwether, a plaintiffs’ victory in Friedrichs could be disastrous for unions and the benefits they deliver. In the aftermath of Gov. Scott Walker’s 2011 assault on public unions and the state’s subsequent implementation of right-to-work policies, for example, the declines in public union membership and dues collected have been monumental.
“The Madison local of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employeeshas lost 18,000 of its previous 32,000 members and has seen its annual revenue fall from $10 million to $5.5 million. The state’s largest teachers union, the Wisconsin Education Association Council, has lost more than a third of its members. As the Wisconsin experience shows, free riding isn’t free.”
In the past, Scalia has expressed distaste for free riders, but there is no way of knowing how he will rule now.
What we can say with some certainty about this case is that it will cripple unions if Friedrichs wins. It will be a blow to a hurting middle class. And it will deepen the economic inequality that is deepening class divisions and harming millions.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Scalia’s comments during the hearing the the case made it quite clear that he will side with the rest of the conservatives and side with Friedrichs. There has been no commentary by Any valid Supreme Court watchers saying anything but this. Scalia will side with Friedrichs. There is no doubt.
That unions are somehow elevating this false hope based on Scalia’s past free-rider positions and a broad interpretation of “conservatism” is not only cruel to any uninformed union members, it is also a sign of how deeply our unions are broken in the leadership department. Rather than simply see this case for what it is and begin the hard work of mitigating its effects when the loss comes in June, union leadership took the course of false hope and buying time. Insane. This is the saddest thing here…..the case will allow us to not pay our awful leadership but at the same time will destroy our only real hope.
Scalia, as most conservatives are, is not so dogmatic as to not see and embrace utility. This is a chance for him to deal a near-death blow to public sector unions…..and he made it clear he will take it. Mining his past arguments on free riders is meaningless. The ultimate conservative position is one of union breaking, and this is that on a silver platter.
The Friedrichs case is LOST and this awful false-hope peddling is yet another sign of how awful our union leadership is.
Lets get in front of this loss and start thinking hard about how to possibly survive it and keep the only hope we have….unions.
Agree! Friedrichs wins and teachers and unions lose.
Unions counting on Scalia is like mice counting on cats for protection.
NOT HAPPENING!
The two links here are the best I have found to learn in detail about the case, and the fact sheet is key to what will happen if America loses unions and becomes completely “right to work.” This is from ECI.
——————————————————
The Supreme Court could deal a blow to working people
On Monday the Supreme Court heard arguments in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, which concerns whether public-sector employees who receive the benefits of a collective bargaining agreement should be required to pay their fair share of the cost of negotiating and protecting those benefits, regardless of whether they belong to a union. The case has potentially far-reaching consequences for workers. EPI research has illustrated how the case threatens the rights of working people to collectively negotiate with their employers, and this week EPI released a fact sheet explaining how collective bargaining raises wages and improves the standard of living for all workers.
Trying again…here is the EPI article, hopefully with links.
EconomicPolicyInstitute January 17, 2016
The Supreme Court could deal a blow to working people
On Monday the Supreme Court heard arguments in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, which concerns whether public-sector employees who receive the benefits of a collective bargaining agreement should be required to pay their fair share of the cost of negotiating and protecting those benefits, regardless of whether they belong to a union. The case has potentially far-reaching consequences for workers. EPI research has illustrated how the case threatens the rights of working people to collectively negotiate with their employers, and this week EPI released a fact sheet explaining how collective bargaining raises wages and improves the standard of living for all workers.
WAGES
Public-sector pay penalty is larger in right-to-work states
This week’s Economic Snapshot illustrates that public-sector employees in right-to-work states earn 14 percent less in wages than their private-sector counterparts. However, in non-right-to-work states, this public-sector penalty is significantly smaller, and it almost disappears when looking at compensation (wages plus benefits). When unions bargain for better wages and benefits, whether on behalf of public- or private-sector workers, they set higher labor standards for all workers.
