Orange County California teacher Rebecca Friedrichs’ name appears in the case to be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court. (reason.com)
Word that the Supreme Court will hear Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association in October was welcome news to this writer. For years I have been writing op-eds and letters to editors about the use of union dues to fund political candidates and issues. It amounts to political extortion.
In a piece I wrote four years ago, “Teachers Unite,” I included the following quote from a farewell speech given by National Education Association (NEA) retiring general counsel Bob Chanin. In view of the renewed effort by California teachers, it needs to be reprinted here.
Posing the question as to why the NEA has been such an effective organization, Chanin said,
“It is not because of creative ideas, it is not because of the merit of our position, it is not because we care about children, it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child. The NEA and its affiliates are effective because we have power and we have power because there are more than 3.2 million people who are willing to pay us hundreds of millions of dollars in dues each year because they believe we are the union that can most effectively represent them, the union that can protect their rights and advance their interests as education employees.”
At the conclusion of his speech, I had a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach as teachers in the audience wildly applauded. You can see the speech by clicking here.
California teachers are rightly claiming their First Amendment rights are being violated by requiring them to fund political advocacy they don’t support. Teachers in the left coast state must pay “agency fees” for collective bargaining regardless of whether they belong to the union.
In Wisconsin, where teachers faced a similar requirement, the largest teachers union has lost more than half of its 40,000 members in the past four years
And, in another interesting development, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the 36,000 government workers are protected by the state’s right-to-work law passed there in 2012. “Coerced membership is bad enough in private industry, but it is especially rotten in government, where there is no competition and union power thus becomes entrenched,” The Wall Street Journal recently cited.
