Suit to limit use of teacher union dues for political purposes is tossed

[Omaha Steve]

Source: LA Times

Howard Blume

A federal judge in Los Angeles has dismissed a lawsuit that, if successful, would have hindered the ability of teachers unions to raise money to engage in political activity.

The suit, Bain vs. California Teachers Assn., was filed in April by four teachers with support from the group StudentsFirst and a legal team from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Both the group and law firm have been involved in other attempts to change the legal landscape involving teachers' rights and union influence.

In this case, the teachers involved were fighting for the right to belong to their local union without their dues being used against their will for political causes.

Teachers don’t have to belong to a union, but if they decide to, their dues will support union activities whether they agree with them or not.

FULL story at link.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-unions-dues-for-politics-20150930-story.html

[turbinetree]

1. Justice ALITO------------what a misnomer---------------- Justice.....................

is just chomping at the bit to get this and another lawsuit filed in California on the U.S. Supreme court docket to under mine public employees and unions




Honk------------------for a political revolution Bernie 2016

[jwirr]

2. I don't think this is so much about the political action as

who gets to decide what action they are going to take. And we are seeing that this year with more than just the teachers unions.

I wonder if deciding this issue at local levels instead of the top would make a difference?

[christx30]

3. I'm going to side with the 4 teachers.

If the union leadership thought Trump would make a great president, I sure as hell wouldn't want my money going there.

[TipTok]

5. Exactly...

It's that much worse in unions with mandatory dues...

Lots of opportunity for abuse...

[merrily]

6. Historically, unions have contributed to Democrats. That was one of the reasons Republicans were

were against them. That and they didn't want employees to have meaningful bargaining leverage.

As Democrats do less for unions, however, the historical pattern could change.


I think it should take a vote of the membership to change the rule. These people knew what the deal was when they joined. Rather than try to get a court to change it for them, let them campaign their fellow union members.

[christx30]

7. If I were paying into a union, I'd want my money

to go toward union activities, and not political activity, especially if I disagreed with the stance or candidate the union takes. And if I could not persuade my fellow union members, I'd drop the union.

[mike_c]

8. union activity often is political....

My union is very active in California state politics. I lobby legislators regularly. The legislature considers bills that affect my terms and conditions of work, or simply higher education in general. It is entirely appropriate for my union to lobby those decisions. They impact workers.

[Smarmie Doofus]

4. Mixed blessing. Good that this right-to-work scam went down. But....

.... something dramatic has got to happen to get the AFT/UFT up off their asses to help their members.

And they can't be the ONLY union behaving thusly.

Revocation of automatic dues collection might have been a silver lining.