Peter Greene writes about the filing of another lawsuit in California whose purpose is to defund teachers’ unions.
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-new-friedrichs-anti-union-case.html
Last time around, it was the Friedrichs’ case, which lost on appeal, went to the U.S. Supreme Court, and ended in a 4-4 tie because Justice Scalia died.
The Yohn case is a rehash of Freidrichs with new plaintiffs and the expectation that Trump’s justice might decide the Court in favor of Yohn.
Greene writes:
“The argument is unvarnished baloney:
[According to counsel for the plaintiffs:] The Supreme Court has recognized the grave First Amendment problems that arise when a state coerces political speech. In 2014, Justice Alito observed in Harris v. Quinn, that, “Agency-fee provisions unquestionably impose a heavy burden on the First Amendment interests of objecting employees.” As he explained, it is a “bedrock principle that, except perhaps in the rarest of circumstances, no person in this country may be compelled to subsidize speech by a third party that he or she does not wish to support.”
Greene says:
“Cool! May I please have a refund on all the taxes I paid to support pointless wars and the actions of various government agencies with which I disagree?
“The goal here is simple– give the union less money. It’s a popular idea– in fact, some legislators are trying to legislate the same thing in PA right now.
“The goal here is to establish a whole class of free riders– teachers who don’t support their local union, but still benefit from the collective bargaining process (where it still exists) as well as the representation that the union is legally required to provide these folks should they ever get in trouble. It’s like having the government require you to drive your neighbor to work every day, but forbidding you to ever ask him to chip in for gas–oh, and if he needs to be taken way out of the way for an appointment, you have to drive him there, too. Oh– and all the way there, you have to listen to how you’re oppressing him by giving him a ride.”
Plaintiff Yohn wants the benefits of collective bargaining, but doesn’t want to pay the union that negotiates for his benefits. If he wins, there will be many more like him, free-riding.
You can be sure that this suit will be well-funded. Certain elites won’t rest until the union movement is gone, a relic of the past.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Iowa is in the fight as well.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2017/02/09/iowa-collective-bargaining-bill-advances-senate-floor/97692828/
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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From the kansascitystar: In an abandoned warehouse in Springfield, Gov. Eric Greitens on Monday signed legislation making Missouri the country’s 28th right-to-work state.
Hours later, organized labor struck back by filing a rarely used referendum petition seeking to freeze the law and put it before voters in 2018.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article130983664.html#storylink=cpy
This is so disgusting, this nation is so rabidly anti-union that it takes your breath away. It’s not just the politicians, so many ordinary Americans have bought into the anti-union propaganda. Americans just keep stabbing themselves in the back. Case in point, our newly minted Liar-in-chief and his gang of slathering hyenas.
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One’s neighbors, who are anti-union, have peasant thinking. They resent the people that they see, making more money than they do. They don’t mind, Bill Gates living in the state with the most regressive tax system in the nation b/c they don’t see his family on a daily basis. In Washington, the poor pay a rate up to 7 times the rate, the rich pay in the state of Washington.
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“There were three farmers: a German, a Hungarian and an American. Each had a cow. One day, misfortune befell them, and their cows died. Each remonstrated against God, saying God had failed him, and each lost faith. God realized he had to do something to make amends. So he came to Earth and approached the German.
“What can I do to restore your faith?” He asked. And the German answered, “God, I lost my cow. Please give me another cow.” And God did so.
“What can I do to restore your faith?” He asked the Hungarian. And the Hungarian answered, “God, I lost my cow. Please give me that cow and another to compensate.” And God did so.
And finally God came to the American, and He asked, “What can I do to restore your faith?” And the American answered, “God, I lost my cow. Shoot my neighbor’s cow.”
http://billmoyers.com/story/media-morality-neighbors-cow/
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That’s a story that used to be told in Russia and the Russian had the last line.
It represented a society where envy and sloth combined. That’s not America.
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Perfect summary.
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Attributed to a Russian worker, “They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work.”
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dianeravitch
Not my America or your America , but it is Trumps America for sure.
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Someone better tell that to Gabler he attributes it to a Hungarian friend .The rest of the Article is also good.
However without ever having read the story .I told a slightly different version of it a few years ago . As I asked 3 union members in a room of 60 +-
(the equivalent of private sector union membership) to stand up look around and figure out a way to convince the others to want what they have rather than not want them to have it.
