Transcripts For CSPAN Labor Union Membership 20140817 : vima

I would ask everyone inhouse to make a courtesy check that your cell phones are off. We will post the program for your future reference. Youre always welcome to send your questions or comments. Hosting our discussion today is celine perth. Academic research focuses on the volatility in the developing world. Prior to joining us she was the assistant professor of economics at Amherst College of and a visiting Research Scholar at northeastern university. A masters degree in economics from rochester. Please join me in welcoming our speaker. [applause] thank you very much. It is good to see everyone here today. My colleague james, who really organized this event, apologizes he could not be here today. I am pleased to have the privilege of joining this panel to discuss unions and membership in unions. Labor unions are some of the largest political spenders in the United States. In the last midterm election, unions operated 10 of the 20 largest Political Action committees. They also made of three of the largest five outside spending groups, excluding the two Major Political parties. They spent approximately 1. 3 billion in the 2010 election cycle, not including local chapters you do not have to report spending. There is a potential for Union Members to discipline their unions by holding a vote on whether spending is being done properly or withholding their dues. 66 approved, and 14 this disapproved a statement that it was unreasonable that they were allowed to spend their dues on politics for getting member approval. 79 believe that employees should not have to participate in the local campaigns or parties. We are here with people who are working on these in very specific cases. We will introduce them and let them take it away. A coalition of 68 groups in 40 states dedicated to Union Members and the freedoms they have two leave Union Memberships. He oversees the execution of npris trategic plan and policy initiatives. Next is rebecca who has been an almond tree educator for 27 years. Shes been concerned about the policies and politics of the Teachers Union she is forced to financially support. She gained insider experience, she attended Teachers Union roberts is in california, and she knows from that experience that even Union Representatives have no real voice in politics and can be bullied into politics science if they disagree. Friedrichs versus the California Teachers Association has been filed with nine of the teachers. They are suing the California Teachers Association and 10 other unions. Robert wiersema has taught economics since 1991. This includes 17 years as a Public School teacher. He also served as the member of a local Public School board for eight years, including two years as president. He left his union and year ago this month. He wants to help members make informed decisions about their membership. Jennifer parrish has let the statewide coalition in minnesota for the last nine years that fights against meaning mean is a against the unionization of home care workers. Jennifer is also a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit who is challenging the constitutionality of compulsory unionism, of childcare providers and other independent business owners. Her legal efforts in addition to her grass roots efforts will lead to the change. Please welcome our panel. [applause] thank you. Thank you to the Heritage Foundation for hosting this event. Imagine talking to a friend having them tell you that were the last five years i have been a fan of the Dallas Cowboys. I do not like the Dallas Cowboys, i would would rather be a Washington Redskins fan, but i cannot opt out of being a Dallas Cowboys fan. You look at your friends and think he has a screw loose because that is not how it works in america. We have the freedom vote to join and leave associations. Go to a different church, switch political parties, canceling magazine subscription. Even become a Washington Redskins fan. People do these things every day without even a second thought. They would not have the ability to leave an organization they are dissatisfied with. We understand this in every area of life except for one, labor Union Membership. In 2012 the Nevada Policy Institute ran a small Information Campaign letting the teachers in the Las Vegas Area know they could leave the Union Membership by submitting written notice by july 1 and july 15. The reaction was stunning, teachers called us and let us know that they did not know they could leave their union. Because they put the opt out time in the middle of my summer vacation, i forget. One teacher signed his card, he did not realize he was signing up. Because he was a motivated teacher he decided that im going to be a member and be involved. He became a building are presented for the union. It wasnt until we told him that membership was optional that he was able to leave and he saved 770 a year. Nevada is a right to work state, but even a teacher who was part of the leadership did not know they have the ability to leave their union until someone told them. That was stunning to us. The teacher Union Membership decreased by over 800 teachers. That got us to thinking that if there are that many teachers in one school district, in one state to want to leave their union but do not