Cover Up or Career Protection

Coverup or Career Protection

The Supreme Court recently ruled that public sector employees no longer need to be forced to pay agency fees to the union.   This ruling heavily impacts teachers’ unions because they are the largest public-sector employee unions representing millions of teachers nation-wide.   Many states, Maryland included, have required teachers to pay an “agency fee” in lieu of membership dues to cover the cost of the union representing all teachers in the contract negotiations.

There are two issues here- free speech, the one the Court used for its ruling and the second issue long advanced by union opponents, that unions protect weak teachers and severely limit the ability of school administrators to weed the gardens of education of the weak teachers.  

Conservative groups have jumped on the Court’s ruling.  They are emailing union members nationwide informing them that they have a choice to opt out of the union.   The response of these groups to the ruling has been sophisticated and tactical.  Unions have been quick to point out that these efforts are funded by Koch family foundations and Betsy DeVos foundation money.  The organizations are using freedom of info acts to get access to teachers’ email addresses.   Anne Arundel County in Maryland is one of the school districts that has blocked the opt out feature of school emails at the union's request.  Governor Cuomo of NY has signed an executive order preventing the release of the info for NY teachers.  Regardless of the funding source, that does not change the facts on the ground.   Teachers will no longer be required to pay the agency fees and that is going to cost the unions income and membership.  

Does that matter?   Depends on where you sit.   Some people see anything that limits the unions as a good thing.  School administrators are extremely limited in disciplining teachers and removing weak ones by the union agreement.   They cannot require that teachers work a single minute more than what is in the union contract.  A big part of the union representation is that a union will go to bat to protect any teacher regardless of the accusations of wrong-doing with the exception of criminal acts.  Unions, and some teachers, say that is exactly why they need a union because otherwise they would be subject to the whims of administrators and their salaries and benefits would suffer greatly.

On the other hand, lawsuits are currently pending in Maryland and other states by teachers who are demanding the return of the agency fees they have already paid in what they are now saying was an illegal collection in the first place.

So what is the role of a union?   Does it protect the weakest links or does it protect academic freedom? The recent Janus vs. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 is going to make us all consider that question.