RIGHT-TO-WORK
West Virginia University right-to-work study relies on flawed data and analysis
EPI’s latest report reminds us that so-called right-to-work (RTW) laws are associated with lower wages and benefits for both union and non-union workers. As the West Virginia state legislature considers RTW laws, EPI analyzed a recent pro-RTW paper by West Virginia University School of Business researchers and found that its data and analyses were flawed. “The point of so-called right-to-work laws is to hamstring unions, thereby lessening workers’ bargaining power and driving down their wages,” said Elise Gould, one of the EPI report’s authors. “This law has the potential to hurt all workers in West Virginia, union and non-union alike.”
EPI ECONOMISTS
EPI economists hit the road
Several EPI economists presented their research on raising American wages at the 2016 meeting of the Allied Social Science Associations in San Francisco. EPI’s Lawrence Mishel and David Cooper presented EPI’s report on why the country can afford a $12 minimum wage, and EPI’s Rob Scott discussed how the Trans-Pacific Partnership will likely result in trade-related job losses and downward pressure on wages of the majority of U.S. workers. And on Saturday, Jan. 8, Mishel spoke at the Putting Families First presidential forum in Des Moines, Iowa. The forum, which focused on the economic security of low- and middle-income workers, also featured Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.
IN THE NEWS
Reuters
The New York Times editorial board cited EPI’s report on Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, which threatens to push down wages for workers in the public sector and beyond. | “At the Supreme Court, a Big Threat to Unions” »
Reuters
EPI President Larry Mishel joined C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” to discuss economic policies and goals put forth by President Obama in the State of the Union. | “State of the Union Economic Proposals” »
Reuters
EPI’s research on unions, collective bargaining rights, and labor standards was covered by several top outlets, including NPR, the Wall Street Journal, and New Republic. | “Is It Fair To Have To Pay Fees To A Union You Don’t Agree With?” »
Economic Policy Institute
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Suite 300, East Tower
Washington, D.C. 20005
I’m a NYC teacher and a big UFT supporter, but I think we will lose this case. The worst part of it though is that the UFT has not done a good job teaching it’s members and demonstrating the importance of the Union.
In particularly to the large number of new, younger teachers who hail from non-Union households and grew up hearing how Unions were greedy and bad (myself included).
It’s extremely shortsighted to not pay your dues – the welfare benefits, insurance, and representation when you need it, far exceed the dues ($1400 I think? that we pay each year. If we lose Friedrichs, and members stop paying dues, you can lay most of the blame at the feet of the UFT leadership.
It’s not just the UFT. The NEA and UEA in my state (Utah) have not done anything to teach the importance of unionism, either. In Utah, teachers’ unions can still collectively bargain (even though we’re Right to Work), but unionism is pretty low in a lot of areas. And the UEA just sits on its hands and does next to nothing to recruit. And then tells members that conditions “could be worse.” HOW could they be worse? Utah spends the lowest per pupil in the country, spends 13.1% less than 2008, and ridiculously high class sizes, almost no nurses, not nearly enough counselors, etc.
In fact, when I went to talk to the new teachers about the union, one of them didn’t even know what a union WAS.
Brendan and Threatened Out West highlight an important problem.
I can’t speak to coverage of unions, in the education curriculum at colleges. However, if the coverage mirrored business curriculum, the role of unions and their legal protections, gradually disappeared from business texts.
This manipulation of history is reminiscent of McGraw-Hill’s recent textbook, which placed slavery, in the section on immigrants seeking employment.
AHA! Linda is looking at the legal implications of keeping workers from their first amendment rights,
I walked into this at the beginning. Asked to teach both the 6th and 7th grade that year, and given NOTHING but a room and a roster of kids, they needed me to put the school on the map. It was a brand new magnet school, which ironically chose its students; this middle school on the tony East Side of Manhattan, a few blocks from Gracie Mansion, was unknown, but when its graduates scored at the top of all tests, including the spanking new ELA standards test, ( where they SCORED 3rd in the STATE) the school found it impossible to fire the English teacher who made it happen.
