Governor Rauner Considers Ending Forced Dues

While Illinois teacher union officials fight to keep teachers paying forced dues and enduring unwanted union membership, Governor Rauner is considering giving teachers their freedom.  Seth A. Richardson has the story in The State Journal-Register.

Gov. Bruce Rauner on Wednesday said he wants to end “fair share” dues for teachers unions in the state.
Rauner said he’s heard from union members who tell him to keep up the fight against fair share dues. Illinois Education Association president Cinda Klickna said in a written statement that the idea that a majority of union members would work against the organizations is ridiculous.

“It is interesting that the only teacher voices the governor seems to hear are those of the tiny number who don’t wish to pay their fair share, while he ignores the overwhelming majority of teachers and education support professionals who choose to belong to a union,” she said.

Illinois Federation of Teachers president Dan Montgomery said the governor was wasting his time on an “illegal” plan.

The Republican governor signed an executive order in February halting fair share dues while simultaneously filing a lawsuit challenging them in court.

“We have conflicts of interest in our government that involve (the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers, Service Employees International Union) and the teachers union,” he said. “If our schools are owned and controlled by the teachers union rather than the taxpayers and the families and the kids and the parents, that’s not right for our schools.”

He said teachers union members being allowed to sit on school boards is the same as letting a road paving company sit on a city council all the while deciding on its contracts.

“We’d be up in arms about that,” he said. “We’re not up in arms when the teachers union is sitting on all of these boards deciding what gets collective bargained and how to do the contracts.”