Education Week posted an article by Madeline Will reporting that the National Education Association had lost 17,000 members since the Janus decision. The NEA has more than 3 million members. It had already reported that it immediately lost 88,000 members who were paying “agency fees,” paying dues reluctantly while collecting benefits negotiated by the union. The NEA has projected a possible loss of up to 300,000 members and planning to cut its budget.
Where does the report come from about the recent loss of 17,000 members? The 74, an anti-union, pro-privatization website funded by billionaires and founded by anti-union Campbell Brown. What was the source of The 74 report? Mike Antonucci, a writer who specializes in spying on unions and sending out any bad news he can find. Antonucci is probably the most virulently anti-union reporter in the nation. He calls his website the “education intelligence agency.” He won an award from the National Right to Work Committee in 2004. He writes for The 74 and also for the rightwing Center for Education Reform. Both organizations are allies of Betsy DeVos.
Wouldn’t you think that a responsible journalist would identify the biases of her sources? Might she at least identify them as “anti-union,” which is an accurate description?
Meanwhile, the Janus decision will allow non-dues-paying members to enjoy the benefits negotiated for them by the union to which they do not pay dues. They are called “free riders.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Education Week has become the house organ for the big foundations. It is unfriendly to public education. The foundation money goes to support specific reports. It is a shame to see the uncritical recycling of news releases.
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SHAME is right; in more and more cases where educational policy is concerned, our national media outlets are offering up those foundation-money-demanded specific reports.
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I used to subscribe to Ed Week and did for nearly a decade. About five years ago, I had to stop my subscription. I wasn’t going to pay good money to be told how awful teachers and schools are.
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Reblogged this on What's Gneiss for Education and commented:
I call them moochers, thieves, and grifters.
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I call them intellectual prostitutes.
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I think ‘freeloaders’ is better than ‘free riders’.
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“Wouldn’t you think that a responsible journalist would identify the biases of her sources?”
It’s obvious she is an irresponsible journalist who is only interested in her reputation to a specific audience and of course her bank account thanks to whoever she sold her soul to.
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If a free rider/loader teacher wants to grieve or complain about an issue, are they entitled to union representation if it’s in the bargaining agreement? And, would that be news?
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I don’t know. My guess is that they want the benefits of union membership without paying dues.
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Maybe it’s time that unions changed that a different way. Stop negotiating at all for non-union members. Negotiate contracts that apply only to union members, refuse all support and benefits to non-union members. Let them negotiate their own contracts by themselves and see how well that goes for them. Somehow, I think most would be clamoring to rejoin the union at the first opportunity once they’re being paid less and don’t have the protections a union offers.
I’m in a state where we experience the opposite of this. Here in NC it is literally illegal for me, as a teacher, to join a union or to engage in collective bargaining. I’d give my eye teeth to have a union again, as I did when I taught in Philly. We have an educator advocacy organization in the NCAE (and affiliate of the NEA), but there’s not much they can do to directly affect our working lives. They do good advocacy work, lobby, and otherwise do all they can, but it’s just not the same.
I have zero sympathy for the freeloaders who could join a union and choose to be leeches on others instead.
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In Colorado, union membership isn’t mandatory, and in our district, we didn’t charge agency fees, which the recent Janus decision now forbids anyway. If and when a non-member had a complaint, issue, etc., that person was on his or her own. It worked out pretty well, since most of the teachers who thought they didn’t need the union were the worst teachers. When they got fired, we didn’t lift a finger. A non-union teacher could theoretically grieve a contract issue, but it would have to come from that individual, not with union representation. I never saw a non-union teacher grieve an issue or successfully fight getting fired.
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Not in Utah, anyway, which has been Right to Work since the 1950s. The union negotiates collective bargaining, but does NOT represent non-members who get into trouble or have a grievance.
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I believe that NYS passed legislation that allows unions to limit protections to workers who choose to not join a union nor pay the dues.
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Hope you’re right, & hope that other state teachers’ unions follow suit. It is absurd to interpret Janus decision as sanctioning non-union [non-dues-paying] teachers benefiting from raises/ bennies/ protections negotiated by paid personnel. It simply allows them to opt out entirely, which means they sacrifice any negotiated gain. They should not get due process either.
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It is time that the laws that require unions to provide representation to non-members be changed. The laws that require that when unions negotiate contracts the salaries and wages must apply to both members and non-members alike need to be changed so that the unions can negotiate lower salaries and wages for non-members while better salaries for members. The anti-union people are freeloaders and should have to pay for their own legal representation and do their own negotiation.
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Agree.
