pudge's Journal: WEA Pays $1 Million for Violating Teacher Rights

Until last year, the law in Washington disallowed the Washington Education Association from using mandatory non-member union dues for political activity. The WEA did it anyway, spending millions of dollars, the huge majority of the money going to Democrats.

Though it is no longer law -- the Democrats revoked that law last year, so the Democrats now force public teachers to contribute money to Democratic campaigns -- the WEA still violated the law at the time, and has now reached a settlement with the Attorney General to the tune of $975,000: $735,000 to the state, and $240,000 to teachers.

Thanks to the EFF for filing this complaint and following up with it.

Cross-posted on <pudge/*>.

Hooray!

[Zeriel]

Good on the EFF--the only thing I know about this scandal is what I read here, being on the opposite side of the country. While I'm of mixed opinion on the issue of organizations using mandatory dues for political contributions, I'm 100% against mandatory non-member dues in any respect--maybe someone can take that on next.

I might write to the ACLU just to see what they say about it--they've certainly taken on weirder causes for the sake of principles.

Re:

[multimed]

There are any number of things about unions that I just have a tough time understanding. For example, how a shortfall of the national Teamsters pension fund can bring down a local business that employs just 2 union members [journaltimes.com]. But this is right up there, I just find it amazing that they can collect dues from non-members - period. I gotta figure out how to get in on that gig - get people completely unaffiliated with me to pay me money.

I might write to the ACLU just to see what they say about it--they've certain

Re:

[pudge]

I just find it amazing that they can collect dues from non-members - period.

Really? You find it hard to believe that the government would force a teacher to give up this money to a private group as a condition of employment; that the state would take the money from the teacher out of his paycheck; that this money could be used to fill the campaign coffers of the people who wrote these laws ... ?

It's insane that not only this sort of thing happens in America, but that so many people approve of it, or don't care. If the Republican Party were doing this I'd switch parties immediatel