know that they can, or when and how to do so, how many hundreds of thousands, or even millions of Union Members around the country want to do the same thing . Working with the association of american educators we called it National Employee freedom week. And that is this week. I am pleased to say that 81 organizations, which we have grown to, in 45 states, have come together with the sole purpose of letting people know that they have the ability to leave their union. You will hear from rebecca, robert, and jennifer and they will tell their stories about trying to leave their unions. I want to tell you about the numbers that their stories represent. We decided to conduct a poll, a National Poll of Union Members asking if you could out out of your union without any penalty, would you do so . We surveyed 454 Union Members across the country and over 28 said yes, i want to opt out of my union if i could do so without penalty. There is 14. 5 Union Members, so that is about 4 Million People who want to leave. What is amazing is they already can. If they are a right to work state they can leave entirely, they do not have to pay agency fees. If they are in a nonright to work state, they have options. They can redirect their funds to a charitable organization. Should Union Employees without force of penalty be able to opt out of Union Membership . 82. 9 of americans said yes. Workers should have that choice, they should be able to make a decision about Union Membership that is best for them. 4 million americans want out of their union, the overwhelming majority of americans who support their right to make that decision, and now we have National Employee freedom week 81 organizations around the country telling Union Members when and how to leave and that they can leave. As you are going to hear, this is information that Union Officials do not want their members to find out about. Thank you. Rebecca . Thank you. Thank you for having me here today. Imagine with me for a little bit. Imagine that you have finished your College Journey and you have entered your dream job. Upon accepting your offer your told you have to join a labor union as a condition of your employment. You will pay 1000 a year to an organization that claims to have your best interest in mind. Imagine that this union fights for almost everything in which you believe. They badmouth the candidates for which you vote, they spend multiple millions defeating common sense propositions and things you believe would actually improve your community. They even send out voter guides that reflect the exact opposite of almost every vote to you personally cast, but they claim that you agree with the union stance on the issues and the candidates. Now imagine that your union is involved heavily in local state and national politics. They use your dues money to fund candidates that you opposed to become government officials. Now imagine that these Union Friendly government officials sit opposite your union at the bargaining table. They negotiate for the use of taxpayer dollars, but guess who was not invited . The taxpayer. Your union enters collective bargaining on your behalf, but they bargain against the taxpayers for things that are offensive to you personally. They constantly seek higher wages and sweeter defined pension programs just for you. Every time you win, unfortunately the taxpayers and the economy lose. Imagine your state and nation falls deep into debt. Of course, you do not have to imagine that. Unfunded pension liabilities, largely because of sweet deals that were negotiated on your behalf, you watch helplessly as your money is used to defeat all that you hold true and right. Now imagine you question your union on the use of your money. That is fair. You are bullied, you are shunned , youre treated with disdain. You dare to speak out against what they are doing. You are labeled radical radical rightwinger, and spoken of in shameful terms. Imagine many of your colleagues are so intimidated that they simply sit in fear and are afraid to speak up. I want you to imagine that you are against all of this, but you have to pay for it out of your own pocket. And you are continually associated with all of these behaviors on television commercials, a newspaper ads to my and simply through the title of your job. Your imaginary world is my reality. Welcome to the world of forced unionism. My First Experience with Teachers Unions was during my year as a student teacher in 1987. Every day i witnessed in horror as the neighboring teacher yelled at and belittled her adorable firstgraders, sixyearolds. They were terrified of her. There is no way that they could have learned in that environment. Nor should they have had to. When i asked my Master Teacher what could be done about this unjust, and what i thought was a dangerous situation, she told me because of tenure laws and strong union advocacy, districts had a hard time ridding themselves of abusive and incompetent teachers. So these kids did not have much hope. That was the day that my Master Teacher educated me with the other problems within Public Sector unions. Unfortunately the union impacted her career and my career, and my classroom in ways that were and still are very troubling to me. For over 26 years ive been forced to pay dues to a union whose core belief and