We are Fighting to FreeTeachers from Teacher Union Controls

A man in a dark suit posing next to a woman in a plaid shirt

Ernie and Alma Page

Ernie and Alma Page embody the struggle of all non-union professional educator groups.

West Virginia Professional Educators grew out of disillusionment over the NEA union activity in the late 1970s. At the time, all of WVPE’s founders, Ernie, Alma, Elizabeth Mow, Jean Hinkle, and Florena Colvin, were members of the West Virginia Education Association.

The turning point came when Ernie had recently been removed from his job as Executive Secretary of WVEA because of his resistance to its drift toward forced unionism. Union agents from Washington DC had been sent in to turn West Virginia Education Association employees into a group of union organizers. Read More

Ernie struggled with the political maneuvering of those who came for the takeover and sacrificed health and family, spending hours and hours traveling the state and talking to teachers about this turn toward union monopoly power and militant unionism.

To protect his professional integrity, Ernie sued WVEA and won, although it was a long and costly struggle.

Shortly thereafter a small group decided to break away from WVEA and form their own organization. The turmoil brought by these union organizers led to a decision to establish a professional organization, because “A Child’s Mind is Too Precious to Bargain For.”

With Ernie as the leader, about 30 teachers donated many hours and much effort to that cause. They were all unaware at the time that similar organizations were being formed in other states, but eventually learned about CEAFU and have been affiliated ever since.

WVPE’s membership has been growing steadily as WVEA has lost membership.
It has not been an easy road to follow, but with their deep-abiding Christian faith, Ernie and Alma overcame adversity as the Executive Directors of WVPE and are thriving.

In 1994, their home burned to the ground, including two cars. It was probably caused by a copy machine Ernie used for the WVPE business. Not long after, Ernie was in a serious car accident that injured him and totaled his van. Their daughter, Leigh Anne, who had lost all of her possessions in the fire, herself had a car wreck.

Shortly after this setback, Ernie went into the hospital for what was to be a triple bypass operation, which turned into a quintuple bypass and aortic valve replacement. The doctors weren’t sure Ernie would make it through the night, but Alma sat with friend Jean in a prayerful vigil throughout the night.

Even an ailing heart and accident couldn’t silence Ernie because Alma was by his side with her loving care and concern. While Ernie was recuperating, Alma picked up the torch and coordinated the business of the West Virginia Professional Educators.

Each summer Ernie and Alma work tirelessly on membership promotion mailings, attend State Department of Education meetings and legislative interim meetings, handling all the “nuts and bolts” so vital to making an organization run smoothly.

It has been a true honor to work with these two inspired individuals in the struggle against compulsory unionism. That’s why we honor them today with CEAFU’s “Friend of Freedom” award.

Tributes from Colleagues

Ernie and Alma, independent educators in West Virginia have you to thank for your steadfastness and your dedication and courage. If not for you there would not be an alternative teacher organization in your state. Many times you’ve had the opportunity to step back from the West Virginia Professional Educators, but you’ve persevered with resilience. Read More

Dear Ernie and Alma: (Excerpts from some letters written to Ernie and Alma for this occasion.)

I was so happy to have a choice so I could proudly feel and say that I belong to a group of teachers who put our children first. Also I always felt secure in WVPE backing my teaching career.
Nancy Davidson, retired teacher, Upshur County Read More

A Child’s Mind Is Too Precious to be Bargained For

West Virginia Professional Educators

The Pages were instrumental in founding the West Virginia Professional Educators and creating this list of reasons it opposes unions in education: Read More

Before the Janus v. AFSCME Victory: Annie Lee Hudson helped prove Abood unworkable.

Thirty-two years of teaching elementary school students in Chicago have honed Annie Lee Hudson’s ability to boil issues to their basic terms – and nothing is more basic than freedom.

Annie Lee Hudson rejects slavery. She made it easy to see why she and six other Chicago teachers fought heavy-handed officials of the Chicago Teachers Union in a lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Like her fellow teachers, many of them former union members, Mrs. Hudson was being forced to pay compulsory “agency fees” to the union hierarchy to continue teaching. Big Labor’s mandate: “No dues, no job.”

Annie Lee Hudson can pay the union or she can join the unemployed.

Union officials in turn were spending the compulsory dues they demand on activities which have nothing in the world to do with collective bargaining. Read More

Annie Lee Hudson, the Chicago teacher, who, with help from National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, carried her case all the way to the Supreme Court, in Chicago Teachers Union, Local No. 1, AFT, AFL-CIO, et al., v. Hudson et al.