NEA Fined for Misappropriation of Member's Funds (Ha Ha Ha)

WASHINGTON — The National Education Association is crying foul play after a Washington state judge slapped the country's largest teachers union with an $800,000 fine for failing to show up for court on charges that it was illegally spending members' dues on politics.

The NEA said it had until Tuesday to respond to a suit filed against it by the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, which claims the union was violating a state law that protects members from involuntarily supporting political campaigns.

The claims by EFF are "categorically false," said NEA spokeswoman Kathleeen Lyons, who insisted the union received the lawsuit on May 3, and had 60 days to respond. Lyons said the union responded to the suit in a brief filed overnight on Friday.

EFF's mission is "to silence the voices of teachers in the state of Washington," Lyons said, adding that the union will appeal.

But according to court records, the union was served on April 23, making the deadline more than a week ago. According to state law, if lawsuits go unanswered, judges can presume the facts and allegations in the claims are valid and rule accordingly.

In the NEA's absence at a court hearing Monday, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Daniel Berschauer ruled in favor of EFF.

"This just shows the pure arrogance of the NEA," said Evergreen President Bob Williams, who testified June 20 in front of Congress that the NEA's treatment of members "may be the last institutionalized civil rights violation remaining in our nation."

In the course of two lawsuits against the NEA and its affiliate, the Washington Education Association, Evergreen has attempted to call the union to task for its political spending. Currently, the other suit, which resulted in a $400,000 fine against the union, is under appeal.

In January, the WEA was ordered by Berschauer to pay $190,000 in legal fees to the Washington state attorney general's office, and another $143,000 to teachers for illegally spending dues on political causes.

In Washington state, teachers can "opt out" of the union, but still pay a "representation fee" that is supposed to go to collective bargaining and other benefit services for the member. According to Williams, about 4,000 out of Washington's 75,000 teachers have taken this option. However, many of them complained their dues have gone to political spending anyway.

Meanwhile, about 90 percent of union members have chosen not to have any portion of their dues contribute to the NEA political action committee, which raises money specifically for the national parties and is separate from the other state and national political spending.

In the 2002 election cycle, the NEA PAC has given $578,000 to Democrats and $52,000 to Republicans. It gave $1.6 million out of $1.7 million spent in the 2000-2001 election cycle on Democrats.

Critics say the lack of interest for the PAC has in part led the union to pay for its politicking illegally, by taking it from the general dues.

"The union, rather than say, 'Oh my goodness our agenda doesn't reflect what our members want,' they just make it up through the general dues," said Williams. "They ignore the law."

But union leaders denounced the foundation's claims and the foundation itself as the work of yet another conservative organization bent on busting the union in Washington, and across the country.

In his own testimony in front of the House Subcommittee for Workforce Protections June 20, NEA General Counsel Robert Chanin said the union would respond to the EFF lawsuit accordingly and explained to Congress that it has a diligent accounting system that indeed separates the regular dues payers and those "agency" payers, or those who have opted out of the union.

"This procedure has worked exceedingly well over the years," said Chanin. "To be sure, the procedure may occasionally break down or other problems may arise, but considering NEA's tremendous size and the variety of state laws with which it must comply, such problems are few and far between."

Dan Cronin, a spokesman for the National Right to Work Foundation, said if the union wants to avoid problems, it can change its rules.

"If you want to solve this problem and not have union members dues paid for politics against their will, you have to make all dues paying completely voluntary," he said.

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Well, it is nice to see the courts working well for a change and justice being served. However, I am sure that the $800,000 fine will be suspended and the NEA will have a rescheduled trial, but in the mean time, it should make for some interesting newsletters to memebers and actions prior to the November elections.

That is the real significance. That the NEA will be hobbled during this campagin season. If the NEA does as it has in past election cycles, they just may find themselves under federal administrative operations supervision like say the teamsters. I think the message to the NEA is backoff on illegal election campaign contributions and activities. I think that the desperate Democrats trying to hold onto some federal control will shortly go into panic mode! Their best friend, the NEA, may not be in a position to do the heavy lifting it has in the past.

Another interesting article in today?s newspaper can be found on corruption in Washington State Politics Seattle Times Article on Democratic Party Soft Money Scandel

State Democratic Party Chairman Paul Berendt, who last week let The Times review party records, initially disputed the national groups' findings.

