The California Teachers Association is charging all teachers $60 bucks a year in order to support their fight against three propositions from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Being fed up with this obvious political action by their union after being forced to pay the fee's, 6 teachers and professors have filed a lawsuit against the union.
Imagine a group you are mandatory to be a part of at work was taking your money and supporting causes you didn't agree with. It's just total bullshit!
Showing how civilized and open they are to differing opinions the group of teachers was shouted down as they held a press conference outside the union offices. No doubt they were shouted down by other "highly paid" teachers in the California school district that are also members of this union who has fought so that they make a livable wage (that's sarcasm of course).
I wonder if those shouting them down were hired for 6 dollars an hour with no benefits like those who recently picketed Wal-Mart.
San Francisco Chronicle
The National Right to Work Foundation, which filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Jose on behalf of six named teachers and professors, claims the CTA is illegally collecting a $60 levy in each of the next three years to pay for electioneering.
The union voted to raise dues by that amount in hopes of raising $50 million to pay for a campaign against Propositions 74, 75 and 76 on the Nov. 8 special election ballot.
The foundation unveiled its lawsuit at the CTA offices Thursday, but all its speakers were outshouted by around 100 teachers and other union supporters carrying pro-union placards and yelling "Shame on you."
"This is an example of the kind of intimidation, bullying and thuggery that our public school teachers are enduring (from the union) every day," said state Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, who was there to support the lawsuit.
The suit asks that all 335,000 educators who are members and "fee-payers" — those who already opt out of other political union activities — be notified in writing of their legal right not to pay the levy for a political campaign and have their money returned right away.
The 335,000 teachers, professors and others who are represented by the group were not consulted before the vote and "they certainly were not allowed an opportunity to object to, and prevent, this extraordinary expenditure of their money for politics," said Stefan Gleason, vice president of the foundation.
...
CTA President Barbara Kerr said the lawsuit "has no basis in fact or in law" and is a waste of the court's time.
A waste of the courts time?
Tipped by: Lonewacko
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Update: (Sep 24, 2005 12:40AM EST)
A video of the people shouting down the school teachers can be found here under the heading "Watch Streaming Video Recording of the September 22, 2005 Sacramento Press Conference". Thanks to reader TM
As a California public school teacher, I'm forced to financially support both the National Education Association and The California Teachers Association. This is because California is a closed shop state.
Interestingly, while NEA/CTA hurl insults at the popularly-elected governor of California, neither NEA nor CTA allow their own rank and file to vote for their own leadership. It goes without saying that they don't permit the rank-and-file to have any say whatsoever in how much cash these crooks collect in terms of "protection money."
There is a good blog that keeps an eye on teacher's unions. It's called Intercepts and it is written by Mike Antonucci, who runs the Education Intelligence Agency, which is an excellent resource for everyone who wants to know what the NEA and it's subsidiary rackets state organizations, such as CTA, are up to.
Posted by: EdWonk on September 24, 2005 01:34 AM
