Friday, March 06, 2009

The Predatory Nature of Teachers Unions

Rhymes With Right has a post about how Houston teachers may have union representation forced upon them even though Texas is a right-to-work state.
Yeah, that’s right – you will still be able to join any group you want, but if this proposal passes you will have no voice unless you join HFT (Houston Federation of Teachers).
Today I received an email from the president of my local teachers union. It said the following:

Finally, nearly 3 weeks ago, I placed a demand to bargain the effects of all decisions related to budget cuts and layoffs. As a result, management, including your principals are prohibited from having discussions with you regarding these proposed cuts. They are not allowed under the law to bypass (the local union) and discuss these issues with you. I brought this issue forward to the superintendent and director of labor relations today. I have ask them to convey this message to their principals.

I have serious concerns with this. Our laws are tilted too far in favor of unions. I've said it before and I'll say it again: every non-military American has a right to join a union and every American has a right not to join a union (financially supporting a union is a different story). It's reasonable for the law to allow people to organize, but such organization is too one-sided. Unions can say anything they want in furtherance of getting organized, but the employer is strictly limited in what it can say to employees. Unions can say pretty much anything they want to incite members or potential members, but employers are not allowed to respond in kind. It's not a level playing field, and it will only get worse if card check is implemented by the current Congress and President.

It's partly for this reason that I choose not to be a union member, even though I'm still required by law to support a union financially (via agency fee).

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