But this week Berendt said he could not account for a large portion of the contributions that went unreported, and he said he was not aware of all the late filings. He acknowledged that in 2000 the party had what he described as a campaign-finance "compliance meltdown," which he blamed on staffing and computer problems

During the 2000 election, the state Democratic Party raised and spent more than $10.2 million, and the state Republican Party raised and spent more than $12.6 million. For both parties, those totals were roughly double what they spent in 1996, the previous presidential-election year.

The more than $6.6 million in soft money received by the state Democratic Party came from the three major national-party committees: the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The organizations raise money and help craft messages for candidates.

Question: During which election cycle did Maria Can't-vote-well beat incumbent Senator Slade Gordon by just few votes? Is there any connection?

Posted in NEA ordered to end hassles over religion:

"Repent NEA, or you will surely perish."
Since the NEA will never repent, let's help them perish. A wealthy NEA can buy whatever political clout they need to get their agendas passed. Help defund the NEA by informing teachers that they are entitled to a refund of the portion of their dues that the NEA and their state affiliates used for political activities. This refund can amount to several hundred dollars. See:
Reply # 14 in the thread Let's Help Nail the Teachers Unions -- It is National FReep Time

LANDMARK REPORTS NEA FLAUNTING FEDERAL LABOR REPORTING LAW
The NEA's Paper Chase

Here's some interesting information from the The Education Intelligence Agency (EIA) COMMUNIQUÉ (On the Web at http://www.eiaonline.com) -- May 13, 2002 issue:

"1) Are the Fat Years Over for NEA and AFT?
It used to be relatively easy for EIA to obtain accurate, up-to-date membership numbers for NEA and its state affiliates, but recently it has become a lot more difficult. Perhaps it is coincidental that the numbers are becoming harder and harder to find just as the news becomes less and less cheerful.
The tremors are small: lots of talk about needing inroads with Generation X teachers... financial problems here... possible layoffs there. In the past, membership problems were localized in the chronic, hard-to-organize states that had competing organizations. Today, the sounds are more widespread. NEA has grown every year since the mid-1980s, but for the first time the end of the boom may be in sight. The union experienced an increase of some 37,000 members this year -- about half of what it achieved in 2000-2001. More alarming if you're an NEA official is the fact that 20 state affiliates had a decrease in membership last year -- even as the number of potential members nationwide continues to grow at a fairly steady 2 percent annual clip.
EIA cannot yet identify which state affiliates are growing and which are not, though it seems safe to assume that the large states -- California, New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, et al. -- continue to enjoy solid growth, while perennial weak sisters are now having serious problems. Activities to reverse the trend are already underway. The NEA Board of Directors granted $175,000 to the Mississippi Association of Educators for additional organizing. The North Carolina Association of Educators is laying the groundwork for an effort in support of collective bargaining in the state. North Carolina law currently bans collective bargaining by teachers.
Accurate AFT numbers are even harder to amass, because more of its members are not K-12 teachers. Nevertheless, the same tremors are coming from AFT. The AFT Executive Council's organizing committee met to discuss ways to get younger members more involved and active in the union. EIA estimates that about 70 percent of teachers are NEA and/or AFT members. Public school teaching may be the most highly unionized sector of the American workforce (the private sector is only 9 percent unionized). Is something about to give?"

We also need to inform teachers and education majors that there are alternative professional education associations that teachers can join for much less than what they are paying to the NEA:
Association of American Educators
25201 Paseo de Alicia, Suite 104
Laguna Hills, CA 92653
Phone: 949-595-7979 or 1-800-704-7799
Fax: 949-595-7970
Email: info@aaeteachers.org
Website: www.aaeteachers.org

Please note that the AAE is not a union. It is a professional association. Annual dues are $125 per year for teachers (includes $2 Million liability insurance - one of the reasons teachers join the NEA or AFT is for liability insurance). Student, retired educator, and associate/support memberships are $25 per year.
Call the AAE and ask them to send you some of their brochures. Stuff them with Teacher317's "UNION DUES REFUND NOTICE" and hand them out to teachers and education majors. Take them to PTA/PTO meetings. Leave copies at school supply stores. Join the AAE as a support member.

Here are some links that will be of interest to teachers (and parents):
"Grading the NEA - What Every Teacher Needs to Know About The National Education Association: A Special Report" by Perry L. Glanzer, Ph.D. & Travis R. Pardo (http://www.family.org/gradingthenea/news/a0012243.html)
"Teacher Unions and Parent Involvement" (http://www.educationpolicy.org/EPIseries/parent-bklt.htm)

17 posted on 5/21/02 7:21 AM Pacific by EdReform

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NEA Slapped With $800,000 Fine for Misappropriating Union Dues