WEA union resorts to personal attacks to distract teachers from learning of their new rights
Last week the WEA union, personally attacked employees of the Freedom Foundation and Washington Policy Center (WPC), including me, for informing public employees about their new rights under Janus v. AFSCME. The U.S. Supreme Court announced Janus last month. The WEA is trying to distract attention from discussion about the importance of Court’s ruling. Teachers now have a choice they have been denied for too long.
Before Janus, school employees were forced to pay dues to the WEA union to keep their jobs. They were not given a real choice. They could either:
- Join the WEA and pay dues,
or
- Not join the WEA and pay fees.
Either way, teachers were stuck. They paid whether they wanted the association with the union or not.
But now, after Janus, teachers and other public employees do not have to pay union dues, unless they “affirmatively consent to pay.”
Public employers in our state must follow this new law.
This is a new era for our state’s unions. Public employees can still join a union, but the union can no longer force teachers to join as a condition of keeping their jobs. Instead, the WEA union and other public sector unions can try to persuade and convince members to pay dues. Men and women working in government and in the public schools are now free to make up their own minds.
Teachers deserve to have their individual voices heard. The courts now require it. Teachers need to know the choice is entirely theirs. They can join the WEA and local affiliates and pay dues, or not join and be under no further obligation to them.
Attacking WPC and others is a tactic the WEA uses to change the subject. They want to distract attention from the fact that teachers now have a choice. WPC isn’t the story here. Any teacher disagreeing with WPC is not forced to join our organization. WPC would never compel anyone to join. Now the WEA is on the same footing. The real news is each teacher’s new right to opt out of paying the union. No one can force teachers to pay these dues any longer.
If the WEA loses members, they can be more responsive to teachers’ needs and try to win them back. But the WEA can no longer take a teacher’s money without the teacher’s permission. Janus puts the power in the hands of individual teachers – exactly where it should be.
