This cannot happen soon enough for my taste:
Courtesy of Mike Antonucci, we get to peek behind the curtain at an internal California Teachers Association document which has been “declassified.” “Not if, but when: Living in a world without Fair Share…” is a 23-page pdf in which the largest state teachers union in the country envisions the future.
The communiqué starts off with basic demographic data, then launches into a history of “fair share” – the union’s right to collect dues from every public school teacher in the state whether or not they join the union. In other words, “fair share” is really “forced share"...
So it would seem that during National Employee Freedom Week which runs through this Saturday, there is cause for optimism. A recent poll conducted by Google Consumer Surveys found that nearly 29 percent of union members nationwide responded that they were interested in leaving their union if given the opportunity. A similar poll found that nearly 83 percent of the American public believes that union members should have the right to choose.
As such, maybe one day soon we will see that, unlike the Hotel California, union members can check out and leave their union behind.
Who wrote this?
Larry Sand, a former classroom teacher, is the president of the non-profit California Teachers Empowerment Network – a non-partisan, non-political group dedicated to providing teachers and the general public with reliable and balanced information about professional affiliations and positions on educational issues.
CTEN's web site is
here.
I'm impressed by the artful nature of union misrepresentation.
ReplyDeleteEvery aspect of the modern union is based on the assumption of coercion yet by dint of repetition of unions slogans and positions unions are widely regarded as a social good even though people, when given a choice, don't buy the union label.
It's also part of the reason I'm a cockeyed optimist.
Contrary to the views of the dolefully cynical "the masses" seem, with relentless certainty when given the opportunity and the time, to reject even the most artfully constructed misrepresentations. We took a big step forward in the rejection of those union misrepresentations here in Michigan and I think unions at all levels will find the political atmosphere increasingly chilly going forward.
That's not to say unions won't get the occasional respite from that cold wind of change, such as they find in the Obama White House, but the longer-term trend isn't good for unions and is good for we, the people.