Union Bosses Dismiss Views of Public, Their Own Rank-and-File
For more than 40 years starting in the 1970’s, special interest statutes rubberstamped by Big Labor legislators and governors in states like California, Illinois, and New York authorized the termination of K-12 public educators for refusal to pay dues or fees to an unwanted union.
With a large part of their revenue coming from compulsory payments, teacher union bosses felt no obligation to represent the political views of their so-called members.
Fortunately, in its landmark 2018 Janus decision, a case argued and won by Right to Work attorney Bill Messenger, the U.S. Supreme Court prohibited forced union financial support in public schools and other government workplaces on First and Fourteenth Amendment grounds.
However, in part because Janus left their government-granted monopoly bargaining privileges intact, most teacher union bosses continue even today to feel free to ignore what rank-and-file unionists think on a wide range of controversial political issues.
Big Labor Monopoly Privileges Put Teachers Under ‘Powerful Compulsion’ to Join Unions
“Since Janus,” observed National Right to Work Committee Vice President Matthew Leen, “the actively employed membership of the nation’s largest teacher union, the National Education Association [NEA], has fallen substantially. It’s now roughly 160,000 below its pre-Janus level.
“Unfortunately, the effectiveness of the Right to Work protections afforded by Janus has been diminished by state laws making teachers and other public servants subject to so-called ‘exclusive’ union bargaining on matters concerning their pay, benefits and work rules.
“As the late Thomas Harris, then a top AFL-CIO lawyer, acknowledged back in 1962, the very fact that a union is legally empowered to ‘negotiate a contract which regulates the incidents’ of workers’ professional lives puts them ‘under powerful compulsion to join the union.’
“Today, government union bosses such as teacher union President Becky Pringle know perfectly well that, even post-Janus, educators who are subject to union monopoly bargaining still feel intense pressure to join the union.
“That’s why they continue without hesitation to spend vast amounts of rank-and-file members’ dues money on far-out causes that are popular within the union hierarchy, but opposed by the overwhelming majority of other Americans.
“Male participation in female athletics is a striking case in point.
“Last fall, a poll conducted by the leftist New York Times and the research firm Ipsos asked Americans where they stand with regard to biological men playing in women’s sports.
“Americans opposed male participation in female athletics by an overwhelming 79% to 18% margin. A 19:1 majority of Republicans were opposed. A more than 2:1 majority of Democrats were opposed.
A more than 6:1 majority of Independents were opposed.
“Despite these lopsided numbers, this year, the NEA and its largest Evergreen State subsidiary, the Washington Education Association [WEA], are the biggest financial backers of a group that was set up in large part to defeat Initiative 26-638.
“This ballot measure, if it is adopted, will simply require school athletic policies across Washington State to reserve female-only sports for biological females.”
Repeal of Monopoly-Bargaining Laws Is Another Necessary Step
As this Newsletter edition goes to press in late June, NEA and WEA union bosses have already poured a reported total of $379,000 in union treasury funds, consisting primarily of dues forked over by educators and other school employees, into the pro-biological males in girl’s school sports outfit.
“As a single-issue organization, Right to Work is naturally not taking a stand in the 2026 Evergreen State battle over public school sports,” said Mr. Leen.
“But Committee leaders are convinced that the evident willingness of Becky Pringle and her cohorts to pour educators’ dues money into a cause the majority of educators undoubtedly don’t support is appalling.
“We are also convinced that this display illustrates how, after Janus, the repeal of all state laws authorizing union monopoly bargaining in public workplaces is another necessary step.”
This article was originally published in our monthly newsletter. Go here to access previous newsletter posts.
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