Posts tagged teachers union
Teachers union president Randi Weingarten resigns from DNC
June 16, 2025 // American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, a longtime powerhouse member of the Democratic National Committee, is leaving the DNC, according to a letter obtained by POLITICO. Weingarten, who has been a member of the DNC for 23 years, wrote to DNC Chair Ken Martin that she had fundamental disagreements with him.
Jewish teacher suing Portland teachers union over alleged antisemitic curriculum
June 10, 2025 // “He remains anonymous because what happened to him was so horrifying and caused him so much PTSD that he doesn't want to come out with his name,” said Freedom Foundation Litigation Counsel Shella Alcabes. “He's scared of the kind of retribution he's going to get.” Alcabes told The Center Square, their client, a high school math teacher-opted out of paying union dues to PAT, but is still required to be represented by the association in collective bargaining negotiations with his employer. “He worked for one school where he was bullied and harassed. He eventually was able to move to another school, but that doesn't change that PAT still represents him,”
Cuomo’s education plan filled with goodies for powerful teachers’ union — as he tones down support of charter schools
May 21, 2025 // “Cuomo is definitely playing ball with the teachers’ union,” said a longtime political insider. His plan does promote other initiatives backed by the UFT and public school teachers, such as more early childhood education programs and “community schools” with wraparound health services. He also backed implementing the UFT-backed class size reduction law with adequate state funding.
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.”
Marquette students hold campus protest in support of teachers union
May 1, 2025 // On Marquette's campus Tuesday, a group of students held a protest in support of a teachers union. Last year, school officials did not officially recognize a vote to unionize by College of Arts and Science faculty. Students protesting say they want fair wages for their teachers.
Oakland Teachers OK a May Day Strike Amid District’s Budget Cuts
April 28, 2025 // The potential strike would be the fourth by OUSD teachers since 2019. Tensions have mounted between top district officials and the teachers union since a union-backed school board majority voted on Wednesday to remove Oakland’s longtime superintendent, Kyla Johnson-Trammell, two years before the end of her contract. At the same meeting, the union representing Oakland school administrators alleged that its members had been threatened by teachers union leadership. Cary Kaufman, president of the United Administrators of Oakland Schools, said a teachers union leader told a district principal: “We control the board. We got [Johnson-Trammell] fired, we can get you fired.”
Op-ed: MARY KATHARINE HAM: Teachers union bosses put themselves first, teachers and students last
April 23, 2025 // Just recently, Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst uncovered $3.3 million in taxpayer money, and 87,000 hours spent at one agency alone over just two years that went to thousands of hours of union-related activities instead of the American people. Elsewhere, the IRS union is negotiating for its members to show up only once a week in person and retain a bunch of generous bonuses. An unwelcome April surprise, just like your tax bill!
Commentary: Teachers Need to Ditch Their Union
April 16, 2025 // The California Teachers Association, which considers itself “the co-equal fourth branch of government,” per former Democratic State Senate leader Dom Perata, is no better. As the Freedom Foundation notes, the union reports its political expenditures under three separate filings: The Issues Political Action Committee (PAC); The Association for Better Citizenship (ABC); and, The Independent Expenditure Committee (IEC).
Idaho teachers union plots campaign to target conservatives in 2026 primaries
March 29, 2025 // But while the IEA may be nonpartisan in the sense that it doesn’t care about party labels per se and will happily back candidates running as Republicans if they support the IEA, there’s no disputing that the union’s ideology places it on the far-left flank of Idaho politics. As a Freedom Foundation analysis of the IEA’s political activity in 2024 previously documented: “The IEA behaves exactly as one would expect of a far-left advocacy group in a conservative state. The union attempts to curry favor by endorsing Republicans running in safe elections when the outcome isn’t in doubt, though rarely do such endorsements come with meaningful financial support. In GOP primary elections, the IEA focuses its resources on defeating select ideological adversaries and, as soon as the general election rolls around, it switches gears to prioritize electing Democrats in competitive races. Overall, 93 percent of IEA-connected PAC spending in the 2024 general election supported Democrats.” Also, as the Freedom Foundation reported last year, the IEA paid $25,000 in members’ dues to the Idaho Progressive Investor Network in the 2021-22 tax year.
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.