Political Activities are in direct opposition to my own beliefs, my own morals, and my political leanings. For example, although i am for vouchers, and i believe parents should have the right to choose their childrens education, my union dues are used to fight the parents right to choose. Although im against tenure, against higher taxes, and ridiculously high pensions for Public Sector employees, my unions bargain for all of these things and more with my money. Currently in my state of california we have a 74 billion unfunded pension liability. Yet my union continues to bargain for deals that are harmful to our economy. Because of these issues and more, i opt out of the portion of my dues that the union admits are overtly political. I am called an agency fee payer, but unfortunately i still paid for highly political collectivebargaining against my will. I am not in a right to work state. Since the union controls teachers by controlling information, it was quite challenging to discover exactly how to opt out and even more how to receive my annual rebate of the political portion of my dues , which you would think would be automatic but it is not. Early in my career received a very tiny rebate, but thankfully later i discovered california teachers empowerment network. Cten is a Nonprofit Organization that exists solely to help teachers discover their rights within forced unionism. I discovered how to opt out and how to receive my full annual rebate of the overtly political dues. When you opt out of Union Politics, you still have to pay 100 of the collective are dues. That is about 70 of the total dues. In exchange, you lose all rights of membership, and you lose your Liability Insurance, and you lose the right to vote within collectivebargaining, even though youre paying 100 . The loss of Liability Insurance scarce teachers so much that most will not opt out. Fortunately, cten also taught me how to find Liability Insurance from an independent source. I chose Christian Educators Association international for my insurance, and thankfully the coverage and service are far superior and my rebate more than covers the cost. My husband, who is a professor, was an agency fee payer for over 30 years before we discovered cten. They never once mentioned that he also needed to request a rebate of the dues that were used for over politics. For over 30 years, he paid full union dues, funded full Union Politics against his will. The union was too happy to keep his money, even though he made it clear as a fee payer that he did not want to support their politics. Cten taught both of us how to request our full rebate so we both receive them. Since fee payers have no collect no collective voice, at 1. I decided that im going to become a full union member so that i can have a voice. I joined, i served for three years as a union site representative, and as a local board member. I continually brought up the fact to many of my colleagues and i were disturbed and offended that our forced dues were being used toward politics and high political collective are getting that were against our moral codes. On every single location i was either ignored, or received this. Silence and shrugged shoulders. When i attended an annual cta conference, i asked during seminars come and another individual asked in the ballrooms. We were answered with hateful tones rhetoric that made it clear to everyone in the room that if you do not stand with Union Politics you were a bigot. On every occasion the entire room fell silent because of the extreme intimidation of the higher Union Officials. We literally felt like little children being bullied on a playground. Even Union Representatives are silenced if they do not toe the line of far left Union Politics. Those who disagreed with unions step down from leadership. 10 brave teachers in california and the Christian Educators Association have had enough. Thank god two powerful law firms have come alongside us to plead our case. On august 30, 2013, we filed a federal lawsuit against cta, and nea, and our 10 local unions. We decided to restore a constitutional, First Amendment right to free speech and free association. We desire to end forced unionism. We also desire to end the practice of allowing unions to collect our dues through paycheck deductions. You, the taxpayer, are funding dues collection for the union through paycheck deductions. We know this is a huge undertaking, but we believe that like david we have the truth on our side. We are being represented by an Incredible Group of lawyers who are lovers of liberty. Our counsel includes the center for individual rights, cir, a Public Interest law firm which specializes in First Amendment litigation and one of our attorneys is with us today if you have any questions for him. We are also being represented by one of the largest firms in the world. Were are currently at the ninth Circuit Court of appeals, and we wanted it to the United States Supreme Court as soon as possible. What we are asking for is very simple. We want teachers to decide for themselves without fear or coercion whether or not to join a union. Only the Supreme Court can vindicate our right to free speech and free association, so we are trying to get there as quickly as possible. I would like to imagine one more time. Imagine a victory for liberty. I