Posts tagged Pennsylvania State Education Association
John Coyne: The teachers challenging their unions’ political agenda in court
April 8, 2026 // Wolf won that gubernatorial election and later appointed PSEA President Jerry Oleksiak as his labor secretary. Oleksiak himself embodied another way teachers’ unions advanced their agenda in schools — through “ghost teachers.” Typically in urban school districts, teachers’ unions arranged for certain teachers to leave the classroom and work full-time for the union. The problem? These ghost teachers stayed on district payroll, receiving a taxpayer-backed teachers’ salary, pension, and health benefits. Oleksiak, a former special education teacher, was a ghost teacher for ten years leading up to his appointment by Wolf.
Unions spend big on politics — often at the expense of their members
December 2, 2025 // “When I signed my union membership card, I did not check the back saying I wanted to contribute to the union political action committee,” writes Marie Dupont, a teacher and NJEA member, in The Wall Street Journal. “That was a contract stating my dues wouldn’t go to the union political apparatus, but a handful of insiders ignored that choice and broke that trust.” NJEA funneled general funds through Garden State Forward, Working New Jersey, and Protecting Our Democracy — all election-focused organizations that not only backed Spiller but also were headed by the NJEA president. These questionable activities landed NJEA in court with a lawsuit alleging that the union misled its members, including Dupont, who is a lead plaintiff.
Faculty strike at HACC disrupts classes, draws community and student support
November 4, 2025 // Educators at HACC Central Pennsylvania's Community College are on strike after stalled contract negotiations and no salary increases since unionizing in 2022. The strike, which began following 13 hours of failed talks last week, drew support from students, educators, and community members, but has left many students without instructors on Monday.
HACC faculty reject administration’s latest contract offer, potential strike on horizon
October 2, 2025 // HACC faculty voted 91% against the college’s contract proposal, citing pay and working condition concerns. Union leaders will meet Monday to consider next steps. Withrow emphasized that the union’s goal was not about one side winning. Rather, she said, "a strong contract ensures that the people who teach and support students every day have a fair voice in the conditions that make learning possible." The union is affiliated with the Pennsylvania State Education Association and represents faculty at HACC campuses in Adams, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon and York counties.
John Fetterman Completely Loses It in Meeting With Union Leaders
May 12, 2025 // The Pennsylvania senator was in a meeting with members of a teachers union when he began to lash out. The Inquirer spoke to several former Fetterman staffers anonymously who said that Fetterman wasn’t living up to his duties as a senator. His sharp, zero-sum advocacy for Israel and antipathy toward Palestinians amid Israel’s war on Gaza has alienated staff and constituents. He frequently misses meetings and votes, avoids colleagues, and spends many hours on Capitol Hill alone in his office. “It’s pretty impossible to overstate how disengaged he is,” said one former Fetterman staffer. “He doesn’t read memos, he’s taking very few meetings.… The job is just a platform for him to run for president; that’s all he cares about.”
Walberg, Allen Demand Answers on Union Failures to Protect Workers’ Sensitive, Personal Info
May 8, 2025 // The National Labor Relations Board requires that unions receive personal information for the purpose of communicating with workers who are eligible voters in a union election. This information includes individuals’ full names, work locations, shifts, job classifications, home addresses, personal email addresses, and personal cell phone numbers. In order to ensure the union is taking the necessary steps to protect the employee data it collects and to assess whether all this data is necessary, the Committee requests that you provide the following information no later than May 22, 2025
Unions are failing to protect the privacy of members from hackers and DOGE
April 11, 2025 // Last year, Service Employees International Union Local 1000, which serves 100,000 California state employees, also fell victim to ransomware. And in a similar lack of transparency, the California union masked what happened behind vagaries and euphemisms, calling the crime “a network disruption by an outside actor.” This dereliction of duty comes at a great cost. Following another data breach, UNITE HERE, a New York-based labor union that exposed 800,000 people to a data breach, paid $6 million in out-of-court settlement. In 2023, a Boston union lost $6.4 million of member health funds to hackers. Most corporations have sensitive personal information. And that comes with a duty to protect it
Pennsylvania Teachers Union Admits Cyberattack That Hit 500,000 People in July
March 26, 2025 // Personal records of more than a half-million people were compromised in a cyberattack that occurred last July on the Pennsylvania State Education Association. The union acknowledged the data breach this week. On March 17, the state’s largest teachers union sent letters about a security data breach that occurred July 6, 2024. An investigation into the incident, completed Feb. 18, found that sensitive personal information was acquired by an “unauthorized actor” who accessed files on the union’s network, according to the letter.
Hackers Ransom 500,000 Union Members’ Personal Information
March 23, 2025 // The attack targeted the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) and impacted more than 500,000 individuals, including public school teachers and support staff. During the breach, hackers accessed individuals’: Date of birth. Social Security numbers. Driver’s license numbers. Passport numbers. Bank account information, including account and routing numbers and passwords. Credit and debit card information, including card numbers, PINs, and card expiration dates. Health insurance and medical information. Why does the PSEA have access to all this information, especially since most have nothing to do with work or union representation? Simply put, unions often obtain personal information to contact employees about political causes and union organizing outside the workplace. They also send unpaid dues to collections.
Commentary- Teachers: Your Union Dues are Funding the Election
October 31, 2024 // Teachers in swing states such as Pennsylvania should be particularly aware of where unions are spending their dues. During the 2022-2023 fiscal year, the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA), representing over 175,000 Pennsylvania teachers, spent $5.02 million on politics. This spending went primarily to progressive causes. PSEA is also an affiliate of the NEA, which means a portion of Pennsylvania teachers dues are also spent on politics by the national union.