So, Linda, I discover, years later, that the principal and planned to get rid of me, after the 2nd year, thinking that I was on probation of some sort… but, I came with TENURE!
A criminal charge was the best way to take a teacher out, in District. 2. They removed Pi lian Tu, that superb bilingual teacher on such an allegation. MY husband and I attended that Kangaroo court of a hearing and have the transcripts.
But , you see, they owed ME… they owed me thousands for buying all the books in my class library and all the materials I used to teach art.
After 2 attempts to take me out — of the school, they came up with ‘corporal punishment.’
as the best tactic.
This is a joke, because anyone who knows my relationship with the kids, as all parents and most of the city knew, that was simply impossible. I attend their bar mitzvah’s, communions and recitals! My students and I went on class excursions in NYC to the MET! . The kids loved me. I heard my name on the cross-town bus, as I have said in another place.
The attorney who finally extracted me from the six month enforced incarceration in a store-room with six or seven other teachers, cost me twenty-five thousand dollars.
That is $25,000 to stand up for my first amendment rights, and reminded the attorneys of District 2, when he filed a lawsuit, that verbal abuse was not corporal punishment —even if the allegations and any merit.
I had to pay a lawyer for the job that Ivan Tiger, Manhattan rep, neglected to do whenI was read wrote a Letter, saying that I “had been found guilty of corporal punishment.”
Civil rights took a hit that day, in September 1998, Linda, when a bureaucrat, –a Superintendent (who incidentally had a personal agenda where I was concerned) — was unconcerned that no charges had ever been put forth.
She was totally UNAFRAID that there might be CONSEQUENCES for such allegations, WHICH SHE CHOSE, TO PUT into an official letter, when SHE KENW THAT there had never been SO MCUH AS A MEETING WITH ME, LET ALONE a hearing.
See, how the story — the Behavior tells the tale.
There, was a respected and admired teacher of great renown, facing not a jury* but facing a guilty verdict — and facing a vindictive administrator, and discovering that her reputation had been eradicated , and they would go after her salary and pension!
* FYI: there never was a jury, or a hearing, not even a meeting–
I sat there blankly. It was a HUH Moment, and then it was a__ “What the bloody hell moment– made more astonishing by the UTTER and COMPLETE SILENCE of the borough head-honcho of MY union. My site at there mute, too.
Civil rights entered the scene –on my stage– again, a few minutes later, when I discovered that I would NOT BE ALLOWED TO SEE the names of the children who had witnessed this act– the curses I was alleged to utter — (but of which I was still not informed.)
These district 2 office clowns disguised as administrators told me, that “Students A,B,C.D. E & F” had been interviewed , and THAT two of theSE alphabet-noodles said that I had cursed.
Come on. Stop laughing Linda.
Bear with me Linda for a moment,
You see, I am a playwright. I knew how to write stories. Loved to read them (grew up in the forties and fifties.) Playwrights have a unique POV…they see behavior from the point of view of a FLY ON THE WALL. We cannot help it. We hear dialogue… what people who are in front of us CHOOSE to speak!
When Ivan Tiger told me to “Be quiet!” and to “sit down’, even as this FARSE was being enacted in front of me, at this moment WHEN I, SUSAN LEE SCHWARTZ, the teacher NEEDED PROTECTION, I knew I had been betrayed by THE ENTITY I TRUSTED!
One last thing, on the subject of what constitutes our civil rights in the workplace, and why it is so clear to me..
I was a student of the humanities in college, thus, I read all of history and most literature, and thus I knows how hard won was THE Magna Carter, and the Constitution, — and how utterly greedy for power the human animal is. History repeats itself endlessly, if we let it.
With my humanities teammates Sean Reed, and Aaron Feldstein, I helped teach the kids about our inheritance from our founding fathers.. We took them to the Justice Department downtown, and they argued the Zenger case, studying this moment in history when civil rights were on the line.
So, at the very moment when my classroom was being utterly destroyed, and my materials distributed to other teachers (theft?) I was being told that I had committed a crime!
