Posted on 10/24/2014 6:18:39 AM PDT by MichCapCon
Brighton teacher Adam Neuman went to Afghanistan to fight for freedom. Now he simply wants to exercise it back home.
As a combat veteran who served in the Kandahar Province for nearly a year, the civics teacher regards attacks on his liberty as a personal affront. So, when the teachers union and his employer told him they were taking money from his paycheck to pay for a teacher to leave the classroom to work on union business, Neuman felt he had no choice but to sue.
In August, Neuman quit the Michigan Education Association and its local affiliate, the Brighton Education Association, exercising his rights under Michigan’s right-to-work law. But the union informed him that he would still be bound by provisions in the teachers contract, including a requirement to pay for so-called “release time,” which allows the union steward to work on union matters during the school day.
The costs comes out of the school’s budget, and now the union and the school district, Brighton Area Schools, are trying to get non-union members to pay for it as well. The release time practice cost taxpayers statewide at least $2.7 million annually as of 2011. The Michigan House passed a bill banning the practice but it has languished in the Senate.
“My interpretation was simply that when you opt out of the union, you are out of the union and you do not have to contribute anything financially,” said Neuman.
(Excerpt) Read more at michigancapitolconfidential.com ...
In an Obama-driven transformed America, veterans are next to meaningless. It’s an outrage they are not given the respect they deserve.
Mr. Neuman ought to prevail.
Mr. Neuman’s prior military service is COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT to the issue at hand.
He is a private citizen, and is being abused by the government-labor union complex, in apparent violation of Michigan state law.
Collusion between Big Labor and Big Government is an abuse and an outrage regardless of its victims’ employment history. This isn’t about veterans not getting respect. This is about Big Labor and Big Government colluding to abuse private citizens.
It is time for the Union to go. No way no how should non union have to pay for the union steward. Tell them to pound sand. Here in Michigan the union has practically destoyed the state. Look at the worthless UAW - an entire golf course was owned by the union - but as times get tight the union had to sell the golf course for a significant lose. I am not union, I own my own business and the financial times mean that in order to keep my business a float, I take very little in pay.
Per the article:
>>>Brighton teacher Adam Neuman went to Afghanistan to fight for freedom. Now he simply wants to exercise it back home.
As a combat veteran who served in the Kandahar Province for nearly a year, the civics teacher regards attacks on his liberty as a personal affront.<<<
COMPLETELY irrelevant? No. It just makes it particularly egregious.
But yes, the union would have been just as wrong if the worker happened to be Jane/Joe Sixpack, I agree.
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