Posted on 10/24/2013 11:37:50 AM PDT by MichCapCon
A Michigan Education Association union in the Upper Peninsula has listed the names of the school employees who left the union as part of the state's right-to-work law, leaving some to question whether the MEA is trying to create a hostile workplace environment.
The MEA 17-B/C union newsletter listed the name of 16 employees from four school districts in the U.P. who decided against paying dues or fees to the union and it also listed the services they no longer will get now that they're not part of the union.
Kathi Moreau, a counselor at Stephenson Area Public Schools, left the union and said she was shocked to see her name in the newsletter.
She said she opted out because of the cost and because she said she was never backed by her union — and never asked to be backed by the union.
"The fact that names were published in the newsletter confirmed the thought that some unions would throw their members under a bus at the blink of an eye," Moreau said in an email. "Additionally, there was no reason for publishing our names and is nothing less than a cheap shot for opting out."
James Perialas, president of the Roscommon Teachers Association, an independent union that voted to decertify from the MEA last year, said this was "an example of passive bullying."
"You would think that a professional teacher organization would not participate in this type of behavior," Perialas said. "These teachers were exercising their rights, and publishing their names implies that the readers should treat them differently in a negative way. Rather than ask them how they can win them back, they use bullying."
Wendy Day, a former Howell School Board Trustee who is running for state representative, agreed. "Holy cow, for all the anti-bullying efforts in our schools these days, this is shameful," she said.
Day said posting the names was akin to social bullying in schools because it was done to hurt reputations or relationships. There is a culture in the union to bully people who disagree with them, including school boards, business owners and teachers, Day said.
MEA President Steve Cook has repeatedly referred to employees who opt out of the MEA as "freeloaders."
The MEA spends the majority of dues money on the salaries and benefits of its centralized employees. According to its most recent federal filings, the union spends only 11 percent on "representational activities."
Cook and Jody Lynn Jaeger, 17 B/C UniServ Field Assistant, didn't respond to requests for comment.
State Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, said the targeted employees should have expected the union would publically list their names.
"I don't know if they are naming them as a traitor; I would expect that sort of activity to happen," Sen. Jones said. "It's not violent. If they did something illegal, something violent like damaging their car, that would be very inappropriate and should be punished. Just naming the people to the other members, I'm sure they all expected that to happen."
Joan Fabiano, founder of Grassroots in Michigan, said there was no need to list the union members who opted out.
"The obvious conclusion is to shame or do a bullying tactic or to put the fear of God in anyone else who might dare to exercise their freedom to choose," Fabiano said.
School administrators from the Menominee and Dickinson Iron school districts, which had 13 of the 16 targeted employees, didn't respond to requests for comment.
I would think that leaving the union would be a badge of honor. Wear it proudly (like the union label).
A football player in a high school near Akron Ohio was yesterday suspended from school for handing in a not-so-nice poem about a team mate.
He was accused of “hazing” and “harassment” on the basis of the words he wrote in his poem.
Bullying? This is an outright threat to the non-union members and an invitation by union thugs to do something stupid to them and their families.
The naming is just Step One. Once the name is out there, THEN the mysterious car vandalism and harassment at home late at night begins.
Today’s unions are not anything like the unions of old which were much needed until our laws caught up with society.
The average union today is simply a fund raiser for the CPUSA (Communist Party USA) and of course the DNC which depends on a huge base of lower intellect voters.
Given our plethora of labor laws on the books a strong case could be made by the remaining honest people among us that there is no longer any need for unions in the USA.
Fortunately for all unions, the main supplier of low intellect voters, public schools, are repleat with union protected teachers assuring a steady stream of Progressive brainwashed students to head on to colleges filled with communist professors.
It is amazing we have held up for so long given the magnitude of the enemy within.
That agenda, since appropriated by "progressive" forces, reveals the degree to which the learning performance and character development of children has been subjugated to the "progressive" political agenda for America.
Far from being what many teachers have believed them to be--a teachers' professional organization for improving learning performance of children--the NEA has become the major leader in advancing the so-called "progressive" agenda for fundamentally changing America.
By forcibly extracting hundreds of millions of dollars from teachers to advance its own agenda, the teachers' unions have lined the coffers of Democrats and other politicians who would listen to their demands.
Suggest a visit here, and here.
"When school children start paying union dues, that 's when I'll start representing the interests of school children." - Albert Shanker, former AFT head
I didn’t read the article. It is to long for the amount of coffee that I have had.
I was shamed by the union while I was still in it. These people have little ethics and I was shamed being associated with them. I got out and I only admit that I was in the union. They wanted me to vote for that traitor John Hanoi Kerry. They wanted me to write letters to my congressman for things I could not in couscous support.
Some people you just explain things to them.
Others you have to persuade.
Some people need a nudge.
Unions exist to use threat of force, as a conspiracy in restraint of trade.
Any Italian immigrant off the boat knew how to drive a team of horses. The relationship between the Teamsters and the Mafia to coerce Italian immigrants as necessary to prevent them from participating in that market was the only lever that the Teamsters had.
They actively published those names
Nothing “passive” about it
I wonder if a non-union newsletter listed the names of union members if it would be excused like that state rep guy did?
In most States where people are freed from the jackboot of communist union bosses by passage of right to work laws, the membership flees and stops paying dues ASAP
Seems like most teachers in Michigan aren’t too bright
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