Then, next step, was to fire me. There is more to this saga..but not for now.
I just want to continue the story about the BEGINNING, and although it is about my experience, it is THE tactic that wins them this moment. IF they can keep US quiet, they win.
You see, Linda, what is happening to ‘yawl’ now — is because they got away with it with thousands of REAL TEACHERS, the tenured, professionals like me.
They think you do not know what is happening… but YOU DO.
Watch out for the abuse of civil rights!
Band together to demand it.
The courts don’t work for you
http://www.whitechalkcrime.com
I was blind-sided! I didn’t KNOW! YOU DO!
You aren’t me! BUT you know me.
Je suis teacher
http://endteacherabuse.org
Susan Schwartz,
You describe an injustice of great proportion, that deeply saddens all who believe in the importance of morality. You deserve redress that I feel, could never be sufficient in scope to undo the damage inflicted on you. If there is ameliorative solace, it heartens me to know there is a Susan Schwartz, a strong woman, who best served the children in her care. Others, more vulnerable, would have buckled under the weight of the abuse. Those who remain standing, are the threat of a day of reckoning, for those who had a responsibility to do the right thing and, instead, cowered in inaction. And, to stand, issues a threat to sociopathic perpetrators. One never knows when that next injustice will tip the scales to reprisal. I echo Robert Rendo’s statement below.
It is most heartening to hear such words, such eloquent praise. I thank you,
It is not easy to continue to stand against this injustice, but I have waited a long time knowing one things TRUTH will always surface.
The time is now, and the Suprem Court has opened the topic which has been hidden for so long. It gave the opportunity to point out how important unions are.
I do not bash unions. I am all for them as they were conceived way back at the start, to give the worker a voice IN THE JUSTICE SYSTEM! I taught history. I know history, and I know what unions have accomplished.
Along the way, like so may bureaucracies, many of the people grew too absorbed with power, and lost site of US. It is time that YOU, teachers, demanded more than tenisons and slur from them. You will not be there to collect if tis continues, because as Lenny Isenberg points out,, the school budge saves big time, IF they keep a ready supply of novice practitioners.
Again, Thank you. It has been a lonely fight to be heard, but I knew how crucial the issue of civil rights is. When WE, the teacher make our voices heard, and explain the truth about Learning and how WE do it, then things will change.
But Linda… things are changing… or I am dreaming…. because I heard that mongrel Cuomo’s ad on tv, tonight, and in addition to saying the core curricula’s demands for testing is OVER… and LISTEN TO THIS… THE LST SENTENCE IN HIS ADD, SAID THAT IT WAS TIME to concentrate On LEARNING!
Oh my… wee beastie…THAT is MY line.
Just wait, Linda, I have the LEARNING STANDARDS on my desk right now, and I am ready to explain what has been hidden… the real, authentic, GENUINE Performance Standards. Stay tuned… and please message at Oped, with your email!
http://www.opednews.com/author/author40790.html
Susan, I will dance in the streets and sing “Hallelujah!” if you are ever personally vindicated. Your triumph would be a triumph for all teachers who have been unfairly abused by the very people who should be supporting them. I’m not holding my breath; perhaps the most we can hope for is to have your strength of purpose.
Oh, How lovely to hear this.
I have no illusions about vindication, nor do I need it. It was 16 years ago, and I have 4 grandkids –one entering college next year. I have a life, and I am a photographer of some merit now.
I told this story scores of times, whenI first happened, to Bob Herbert, to Dan Rather, and most journalists, years ago, but NOT as I tell it now. It is not at all ‘Poor me.”
It is a cautionary tale to all teachers, because I sincerely believe, that if they can do it a teacher SUCH AS I WAS they an come after anyone they please, and everyone as Lenny Isenberg points out in LA
http://citywatchla.com/8box-left/6666-lausd-and-utla-complicity-kills-collective-bargaining-and-civil-rights-for-la-s-teachers
All I want is a seat at the table… a chance to speak as a teacher about the beginning, which was an experience that elucidates the issue of civil rights.
