Posts tagged Becky Pringle
Op-Ed Andrew Holman: Union political spending doesn’t represent all their members
October 30, 2024 // Most of Pennsylvania’s public sector unions’ certifications date back to the 1970s, meaning many of their employees have never had the opportunity to vote on their representation. Without accountability, public sector unions are free to divert resources from representation toward partisan politics with no regard for members. The rank-and-file deserves better from their unions.
Opinion: Unions should be about employees, not about politics
October 30, 2024 // In August, National Education Association President Becky Pringle told WHYY, Philadelphia’s NPR affiliate, that membership was “nearly evenly split between Democrats, Republicans, and independents.” Yet she drove her union — the country’s largest union, public or private — to endorse Harris. The Teamsters and IAFF demonstrate that the NEA and other unions can simply decline political endorsements that divide their members. After all, members don’t want a union focused on politics, but on core collective bargaining activities. Gallup polling reveals the top reasons employees join a labor union are “Better pay and benefits,” “Employee representation-Employee rights,” and “Job Security.”
Largest Public Sector Labor Unions Unite to Get Out the Vote in Battleground States
October 23, 2024 // This joint action represents a significant escalation of labor's political engagement, with the unions pooling resources and mobilizing their combined membership of several million workers and includes people of all backgrounds working across the public service – as nurses, child care providers, sanitation workers, first responders, teachers, education support professionals and higher education workers, among others.
Commentary: There will be strikes this school year, and union-endorsed candidates won’t care
September 17, 2024 // Pringle has pledged to pour resources into campaigns “from the school board level all the way up to the presidency.” The NEA’s campaign war chest is formidable. Politico reported in 2020 that the NEA ran “a massive member campaign for [President Joe] Biden with digital organizing, phone banking, texting, virtual rallies and car caravans.” During its last reported fiscal year, the NEA spent $50.1 million on political campaigns and lobbying and directed a considerable portion of the $126.3 million allocated to “contributions, gifts, and grants” to political causes. Normally, Pringle keeps a low profile — her latest raucous rant aside. In contrast, AFT President Randi Weingarten revels in the spotlight and regularly reveals her political agenda.
4 reasons why labor unions love Tim Walz
August 8, 2024 // The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers noted that Walz, a former teacher, understands the struggles of working people. The AFL-CIO hailed the governor as a principled fighter and labor champion. The Service Employees International Union pointed to what it called "the Minnesota Miracle," a sweeping package of pro-worker laws passed by the state's Democratic legislature last year and signed into law by Walz.
NEA’s Staff Union Is on Strike—Halting NEA’s Biggest Annual Gathering
July 6, 2024 // “We have witnessed excessive, even exorbitant, spending on just the NEA president’s physical appearance. Their failure to provide basic details about outsourcing makes us wonder what else the National Education Association is hiding,” NEA Staff Organization President Robin McLean said in a prepared statement. “For a public-service union that purports to oppose outsourcing members’ work, it is unconscionable that NEA would spend hundreds of millions of NEA member dues on contractors while union-busting and shrinking its staff unions.”
National Education Association Partners With GLSEN To Keep Secrets From Parents
April 22, 2024 // The NEA’s “partner,” GLSEN, provided teachers with action guides and lesson plans, instructed fellow activists to “Demand Title IX Changes” and form GSA clubs (Gender and Sexuality Alliances) for children. Teachers were encouraged to use LGBTQIA2S (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, two-spirit, and more) “images and characters in your students’ learning materials such as slide decks, worksheets, and word problems.” In the past, GLSEN instructed students to take a day-long vow of silence and to schedule walkouts on what they called a Day of Silence. They called for protests this year, encouraging students to view efforts to protect emotionally vulnerable children from irreversible medical harm as “harassment and discrimination.”
Teachers’ union boss blames math test slide on COVID — after fighting to keep remote learning
December 6, 2023 // The leader of the second-largest teachers’ union in the US linked the worldwide drop in math scores on a key international test to the COVID-19 pandemic — during which she had lobbied against a full return to in-person learning. American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten issued a statement that said remote learning was to blame for the drop in the 2022 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) math evaluation after scores were released Tuesday.
Opinion: Union Leaders Aren’t Fooling Anyone on Labor Day
September 6, 2023 // the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has formed a so called “Lavender Caucus” to advocate on its behalf for pro-LGBTQ legislation; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) issued a resolution demanding stricter gun control laws; the National Education Association (NEA) quietly published a gender ideology resource guide, “Schools in Transition,” in 2015 that laid the groundwork for some of the craziest positions on gendered bathrooms, high school sports and pronoun usage confounding parents and teachers across the country; NEA President Becky Pringle in 2022 issued a statement on behalf of her union excoriating the U.S. Supreme Court for its ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson overturning Roe v. Wade and sending the abortion question back to the state; and, United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) President Cecily Myart-Cruz in 2021 asks her union to issue a resolution condemning the state of Israel for its “war crimes” against the Palestinians.
Commentary: Nation’s Largest Teachers Union Doubles Down on Its Progressive Agenda
August 21, 2023 // Pringle turned her attention to Florida. "We have come here to Florida—our nation's ground zero for shameful, racist, homophobic, misogynistic, xenophobic rhetoric and dangerous actions," Pringle said. "We stand ready to lift up and protect our colleagues and their students. Right here in Florida, we will preserve and strengthen a democracy that was steeped in the power of 'We the People'!" Didn't Pringle know that the people of Florida had an election in 2020 and reelected Governor Ron DeSantis by a 20-point margin? And with 56 percent of Hispanic voters turning out for the Republican candidate? Pringle didn't get that memo, but it didn't stop her. "In this moment when voting rights hang in the balance and reproductive rights remain at risk, we are required to fight for fair and free elections and a woman's right to control her own body," she said. "NEA, this is that moment. With the residue of the pandemic lingering and with our psyches still fragile, we must try to make sense of all we have lost and all that we have learned."