Free All The Teachers From Automatic Dues

Apparently American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten and United Federation of Teachers president Michael Mulgrew (he of the operation to sweep UFT’s office of electronic bugs) believe a good union does not have to compel teachers to join.  Unless, of course, they think AFT and UFT are bad unions.  Teacher union power is greatly enhanced by the power union officials have to coerce other public employees (the school administration) to automatically deduct union dues from teachers’ paychecks.  And in New York, every teacher, not just those in charter schools, must either join or support a teacher union as a condition of employment. Why stop at charter school teachers?

The New York Post has the story on automatic dues deduction.

A favorite talking point for the teachers union is that charter-school operators earn more than the schools chancellor.

Funny thing: As the United Federation of Teachers’ own spending reports show, at least five UFT executives earn more than the chancellor’s $212,614 base salary; union president Mike Mulgrew makes $250,000.

More interesting is that the source of this money is force. While everything about charters is voluntary — no one forces children to attend, teachers to teach there or foundations to pay executive salaries — it’s the opposite for the rest of the system.