They could never have created the VAM, and gone after teachers if they did not successfully take out the tenured, experienced ones with such ease… teachers now afe fodder for their plan… unless the rise and speak with one voice and say
ENOUGH!
I am TEACHER! GIVE ME THE RESPECT I DESERVE for serving our nations and helping our future citizens to enter the adult world with some skills and some grasp TRUTH.
THANKS AGAIN! IT MEANS SO MUCH TO HEAR YOUR KIND WORDS!
Any legitimate institution, organization, corporation, or individual would face this Friedrichs case honestly and clearly, assuming a loss. This approach has every advantage: mitigating loss, hard, creative thinking, staying in front of outcomes, surviving. We count on our doctors, lawyers, financial advisors, friends, and relatives to always be honest with us. We count on these folks for the hard truths.
Turns out our union leadership can’t even be counted on to provide us with that most basic service: honesty. Instead, in their fumbling and foolishness, they would rather continue to mine the ignorance of uninformed membership, peddle false-hope, and put forward thin arguments for such.
We are in such a bad way and not too many folks see that.
But, I write and read at Oped news, and I can tell you everyone sees the deterioration of America and most bright folks I know, including many people who write here, know that the country we knew, is gone.
Everyone I know is very upset that the oligarchs have been successful in undoing our democracy and diminishing our middle class.
That does not mean we have to stop telling the truth, or organizing to retain what little remains. but when one watches the nonsense in Oregon, or watches the speaker of the house as he sits behind an outgoing President rolling this eyes, as he recounts his successes, knows something is wrong.
Respect and integrity flew out the window during the GOP ‘debates’, when men who would be PRESIDENT OF THE US, demonstrate a lack integrity, veracity and honesty that is beyond astonishing. These are lying mongrels, playing to an ignorant electorate.
Yes, it is hard to trust the unions, especially, a celebrated successful educator, who sat through a lawless assault by administration, as a top union official sat by and did nothing more than tell me to ‘sit down and be quiet’.
But I know one thing… we teachers are so much fodder for administrators to burn at will, if we do not have an organization that represents the law, and are no merely there to secure benefits that we will NEVER SEE if we are fired at will.
http://citywatchla.com/8box-left/6666-lausd-and-utla-complicity-kills-collective-bargaining-and-civil-rights-for-la-s-teachers
I am hopeful that teachers will organize to protect, not only themselves, but public education and the future of our middle class.
If we do not provide our children with the skills to be productive citizens, then it IS over.
If we cannot count on the unions, then we must count on ourselves.
NEVER give up.
Yes a million times over to Susan Schwartz!!!!!
She is spot on about most everything and an asset to this readership.
I live in Colorado, where membership in teacher unions is optional. Most, but not all, urban districts have contracts. Most rural districts don’t. They “meet and confer,” an arrangement that can sometimes, but not usually, be as effective as a contract.
I teach in the Boulder Valley School District, where we have 80% membership. Through our state law, we could charge a provider fee for the 20% who don’t join, but we don’t. That means when the non-members need the union, which they disproportionately do, they don’t have it. This arrangement is fine by me. So, although I understand the motivation behind this lawsuit is to destroy public employee unions, it won’t, no matter what the judges decide. It will, however, require some state unions to change their organizing strategies.
And the unions need DESPERATELY to change their organizing strategies. I live in Florida, my local union has always been an impediment to a better salary, benefits, etc… Finally, after over 20 years, the local NEA chapter has been de-certified. If I were forced to pay dues to that union in the past, I would have quit teaching.
When I see the NEA and ATF endorse Democrats even after what Obama did to education, I KNOW that I do not want to be a part of these teachers’ unions.
FL Teacher,
Review the voting records of conservative judges. Their pattern of shielding and protecting business interests, while making vulnerable, workers, the environment, health and safety, children of the poor and middle class, racial and female equality, and separation of church and state, is undeniable.
