Read Online Shadowbosses: Government Unions Control America and Rob Taxpayers Blind by Mallory Factor - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Mallory Factor
Tags: Political Science, Labor & Industrial Relations, Political Science / Labor & Industrial Relations
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control, and an estimated three-quarters of teachers are members of a teachers union. 8
How many current teachers actually voted in an election to have a union in their district? Not even 10 percent of current teachers have. 9 States granted unions the power to unionize teachers in the school or district in the late 1950s and held elections in the school districts. If more than 50 percent of the teachers voting in the election chose the union, then the teachers union was certified as the teachers’ exclusive bargaining representative. From that day forward, the teachers union represented
every
teacher in the district—even those teachers that voted no or didn’t vote at all. And all future generations of teachers in that district are also bound by this
fifty-year-old
union vote. No recertification of the teachers union has likely ever been required since then. The teachers union in their school was there before most current teachers at the school were born and will likely remain there well after they die. And this works exactly the same for all other government employee unions. The Communist Party in the former Soviet Union would have been pleased with this type of arrangement.
GRADING THE STATES: WHICH STATES GRANT TEACHERS UNIONS THE MOST POWER OVER TEACHERS?
Adapted from data provided in Terry M. Moe’s
Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America’s Public Schools
(Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2011), and updated for changes in the law.
Chart courtesy of Milton L. Chappell, the National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation
Why Teachers Join Unions
In forced-dues states, most teachers find it a pretty easy decision to join the union. After all, teachers have to pay union dues anyway, so they may as well join the union and get whatever benefits of membership are offered. In the states in which teachers are not forced to pay dues to a union to get or keep their job, the unions have to entice, cajole, trick, and pressure teachers to join the union.
One of the ways teachers unions develop their membership in the least unionized states is to capture young, impressionable college students who are training to be teachers. A young teacher from an A-grade state told us that when she entered her mandatory student-teaching period, her teachers college strongly advised her to obtain professional liability insurance. This insurance would cover her in the case thatshe was sued by one of her pupils’ families during her student-teaching period. During student-teaching orientation, teachers union representatives offered all student teachers a discounted union membership rate, which included this liability coverage, and many of them joined. The takeaway message was “Welcome to the teaching profession—meet your teachers union!” Once student teachers join the union, the teachers union simply works to keep them as members when they take full-time teaching jobs.
A veteran teacher who worked in a number of A-grade states says that teachers union representatives pressured her to join the union throughout her whole career. Again, the union reps presented liability insurance as a major reason why she should join the union. They told her that if a student sued her, the union would provide her with a lawyer and she would be protected by liability insurance—but only if she was a member of the teachers union. Otherwise, she would be on her own. The unions were so successful at planting this fear in her that she always felt exposed to liability and uneasy about not joining the union. Of course, the states could fix this issue by providing liability insurance coverage to all teachers, but it hasn’t happened yet. Teachers can also purchase this insurance inexpensively from other sources, but teachers unions have been very effective at presenting themselves as the sole source for professional liability insurance. 19
Teachers unions are also effective at using sorority-style recruiting to sell the union as a
How many current teachers actually voted in an election to have a union in their district? Not even 10 percent of current teachers have. 9 States granted unions the power to unionize teachers in the school or district in the late 1950s and held elections in the school districts. If more than 50 percent of the teachers voting in the election chose the union, then the teachers union was certified as the teachers’ exclusive bargaining representative. From that day forward, the teachers union represented
every
teacher in the district—even those teachers that voted no or didn’t vote at all. And all future generations of teachers in that district are also bound by this
fifty-year-old
union vote. No recertification of the teachers union has likely ever been required since then. The teachers union in their school was there before most current teachers at the school were born and will likely remain there well after they die. And this works exactly the same for all other government employee unions. The Communist Party in the former Soviet Union would have been pleased with this type of arrangement.
GRADING THE STATES: WHICH STATES GRANT TEACHERS UNIONS THE MOST POWER OVER TEACHERS?
Adapted from data provided in Terry M. Moe’s
Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America’s Public Schools
(Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2011), and updated for changes in the law.
Chart courtesy of Milton L. Chappell, the National Right To Work Legal Defense Foundation
Why Teachers Join Unions
In forced-dues states, most teachers find it a pretty easy decision to join the union. After all, teachers have to pay union dues anyway, so they may as well join the union and get whatever benefits of membership are offered. In the states in which teachers are not forced to pay dues to a union to get or keep their job, the unions have to entice, cajole, trick, and pressure teachers to join the union.
One of the ways teachers unions develop their membership in the least unionized states is to capture young, impressionable college students who are training to be teachers. A young teacher from an A-grade state told us that when she entered her mandatory student-teaching period, her teachers college strongly advised her to obtain professional liability insurance. This insurance would cover her in the case thatshe was sued by one of her pupils’ families during her student-teaching period. During student-teaching orientation, teachers union representatives offered all student teachers a discounted union membership rate, which included this liability coverage, and many of them joined. The takeaway message was “Welcome to the teaching profession—meet your teachers union!” Once student teachers join the union, the teachers union simply works to keep them as members when they take full-time teaching jobs.
A veteran teacher who worked in a number of A-grade states says that teachers union representatives pressured her to join the union throughout her whole career. Again, the union reps presented liability insurance as a major reason why she should join the union. They told her that if a student sued her, the union would provide her with a lawyer and she would be protected by liability insurance—but only if she was a member of the teachers union. Otherwise, she would be on her own. The unions were so successful at planting this fear in her that she always felt exposed to liability and uneasy about not joining the union. Of course, the states could fix this issue by providing liability insurance coverage to all teachers, but it hasn’t happened yet. Teachers can also purchase this insurance inexpensively from other sources, but teachers unions have been very effective at presenting themselves as the sole source for professional liability insurance. 19
Teachers unions are also effective at using sorority-style recruiting to sell the union as a
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