It is certainly too much of our America and a sentiment we seldom hear on this blog. But I wonder about the motive of the 1/3 NEA members or 1/5 AFT members or 7/10 construction tradesmen who voted for Trump . The sense of entitlement among-st most of these people is only surpassed by their stupidity.
“America is in moral crisis. Many Americans seem far more interested in making sure that those they consider undeserving — basically, the poor — get nothing than in making sure that they themselves get something.” Grabler
There was an hour special on CNN (or MSNBC) In Trump country . The above sentiment was a critical part of an interview with a Trumpster .
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What is going on with national Right To Work movement? Given Republican majorities in House and Senate, passage could be quick. I think that The Guardian has reported on at least one national RTW bill has been filed.
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Pres. Trump won the opportunity to nominate U.S. Supreme Court justices. The Democratic LOSS made it possible. Media reported that two Democratic autopsies are being written about the loss, one by Rep. Sean Maloney of N.Y. and, the other, by Rep. Lujan of N.M.
Based on media summaries of the Democratic political meetings held this week, the huge citizen-driven backlash against DeVos did nothing to change the Party’s position about privatization of America’s most important common good.
I recommend contact with Maloney to make sure the education component makes it into his report.
IMO, contact with Lujan is a pointless effort, based on the info. at his website,
which I infer is pro-charter. Additionally, Lujan’s federal tax-paid website, in his federal tax-paid office, run by his federal tax-paid staff blocks comments from outside of his district. I would be shocked if his campaign refused contribution$ from out$ide of hi$ di$trict.
Just a reminder, in 2014, the Gates Foundation gave $800,000 to the Center for American Progress, the most influential group within the Democratic Party
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Maloney’s government site won’t take out-of-district comment either.
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Teachers get to “free-load” in Florida!
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I have a different opinion on this as a former educator of 13 years in Florida. Unions are useless in Right to Work States such as Florida. There is no such thing as free ride here. For example, there have been zero raises in my former District since 2008. They have cut the National Board stipends which equate to about an extra $7,000 per year in earnings for teachers. If you were National Board Certified and taught in a Title One school you would receive an extra $10,000 in compensation this has also been eliminated. They have made Highschool teachers teach an extra period without compensation by changing the course schedules in all Highschools. They have reduced the dollar amount of supplements drastically. All of this has been allowed by the “so called” Union. If I am going to be judged by BS merit pays schemes approved by the Union, then they too should also have to earn their keep. Why should they be guaranteed funds? This just results in the Union having zero incentive to do their jobs and represent the best interests of their teachers. In my former District Union dues are higher than any single raise that I ever obtained in my entire career. In fact, Head Custodians make a salary that equals that of a seventeen year teacher. So much for free rides! In Florida the Mickey Mouse Union is fleecing their teachers plain and simple. Take a look at this salary scale and tell me whether or not you would pay these crooks almost $800 a year of your hard earned money. Also keep in my mind that South Florida is one of the most unaffordable places to live in the entire Country and zero steps have been granted in the last 8 years.
Click to access Instructional%20Salary%20Schedule%202015-2016.pdf
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The Unions are not useless the union members or shall i say free loaders are the useless ones . Your sense of entitlement is profound.
The union which judging by your comment you probably were never a dues paying member of, is only as powerful as the hardship its members are willing to endure to accomplish gains , Unions since PATCO have become strike averse .
A review of labor history in this country reveals the most violent repression in the industrialized world . People put not only their jobs on the line but their bodies and their lives as well.
So if the NLRA is going to effectively be repealed, then the framework that enabled civil labor negotiations is being repealed.
It has been Unions securing a modicum of decent living standards for members and non members alike, RTW states see drops in all worker’s wages. . Those living standards built around unions has enabled the last 80 years of relative labor harmony and prosperity.
Roosevelt sought to avoid a Nation wide steel strike. A fight that threaten violence and a tanking of the economy in 1935. . That strike was to be led by socialist controlled steel unions. It was averted when the AFL was able to deliver the NLRA from FDR., placating those more radical leaders The oligarchy should really think twice about the path being pursued because they really may not want to open that can of worms again . As we noticed the Socialist Jew from Brooklyn was widely popular with a generation who know they are getting screwed and have not much to lose.Thy have no aversion to the word Socialism.
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Freeloader my ass I paid those crooks for years. The Unions are supposed to collectively bargain and ultimately provide adequate working conditions and salaries for their members and in Florida they have failed miserably on all fronts. Did you even click on the link? I think not because those salaries are indefensible.