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Kenneth,
If that law was passed, administration would pay the freeloaders more to undercut the union. The evil intent of the anti-union forces can’t be ignored. What is needed is for fewer people to vote Republican so that the courts have jurists who uphold the intent of the National Labor Relations legislation that followed the Great Depression.
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I asked Randi Weingarten before the Janus decision whether it made sense to exclude the free-riders from benefits, and she said there was a risk that management would show preference for free-riders.
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I doubt very much that administrators would pay non union members more especially when one considers the costs of fringe benefits such as medical care, paid sick leave, and most costly by far, defined benefit retirement plans. I am a retired UFT member but I support the Janus decision. I feel the best way to hold union leadership accountable to its members is to have membership & dues that are voluntary thereby forcing unions to fight for membership as Al Shanker did before the enactment of agency fees. On the other hand I also believe that unions should not be obligated to defend non members forcing workers to think more carefully about whether or not to join a union.
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Support for the Janus decision, just like the hedge funds, John Arnold, the Koch’s and Gates.
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I don’t expect that this will be an issue, as long as state unions do what those of us stuck in Right to Work states have done for years. Pay dues, or, when something happens, you’re on your own.
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Are unions willing to give up their exclusive bargaining rights to free themselves of this burden? They can do this at any time. Why haven’t they? Maybe because that monopoly is worth more to them then the handful of “freeloaders” they’re forced to represent.
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You cannot have 400+ individual teachers trying to bargain with their school board. They would just be ignored and the school board would simply say, here’s what we will pay you and here is what you have to do in addition to teaching for no additional pay. Take it of leave it. Our union should not have to represent non dues payers when they are faced with disciplinary actions or with firing. We have to represent them right now under federal labor laws, even when we feel that they should be fired because they failed to read or follow the contract. It should be, “If you don’t pay, you don’t get our services.” I have advocated that we bargain contracts which have one pay scale for “general teachers” who are non members, one for “Apprentice Teachers” who are union members but haven’t received advance degrees or been granted tenure, and “Professional Teachers who are union members who have advanced degrees, tenure, and who act as mentors to the Apprentice teachers. General teachers who have taught more than two years and who then decide to become Apprentice Teachers by joining the union will be required to pay an initiation fee equal to 1/2 of the union’s dues per year for each year they taught over two years, which can be waved by the local Profession Teachers by majority vote and set at a lower fee. Representation for general teachers in grievances, contract disputes, potential firing, or lay off shall be limited to the first level of services that are handled by the Building Representative. During periods of reductions in staff the professional teachers must all be laid off before any Apprentice or Professional Teachers. If you don’t pay then the union that I pay for should not have to represent you at our expense. OBTW, each of the three classifications of teachers would have a different payscale with the General Teachers receiving a lower percentage of the base as they move up the salary schedule. Their schedule would cap out at 10 years while the other schedules would have longevity steps every five years up to 30 (which is the retirement step).
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Are the NEA and AFT willing to (finally) admit that their focus on “dues” has more to do with providing funds to political campaigns of which over 95% of those funds go to Democrat politicians.
The Janus decision supports the Constitution, the unions do NOT.
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Patriot19, does that mean you were born in the 19th century and fought in the Civil War? That is my one smart ass comment in my comment to your comment,
Anyway, I hope that most of the dues I paid as a public school teacher for thirty years (1975 – 2005) went to pay for political campaigns to combat the dark money from ALEC, the Federalist Society of fascists, the extremist religious right that wants the US to become a theofascit autocracy, the Walton Family Foundation that hates labor unions, et al. spends to influence elections. That dark money is buying public school board election, state elections, federal elections, et al.
‘Dark money’ groups aligned with party leadership steer hundreds of millions of dollars into 2022 federal elections
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2022/11/dark-money-groups-aligned-with-party-leadership-steer-hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars-2022-federal-elections/
Just about the only voice the working class has that supports the working class, comes from labor unions.
That’s why I think Patriot19 is not a patriot by definition but a shill of the extreme right (the source of all that extreme right dark money used to influence election results) that wants to censor labor unions so they cannot represent the working class the extreme right wants to turn into wage slaves without benefits.
Since corporations and the very wealthy are free to spend all the dark money they want to influence political campaigns, the working class’s labor unions must be allowed to do the same.
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Lloyd Lofthouse , unfortunately, like most union members, you obviously don’t have a clue how involved your union is with the DNC, which is nothing more than the new Communist Party.
The “simple” members believe it is all about wages; it most certainly is NOT.
The NEA and AFT are nothing more than fundraisers for increased socialism and the destruction of the Constitution.
