(Washington Examiner)—Jade Thompson is a Spanish teacher at Marietta High School in Ohio.
What could you do with an extra $14,000? Buy a new car? Put a down payment on a home? Build your child’s college fund? I can think of many ways to spend this, but unfortunately, I had no choice but to hand it over to a union simply because I’m a public school teacher in Ohio, where people can be fired for not paying money to a union.
Over the 15 years I’ve taught in my small district, I estimate I’ve paid $14,000 in union fees and dues, but an end to this injustice is finally in sight. This morning, the Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees that government employees like me cannot be forced to pay a union just to work in public service. An enormous weight has been lifted off our shoulders.
For the first seven years I was a teacher, I paid full membership dues to the union, at a rate of more than $1,000 a year. In 2010, I discovered the union was using my dues to run a political campaign against my husband, who was running for the Ohio House of Representatives. I was shocked to discover the amount of money they were pouring into a campaign against him, and then I was dismayed to realize my dues were helping pay for it!
I decided I’d had enough, and undertook the painstaking effort to become a fee-payer. This meant I would no longer be a full-fledged union member, and in theory no longer pay money used on union politics, but I would still have to pay the union what’s known as a “fair share” fee. In doing so, I would give up all voting rights in the union whose representation I still had to accept, and still be forced to pay fees to the union. This reduced my fees by $200 a year.
This was not an easy thing to do, and losing my vote in union business wasn’t the only thing I lost. I had to confront my union-loving colleagues. They hazed me writing intra-office emails (that were also sent to me) about trying to vote my husband out of office, tried to freeze me out and make me feel like I wasn’t “part of the team.” On three separate occasions, I walked out to the school faculty parking lot to find a flat tire with a nail in it. Even my then-superintendent called any teacher who chose to exercise their limited freedom “a right-wing extremist threat to public education.” He said this the opening day of teacher in-service training before all my peers.
I’m not against collective bargaining or other services most people associate with union membership. I know that teachers need liability insurance, handbooks, and contracts.
What I am against is union politicking, especially on controversial issues that many disagree with. Imagine my disgust when I found out the unions financially support Planned Parenthood, a group I morally oppose and whose agenda I find repugnant.
Most teachers just want to teach, not rock the boat. I am the same. I want to be on a team. I admire and respect my fellow teachers. Over the years, I have forged strong friendships, even with teachers who support the union. We agree to disagree and I hope they support my First Amendment right to speak up.
What I discovered about the deceptive accounting of the teachers’ unions is that very little of the money collected in forced union dues goes to collective bargaining or insuring its members. By my estimates, the Ohio Education Association collects more than $170,000 a year from the roughly 170 teachers in my district each year. Negotiations take place once every two years and liability insurance is inexpensive (I know, because I purchase my own policy at $16.50 a month).
Where’s all that extra money going? Surely, the union doesn’t spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on negotiations, especially with a template in place.
The unions were essential at the time of the Industrial Revolution, but now many laws protect our jobs and guarantee good working conditions. At these prices, perhaps government unions cannot be justified.
Mark Janus, a child support worker in Illinois, argued that forced unionization of public employees violates their rights to free speech and free association. When he did so, he took on the fight of his life. I stood outside the Supreme Court in February when the Justices heard his case, and I know it has not been an easy or comfortable choice.
But by doing so, he has succeeded in liberating a wide array of public workers, many of whom will have no idea who just led them to the Promised Land of greater freedom and opportunity.
Now the work begins on educating employees about their new rights. Oh, and let’s celebrate an individual pay raise too!