All Maryland Teachers May Pay Forced Dues

While some Maryland counties have forced teachers to join up or pay forced dues to a labor union, a new bill in the Legislature would force ALL teachers into an agency shop agreement.  Thanks to Mike Antonucci for the story: 

Michigan eliminated agency fees amid the storm and thunder of union protests and breathless media reports, but the field is awfully quiet in Maryland, where the state teachers’ union is sponsoring legislation to make agency fees mandatory statewide.

The provision was negotiated into teachers’ contracts through the collective bargaining process, which is supposed to be the sacrosanct method for achieving gains in teacher pay, benefits and working conditions. But the Maryland State Education Association has been unable to persuade the remaining 14 school districts to go along, so it calls on the state legislature to circumvent the negotiating process in those districts.

When teacher union officials decide a school district, or state, for that matter, will become an “agency shop” haven, they will give up almost anything to make this happen.