Please, tell us how much you know of the NEA/AFT supporting pedophilia. Perhaps you know of the Montana lawsuit AGAINST teaching kindergarteners about homosexuality and fourth graders about “anal penetration”. If you don’t have a problem with that, you are likely in the upper echelons of the union. If you do have a problem with that corruption, perhaps the “moral move” would be to leave the union.
FYI, the “19” has to do with U.S. Presidents, and certainly something about which most union members would not have clue
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Patriot 19, your reply to my comment is classical troll. In other words, you changed the topic without links to valid sources to prove your points, and your wrote your allegations as if they were true.
Your allegations are your opinions and you have done nothing to prove they are valid.
President Theodore Roosevelt provided the best answer to your allegatoins more than a century ago when he didn’t stop the working class from establishing labor unions.
The corporations and Robber Barons that controlled those monopolies wanted to stop the formation of labor unions and pointed out corruption in labor as their reasons.
Teddy pointed out that the corporations and Robber Barons had a much longer history of corruption, and that without labor unions, regardless of the alleged corruption in those unions, the working class had no voice.
The opinion I stated in my comment stands as my opinion, and I think your opinions are still full of trollish BS, hidden behind an anonymous troll’s name.
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As you are clearly one of the “simple” members that chooses to ignore the socialist politics of your most corrupt union. As you and your simple cohorts aide and abet those working to destroy the Constitution with your CRT stupidity, 1619 LIES, and your most immoral support for gender manipulation WITHOUT parental consent. YOU are the sheep that are helping destroy America.
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Once again you reveal your colors, (FAKE) Patriot19.
Inferring that I’m simple minded, an easily guided sheep in a flock, and immoral, because I do not agree with your extremely biased thinking based on lies, hoaxes and conspiracy theories, with no valid facts to support them, only provides more evidence that (FAKE) Patriot19 is a super troll and in reality a traitor if he/she is an American citizen or someone working for Putin in Russia.
If you were a real patriot, you would not be hiding behind an anonymous name throwing insults like they were turds.
My skin is thicker than you know. This former U.S. Marine and combat vet, who served his country in war and in peace, is armored against your insults and ignorance.
Hopefully there will be no 2nd Civil War in the US between the MAGA RINOs that sound and think like you, but if there is one, I welcome the day where I face those who think like you do, on the field of battle, where the blood of real patriots, that that gave all, (never you) stains the earth,
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Patriot 19
You prefer to hide behind an assumed name instead of using your legal name. This allows you to publish your Right Wing talking points without having to defend your “facts” with references or documentable expeiences.
I taught in a public school in Michigan for 37 years (8th grade for 27, Juniors and Seniors for 10 years). During much of that time I was a adjunct professor of history for two different community colleges in Western Michigan.
During that time I served for 30 consecutive years as a state level officer of the Michigan Education Association (our union).
I have been a delegate to first the Republican State Party Conventions until I was forced out of the GOP by Right-to-Life of Michigan and then the Lapiere wing of the NRA during the Engler Administration. I then became a delegate to the Michigan State Democratic Party Conventions. I have held offices in both political parties.
I can tell you from close-up experience that at no time did I see any Anti-America activities in the MEA or the Michigan Democratic Party. However, sadly I clearly observed the growing power of the Neo-NAZIs in the Michigan Republican Party. By the early 1990s you could not hold a Party Office or receive the Party’s Nomination for Public Office unless you were first endorsed by Michigan Right-to-Life, the NRA, Club for Growth, and Dick Jr & Betsy DeVos’ Mackinac Center.
No, my Anti-American friend, it is not the Teachers Unions, the AF of L/C.I.O. ASEME, Teamsters, UAW or the Democratic Party USA that are the real threat to Americana Democracy, it is the current Republican Party. If you want to see ignorance promoted by the GOP and the DeVoses in action you need look no father than Ottawa County Michigan and the DeVos funded Ottawa Impact Neo-NAZIs who just took over the County Commission.
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The court did rule (I think Alito wrote this bit) that unions could charge for services (representation at hearing, disputes etc) if the union was not named as the sole bargaining unit. In various districts, the NeA or AFT has been granted sole representation and thus must provide services to all teachers, whether a member or not
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To answer the question of the post: Both!
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I think if non-union teachers could negotiate their own salary & benefits the teachers who would be the most likely to do this would be ones who have the most leverage in employment, ie, teachers of hard-to-staff subjects, high-performers and who could therefore negotiate better deals than the regular teacher contract.
Teachers who don’t have leverage would find it hard to negotiate a better deal and therefore would be better off with the teacher contract.
This would be a major setback for the principle of union solidarity.
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No Diane, they’re not “free riders”. They’re potential members.
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