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You don’t like it go on a statewide strike . Don’t tell me that the law prohibits it . The union movement was not built on sitting down at the negotiating table it was built on sacrifice and sitting down at the gates to the employers business. . Those Verizon workers in the CWA and IBEW ,who walked out this spring had no guarantee their job would ever be there to come back to. Just as it wasn’t there for Caterpillar workers in the 1980’s Nobody is going to give you a guarantee. If Union members are not capable of putting it on the line then employers will never negotiate a fair contract . It is only the threat of disruption that created a period of relative labor peace.
It is against the law even here in NY for public workers to strike. That hasn’t stopped the Transit workers from launching several strikes . And threatening others .
“The City obtained an injunction prohibiting the strike and succeeded in imprisoning Quill and seven other leaders of the TWU and the Amalgamated Association, which joined in the stoppage, for contempt of court . Quill did not waver, responding at a crowded press conference: “The judge can drop dead in his black robes!” The union successfully held out for a sizeable wage increase for the union. Other unions followed suit demanding similar raises.
Ironically, it was Quill who dropped dead, at age 60, three days after the union’s victory celebration ”
I assure you it was against the law in Chicago as well.
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I agree with the strike idea! However, the Union seems to think that the answer to the utter disdain and disrespect by the District towards teachers is best addressed by wearing blue shirts to let the District know how blu teachers are feeling. Give me a break! That gutless Union is full of overpaid pu–ies whom could care less about the teachers because guess what they are making two to three times what teachers are making with zero accountability whatsoever. Add to this the spineless teachers who are always making excuses for standing up for themselves such as I am scared to get in trouble; and there you have it, South Florida teachers making 40K for life.
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I can’t help but remember the stupid, stupid, stupid anti-Hillary argument that there is no guarantee that Hillary’s SCOTUS appointments would be better than Trump’s.
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Thank you, FLERP.
And whatever happened to those horrible emails? Where is the special prosecutor?
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Maybe the Justice Department will have time to handle it after Jeff Sessions settles or shuts down the antitrust investigations of foreign exchange market manipulation by Deutsche Bank and the other big banks.
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New story by the great Jesse Eisinger:
https://www.propublica.org/article/deutsche-bank-trump-conflict-of-interest-despite-settlements
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I predict that teachers will still opt in. Teachers will be the group that sees through the right wing malarky.
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“Four years after public school teachers lost their guaranteed spot at the bargaining table, the Wisconsin Education Association Council lost more than half its membership” Sorry !.
The entire model of trade union membership in this country is broken
it has been so for quite some time, since its inception. I say this as someone who grew up in a Union household . who was an active member for over 42 years and still is, of one of the most powerful successful unions in the country. Which is now also under attack losing work share .
Look toward Europe where the model is different and the membership rates are much, much higher . It is not that the Governments in Europe lean left that enables their Unions . It is that those Governments were driven left by a different model of Unionism.
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Based on audited dues apportionment data, unions adjust downward the agency fee paid by non-union members by deducting from the non-union-member agency fee that percentage of the regular member dues which goes to political activities by the union. What remains of the regular member dues that’s paid as an agency fee by the non-union member goes only to support the salary/fringe benefit advantages that the non-union person receives as a result of the union’s collective bargaining. Therefore, because no portion of the agency fee is being expended by the union for political purposes, there is no First Amendment Free Speech conflict arising from a non-union person paying an agency fee for the salary/fringe benefit advantages the non-union member receives.
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Missouri has just become the 28th “right-to-work” state, and that will lead to an increase in abortions in Missouri, regardless of anti-abortion laws. That’s because right near the top of the list of reasons why people seek abortions is because they don’t have a job at all or that they have a non-union job that doesn’t pay the necessary level of income for them to support a child or another child, doesn’t provide medical insurance, and doesn’t have the necessary job security that allows them to be comfortable with committing to raising a child or another child.
The Republican Party has skillfully exploited the fact that most voters fail to see this connection between abortion and anti-unionism. Because of the failure by voters to understand this link, Republicans can piously plead “Vote for us because we’re against abortion” and get workers to vote against their own self-interest by electing anti-union Republican legislatures and governors, who by undermining wages, healthcare, and job security are in fact increasing the number of people who are economically forced seek abortions.
Better to vote for pro-choice, pro-union Democrats because with good-paying secure union jobs, even though abortion is available, fewer people will be forced to make that choice.
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