Teachers, Are Your Union Dues Going Up?

Of course they are--supporting President Obama isn't cheap!  Well, that, and the funding model doesn't help:

With teachers’ unions losing members, it places additional financial strains on those who remain. Much of the overhead is tied to staff costs, and RIFs are subject to the provisions of staff collective bargaining agreements. In order to maintain the same size staff, dues must rise.

But there’s an additional inflationary factor for many NEA state affiliates. Union dues are often set according to a formula based on average teacher salaries. If salaries rise, dues rise. Because layoffs are usually made according to lowest seniority, the lowest-paid teachers are released first. That action alone raises the average salary. Factor in automatic step increases for many teachers and you may see an additional increase in average teacher salary. Finally, there’s a lag involved in collecting salary statistics, so today’s dues are based on the pay status of two or three years ago.

What remains is a dwindling number of members forced to make up the dues difference for members who are no longer there.

My union costs over $1000 per year.