If it is true that:
“The fair-share fee for the estimated 9.7 percent of California teachers who, like Rebecca Friedrichs and her co-plaintiffs, have opted not to join their union comprises about 68 percent of full membership dues.”
perhaps they would be satisfied if their salaries and benefits were 68 percent that of their union-member colleagues.
http://citywatchla.com/8box-left/6666-lausd-and-utla-complicity-kills-collective-bargaining-and-civil-rights-for-la-s-teachers
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/03/lausd-and-utla-collude-to-end-collective-bargaining-and-civil-rights-for-teachers-part-2.html
Maybe, the one of the 800o who worked hard and got fired wanted the union to ensure they last long enough to collect benefits.
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/LAUSD-OR-TARGETED-TEACHERS-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Deception_Evidence_Fired_Innocence-150720-360.html#comment555646
or that the union works of them?
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/07/former-ctc-attorney-kathleen-carroll-lays-out-unholy-alliance-between-union-and-public-education-pri.html
I GUESS I AM NOT THE ONLY VOICE HERE that explains how the unions lost the very people whom they are supposed to represent.
Now, that the reality OF THE UNION MALFEASANCE AND COMPLICITY is exposing itself iN this teacher’s room, it is time NOT TO DISBAND OR DESTROY THE UNIONS WE HAVE, BUT TO ENSURE THAT THEY REPRESENT US… time to elect a new group of activist union leaders…time for teachers to bemuse the voice IN OUR OWN UNIONS!
WE need unions… keep the best in office and throw the other bums OUT! They will go with their pensions in tact, unlike us who lose everything, but they need to GO!
If you have a wonderful union rep, who saved your butt… tell it here.
I am a building rep for the union in my district. As I meet with new teachers, I do talk about the benefits of union membership. The biggest advantage is the support for the rights of due process. Many new teachers and seasoned teachers do not think they need this. They falsely believe that the district will cover them. This is true. The district will support them but only if it is in their best interest to do so.
Currently UEA is suing USOE over a policy which denies teachers the right to know and defend themselves from acusers and acusations. This means they can be fired or disappointed with out knowing why. This is clear violation of constitutional law.
I am surprised by my faculties lack of knowledge on this front. Four teachers in our building have used this service within the last two years. The district tried to railroad two teachers into quitting with false acusations coming from the principal. They won. The other two did not follow up on the union’s advice. They became combatant and consequently were eventually removed. The staff was demoralized. It became clear that this principal would target any teacher who tried to move to another school. Three of those targeted teachers had volunteered to leave our school after a RIF. That principal targeted each one.
After this principal retired, several faculty members jumped ship. As they explained, we spend so much time managing student behaviors that there is no time to teach. I know of four more who are looking to move this spring. I am wondering isn’t the management of students part of the Job? Children are children, won’t the teachers face behaviors at any school? My thought is yes. But the hope is that there will be fewer.
EXACTLY WHAT I SAY Here, after I discovered my civil rights did not exist
http://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/lausd-et-al-a-national-scandal-of-enormous-proportions-by-susan-lee-schwartz-part-1.html
part2
http://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/ordinary-people-who-believe-in.html
But, because the story of how tens of thousands of teachers were removed in the most outrageous deprivation of civil rights NEVER HIT THE MEDIA. That is why so many of the new teachers are CLUELESS.
I am persistent in saying that we NEED unions, or we would be shot and left for the vultures; but I do not rant about it at her blog, like I do at Oped! At her site, I simply tell the truth that teachers need new union leadership, and they need to organize. because alone they are so much fodder.
I believe that in order to grasp where we are now, it is imperative to see how the civil rights process was eroded, and I link often to the two perdaily pieces that are the TRUTH ABOUT THE PROCESS and the scandalous process. That tactic , which left the impression on administration that they could do anything with not a shred of accountability, is at the crux of the problem today.I believe that it is crucial to grasp the beginning of transformative moments, but I will not union bash… that is NOT my objective. I appreciate your advice!!!
