Posts tagged American Federation of Teachers
Hospital doctors at Providence St. Vincent vote overwhelmingly to unionize
August 4, 2023 // The union vote comes amid a wave of organizing by health care workers. Doctors are less likely to unionize, but that could be changing.
Organized Labor Is Causing ‘Union Joe’ Biden A Lot Of Headaches
July 28, 2023 // “Biden likes to look pro-union, he’ll turn on those running the unions when it’s politically advantageous—as it was during the railway strike,” David Osborne, fellow at the Institute for the American Worker, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Union executives rarely take issue with it, because doing so would threaten their own political celebrity. Unfortunately, rank-and-file employees are caught in the middle, and they’re the ones with the most to lose when negotiations break down or workers go on strike. The rank-and-file workers will blame Biden, but because they represent such a small percentage of the electorate—and their union executives will endorse Biden anyway—Biden won’t know about it and won’t care.”
Op-ed: Placing teachers unions’ power above students’ lives
July 11, 2023 // Ms. Weingarten is the head of the powerful American Federation of Teachers union, and Mr. Pompeo’s assessment notwithstanding, President Biden’s secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas, just appointed her to serve on the Department of Homeland Security’s school safety council. According to Mr. Mayorkas, the council will advise the department on school safety and help it “counter the evolving and emerging threats to the homeland.”
AFT PRESIDENT RANDI WEINGARTEN QUALIFIED FOR PUBLIC PENSION FOR YEARS SPENT OUT OF THE CLASSROOM ON UNION LEAVE
May 17, 2023 // AFT president Randi Weingarten’s teaching experience is very limited. While she describes having worked as a New York City public school teacher for six years, she only worked as a regularly appointed full-time teacher for three years, after having spent three years as a per diem substitute. Documents recently obtained by the Freedom Foundation show that Weingarten has been on union leave from her teaching position for the past quarter century. Additional documents show that the Teacher Retirement System of the City of New York has credited Weingarten with nearly 11-and-a-half years of service credit for time spent out of the classroom on full-time union leave as an officer for the United Federation of Teachers.
AFT president Randi Weingarten scores $15K annual teacher’s pension in deal with union and NYC
May 16, 2023 // “The New York Post has refused to provide us with the supposed analysis this story is based on. Regardless, it’s pure speculation because Ms. Weingarten is not retired,” AFT spokesman Andrew Crook said. “Ms. Weingarten has worked on behalf of UFT members—including teaching in NYC public schools—for nearly 40 years.” Weingarten began serving as a legal counsel at UFT in 1986 before becoming a teacher. Other records obtained by the Freedom Foundation show she worked about two hours a day as a substitute from September 1991 to August 1994, amounting to about a year of service in her retirement account.
Don’t Be Fooled by Randi Weingarten’s Rehabilitation Tour
May 8, 2023 // Weingarten worked for six years as a history teacher early on in her 40-year career. But for most of her life, she has advocated for teachers' interests, which is demonstrably not the same as "helping kids." To tell parents, many of whom are concerned by the two decades' worth of progress wiped out in math and reading for fourth-graders; the fact that eighth-graders' average math scores fell in all 50 states minus one; and may have in some cases initiated the exodus of some of the 1.3 million children from the public school system, that the person who helped keep schools closed has their kids' best interests in mind is deeply offensive. Her job is fundamentally to secure higher pay and more job protection for teachers who pay union dues, not to make sure your child is happy, healthy, or safe.
National Right to Work Foundation Issues Special Legal Notice to Rutgers Professors Impacted by Union Officials’ Strike Order
April 13, 2023 // In regards to union members, the Foundation’s notice informs workers that they maintain the right to resign from union membership at any time. The notice also suggests, if employees wish to continue working during the strike and avoid union discipline such as fines, that current union members resign their union membership at least one full day before returning to work. “It is Foundation attorneys’ best legal opinion that public sector employees have the right to resign their membership in a union at any time. At least two federal district courts have reached that conclusion,” mentions the notice. “If you are now a union member and want to work during the strike, you should seriously consider resigning your union membership at least one day, if not more, BEFORE you return to work during the strike.” “By initiating a strike that affects thousands of Rutgers employees, these union bosses are not only threatening the education of students, but are also potentially upending the livelihoods of countless families,” commented National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation President Mark Mix. “Rutgers professors should know that they have the right to reject union boss strike orders and can continue working.”
Progressive group pressures congressional office on staff unionization rule
March 21, 2023 // “Capitol Hill staffers’ unionization attempts are not about worker’s rights but building political power and political capital,” said Brigette Herbst, AFFT organizing director, “Unions today are a far cry from unions in the past because they care more about organizing ‘elite’ employees, such as university graduate students or Capitol Hill staffers, than taking care of blue-collar basic concerns. It’s just a new money grab from worker paychecks for union bosses to siphon to politicians.” “As with all public employees, when Capitol Hill staffers unionize, then they will directly negotiate collective bargaining agreements with the politicians that they work for and help elect,” she added, “how is this not a conflict-of-interest and a breach of public trust?”
FEA: Where Do Your Union Dues Go? A LOOK AT Florida Education Association SPENDING 2019 – 2021
March 20, 2023 // Spending on political activities and lobbying remained relatively steady over the past three years. In 2021, the union spent $5.3 million on political activities and lobbying. About $800,000 of this went to employees and officers as compensation for their political activity and lobbying efforts. Other expenditures went to public affairs advertising ($2.7 million), the union’s “Fund Our Future” project ($672,715), and to outside firms for lobbying ($119,993) including $50,000 to Florida Pastors for Children for state legislative issue advocacy. The union also gave $567,000 to the FEA Advocacy Fund, the FEA’s political arm.
Florida Republicans introduce bills prohibiting paycheck deductions for public-sector union dues
March 14, 2023 // Vincent Vernuccio, a representative for the Mackinac Center’s Workers for Opportunity initiative, said, “[SB 256] is about transparency, accountability, good bookkeeping, and democracy. … This bill is about the rights of public employees: making sure they’re informed and they can exercise them.” Freedom Foundation representative Rusty Brown said, “There’s nothing in this bill that curtails organizing or collective bargaining for wages, benefits, or working conditions, which is what a union should be doing. And when you have a union whose membership is half [the people they represent] … then that could be indicative of a problem. … [This bill] gives the employees represented by the union the opportunity to vote … if they would like to continue allowing that union to represent them.”