Labor Day Exploits

Evergreen Freedom Foundation ^ | 9-6-04 | Marsha Richards

[truth49]

It used to be Labor Day was a celebration of worker empowerment, but labor organizations around the nation have turned it into a day of worker exploitation.

Consider the National Education Association (NEA).

The NEA currently “represents” more than 2 million public school teachers and employees the same way the mobs used to represent small shop owners. While teachers in forced-union states technically do have a choice, it’s not much of one: They can pay several hundred dollars a year to union officials, or they can find another career. It’s the old “buy our insurance or you’ll need it” model.

The NEA, like the Internal Revenue Service, is also empowered to take money directly out of teachers’ paychecks, so union officials get their cut before teachers even see the money they earned.

These monopoly conditions allow a small group of NEA officials to collect more than one billion dollars a year from teachers through the union’s national, state, regional and local affiliates. Since they don’t have to ask before they take money out of a teacher’s paycheck, union officials don’t have to care if the amount taken reflects the actual value of the services rendered. Nor do they have to care what teachers think about how the money is spent. So they don’t.

In July, the NEA held its annual convention to determine its priorities for the coming year. The union’s 2004-05 budget is revealing. Of total spending, “collective bargaining and member advocacy” make up just 12.8 percent, while “student achievement” and “teacher quality” account for 1.1 percent and 1.7 percent respectively. The NEA’s largest budget item is “membership and organizing,” which accounts for 26.5 percent of its spending.

[headsonpikes]

Could someone please explain to me the difference between a 'public-sector union' and a 'criminal conspiracy to defraud taxpayers'.