And one last thing… it is shameful that that what happened to me and all the veteran teachers is being covered up by those who KNOW!
It hurts THOSE OF US who found ourselves helpless as our careers were not only ended, but our reputations totally shredded in the most obscene unethical and criminal manner, after a lifetime career of dedicated service to our nation’s children — important service LIKE THE SOLDIERS, AND THE POLICE AND THE FIREMEN – crucial to our society and our future. How would YOU feel to be abandoned after all the work you put in? it could happen. Few people were more credentialized then I was. I heard my name as parents talked bout great teachers, when I was on the crosstown bus, for crying out loud!
I know the personal stories of at least ten others, and I can tell you it devastated them. It wrecked their lives and their health as it did mine, and it was never exposed.
It took 3 years for me to recover, and it still hurts to know the note upon which my stellar career was ended, especially when I see how this nation reveres singers and sports figures, and rewards lawyers and bankers for what they give our society.
We learn about terrible victimization on the media, which loves human interest stories; but, here were Americans who gave their all (for pitiful salaries… I was making 58k when I left) , and THEY DID THIS TO US!
Lorna Stremcha was harassed for years and finally, “set up” to be raped by a principal, and had to sue in civil court to hold him accountable?Shameful does not cover this!
The conversation the EIC created was about schools, and teaching but in reality this was a personal assault on tens of thousands of wonderful Americans.
It is crucial, in solving problems, to know the beginning, but because the conclusion is inescapable —what the unions allowed to happen– this story has been kept from the very people who need to know it.
How on earth is that a violation of “constitutional law”? While I understand that the Constitution grants the right to confront an accuser in a criminal case, I’ve never heard of any constitutional right to such a confrontation absent a criminal indictment. As a matter of fact, outside of Montana, and absent a contract stating otherwise, I thought all states were “free will” employment states, in which employees can be let go for any reason at all….or for no reason whatsoever, for that matter.
It’s SO frustrating to try to talk to teachers who don’t believe that they need the due process protections, isn’t it? The complain over the price of dues, but they don’t seem to realize that they will lose A LOT more money if they don’t have the due process protections.
Wow, Ken. You really have no clue. We still have the right to at least hear charges against us, but in Utah, we can be fired without even knowing WHY. Also, many states are not “at-will” employment. Utah is, but many states are not.
It would help if the unions could do something for their provisional members. Without due process protections, there is little a union can do. It can be a death sentence to file a grievance or even ask for union representation. You are marked as a troublemaker.
Threatened out West;
Sorry, Sport….but might I suggest you “get a clue” yourself? Reference…
https://www.rocketlawyer.com/article/what-states-are-at-will-employment-states-ps.rl
….relative to “at will” employment states. Note the first line, to wit: “All states recognize at-will employment.”
Now a question: why is it that there are so many bozos like you on this blog who seem bound and determined to demonstrate that today’s union “teachers” – what with their “at will” and “constitutional right” declarations – seem barely able to differentiate the orifice in their hindquarters from a hole in the ground? “Wikipedia” too touch for you guys? [smile]
In truth, with “the knowledge” that has been demonstrated here, it would appear that there has been ample reason to “retire” a bunch of you a long, LONG time ago!
Good for YOU, Sir Monkey
Civil rights is the issue. I and tens of thousands of wonderful ,experienced and tenutre teacher were successfully removed when there was no LEGAL CHALLENGE by our legal reps. i.e The uFT for me.
http://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/ordinary-people-who-believe-in.htmlhttp://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/lausd-et-al-a-national-scandal-of-enormous-proportions-by-susan-lee-schwartz-part-1.html
http://citywatchla.com/8box-left/6666-lausd-and-utla-complicity-kills-collective-bargaining-and-civil-rights-for-la-s-teachers
and UTLA for them
Read those documents because EVERY WORD IS TRUE, BECAUSE IT IS CRUCIAL FOR A NEW REP LIKE YOU know what happened IN THE PAST and why unions NEED NEW BLOOD LIKE YOURS TO REPLACE THE BUREAUCRATS in the unions who were COMPLICIT.
