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The
Columbus Dispatch...
Teachers
suing union over use of fees
By Catherine Candisky
Friday August 5, 2011
Some
public school teachers say the
Ohio Education Association is forcing them to help finance the union’s
political activity.
In
a class-action lawsuit filed
Thursday in U.S. District Court in Columbus, 15 teachers claim that
so-called
fair-share fees taken from their paychecks are unlawfully being used to
finance
campaigns, lobby elected officials and similar efforts.
The
teachers have declined to pay
membership dues to the union, but are assessed a fee to help cover
expenses
incurred by the union in negotiating contracts which cover both members
and
non-members. In their suit, they contend their fee is also contributing
to the
union’s political work.
The
Virginia-based Right to Work
Foundation, which is providing the teachers legal assistance, says
“under the
First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution nonmember teachers cannot be
forced to
pay dues or fees for union boss politics and other non-bargaining
activities.”
The
teachers also claim the
association is not providing them with independently-audited financial
statements as required by law to show how fees they pay are being used.
The
teachers are asking the union to
reimburse them for the portion of their fees which were improperly
spent during
the last two school years. They do not specify how much may have been
improperly spent.
“OEA
union officials have a long
history of abusing teachers’ rights in the workplace to fund their
political
coffers,” said Mark Mix, president of National Right to Work. “It’s
important
to remember where the OEA union machine gets a large amount of its
money as it
gears up its efforts to defeat recent public-sector reforms in the
Buckeye
State – reforms that allow teachers to opt out of forced dues payments.”
Mix
was referring to the union’s
efforts to support of a ballot measure to repeal Senate Bill 5 which
would make
fair-share payments voluntary for teachers and other public employees
who
refuse to pay union dues.
OEA
officials were not immediately
available to comment.
Read
it at the Columbus Dispatch
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