WEAC Whacks Dues
Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) officials are having a fire sale on dues. After Act 10 in Wisconsin granted teachers Right to Work privileges, to choose or refrain from union membership, the race began to retain their membership as many teachers refused to pay union dues. Mike Antonucci questions the drastic reduction in dues dollars.
2009 membership in the Wisconsin Education Association Council peaked at 100,403. Today that number is somewhere south of 65,000.
Once the political realities had set in, the economic realities soon followed. In 2011 the union laid off almost half its staff, and last week it cut dues by $60, to $218.
This is good news for WEAC members, and might even help with new recruits, but I wonder how WEAC explains it. Will the members get the same services for $60 less? If so, what was the $60 paying for? If they won’t get the same services, what is being cut and why are those things now considered non-essential?
This is a new world for the teachers’ unions. They have spent many years explaining that “cheap dues are cheap for a reason.” Let’s hear if they now have a different reason.