I you need to contact me, you can leave a message with your contact info at
http://www.opednews.com/author/author40790.html
I assure you, the story I tell, and told to Dan Ravitch explains WHY CIVIL RIGHTS is the CORE ISSUE! Without a guarantee they will chew teachers up and spit them out; they will never see benefits if they are GONE in 3 to 5 years, simply because no one stood up and said to the principal. “HUH. You made that UP!”
In NY there is a group presenting a bill to end workplace bullying.
In Montana, Lorna Stremcha worked with Senator Testor to end workplace buying. after years of legal fighting in the courts to do what the union did not… prove that her principal was the one who set her up to be sexually assaulted.
http://blog.ebosswatch.com/2013/05/one-womans-legal-fight-against-workplace-bullying/
http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com/2013/10/lorna-stremcha-and-her-rubber-room.html
NO teacher should have to go to court to protect civil rights.
Her book spells out the pain and is the must read story for all teachers who do not hear you, Sir Monkey.
Friedrichs is wrong, but I believe teachers are to blame for not being more outspoken. Where was the union re NCLB, Common Core, Gates and his influence, class size, decent food in schools and the list goes on.
They must be willing to speak out on all the above, not just concern with pay scales. Teachers in Seattle and Chicago are doing a great job, but they’re in the minority.
The biggest threat has to do with teacher criminal activity. A complaint could be raised about any criminal activity and the teacher would not have access to the facts of the case. This would hinder the teacher’s right to a fair trial. It is unconstitutional.
Teachers unions ultimate failure over the last decade or two has been exactly this: they allowed a legal, cultural, and political environment to exist and grow that is deeply anti-union, anti-teacher, and anti-public education. The unions first job is to put a check on those forces in society and to present a vigorous counter-narrative. Absent that narrative, people like Friedrichs become easy to find and courts, even supreme ones, feel emboldened and able to make decisions like they will in June.
Teachers union leadership is deeply politically dumb, wildly uneducated on first and basic labor principles, and almost sedated in general in regards to understanding their fundamental duties.
Yet unions are our only hope. Old school, smart, aggressive, itchy-for-a-fight, responsive, creative, UNIONS.
We are kinda F’d.
I read Friedrich’s interview for The 74million. She is incredibly naive and ignorant about unions and what they can do, and her opinions struck me as really shallow without much evidence of understanding or research even for her own positions.
2old2teach,
Well you are correct. Naive, ignorant, shallow, evidence-free, and ridiculous.
But her case will win.
The only question we need to focus on is WHY this case was able to make it to the supreme court and prevail there.
The answers, I think most will find upon reflection and weighing of evidence, has to do with the fact that there was no legal, social, or political headwind to a case like this going all the way.
Historically, the manufacturers and purveyors of said headwinds have been our UNIONS.
We forget sometimes that UNIONS are more than individual protection organizations and collective bargaining machines, but ALSO AND EQUALLY A PUBLIC VOICE THAT HAS A SACRED ROLE IN CREATING A NARRATIVE COUNTER TO CORPORATIST, UNION-BUSTING, ANTI-WORKER IMPULSES THAT ARE ALWAYS CONSTANT IN OUR SOCIETY.
Obviously our unions have failed at this over the last couple of decades. Friedrichs is the result of awful broken union leadership and a membership that let said leaders exist.
it doesn’t seem very conservative to tell an employer what sort of clauses they can have in a labor contract, either.
Brian,
There are labor laws to protect workers against exploitation. Do you think the government should be able to tell an employer to limit the number of hours that employees work?
“Scalia assisted in developing the curriculum for Ave Maria University”. (Daily Kos- 2014-
“University’s Strangle-Hold on Women Goes Way Beyond Suing Obamacare”)
Domino Pizza founder, Monaghan, created Ave Maria, with locations in Florida and Michigan. The Daily Kos article presents a scary picture of conservatives intent on dominance of employees and citizens.
“dominating” not dominance.