COMMENTARY

January 28, 2005

No Name-Calling an Ambitious Goal for Teachers’ Union

by Michael Reitz, EFF Teachers’ Paycheck Protection
The Washington Education Association (WEA) and the National Education Association (NEA) recently announced their participation in this week’s national No Name-Calling Week in hopes of reducing verbal bullying.

Since we at the Evergreen Freedom Foundation (EFF) have borne the brunt of the WEA’s most vicious verbal attacks, we applaud the union’s plans to usher in a new era of civility when dealing with ideological opponents. The prospect of being free of union name-calling comes as a relief, even if only for one week.

The teachers union spokespersons have branded EFF with such appellations as “lying dirtbags,” “hate group,” “evil band of zealots,” and “trolls.”

When not residing under bridges, EFF staff members advocate for the First Amendment rights of teachers to opt out of mandatory union membership and coerced dues. Our litigation has exposed the union’s practice of illegally using teachers’ dues for politics without their permission, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and penalties for the union.

In response to EFF’s litigation on behalf of teachers, the WEA launched an attack against EFF in 2002, releasing two radio spots and two full-page advertisements in state newspapers.

The text of one radio ad referred to EFF’s president as “Bob ‘Big Think’ Williams,” and called him a “failed politician.” One of the newspaper advertisements—titled “Dumb Ideas!”—featured a slouched, forlorn-looking man wearing a dunce cap. The same ad called EFF a “right-wing extremist think tank,” and referred to Bob Williams as “washed up and out of work.”

During the 2003 Marysville teacher strikes, EFF published commentaries on how the teachers’ union pursues its own agenda to the detriment of students, and co-hosted a public town hall event to discuss the issues raised by union-organized teacher strikes. One WEA supporter cast an especially creative hex on EFF:

I curse the outside agitators, including the entire Evergreen ‘Freedom’ Foundation, a group of lying dirtbags if any ever existed. Those scum are lower than sewer water, and smell less pleasant. ... A thousand times my previous curses I heap upon these vile creatures, and I curse them with vile lives to match their vile souls. I hope they never find joy in anything ever again.

In March 2004, a local WEA president advised the union’s Central Kitsap members that EFF is part of the “lunatic fringe movement.”

The Evergreen Freedom Foundation is not the only target of creative union monikers. Ignoring the diversity of religious and political views within its membership, the National Education Association is outspoken in its disdain of religious and conservative groups. The NEA’s Resolution C-17 (2000) condemns “extremist groups,” which the NEA defines in other publications as “groups or parents with a conservative religious affiliation who criticize the public schools for one reason or another.”

The NEA disparages what it calls “the radical right” as “a wide range of groups including free-market conservatives, anti-government and anti-union ideologues, and religious fundamentalists with a political agenda.” The NEA’s newsletter In Brief defines the “right wing” as “religious zealots and blatantly racist hate groups.”

Nor does the teachers’ union limit its name-calling to ideological opponents. Teachers themselves are lampooned by the self-proclaimed “representative” of their best interests and are subjected to heavy-handed tactics for even questioning mandatory union membership and coerced dues.

In March 1997, WEA officials threatened to sue a teacher named Jeff for working to stop the union’s illegal mandatory political deductions. The WEA sued two teachers, Barb and Cindy, in February 1998 for publishing a newsletter called “WEA Challenger Network” to inform colleagues of their rights.

Robert Chanin, general counsel for the National Education Association, once said in U.S. District Court, “It is well-recognized that if you take away the mechanism of payroll deduction, you won’t collect a penny from these people, and it has nothing to do with voluntary or involuntary. I think it has to do with the nature of the beast, and the beasts who are our teachers.... [They] simply don’t come up with the money regardless of the purpose.”

Washington law requires school districts to get permission from Washington teachers before collecting dues that will be spent for political purposes. According to Bob Chanin, this is “a royal pain in the ass!”

The union’s participation in national No Name-Calling Week, however well intentioned, smacks of hypocrisy. Some things, as the saying goes, are better caught than taught.

Michael Reitz is a legal analyst for the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a non-partisan, public policy watchdog organization, focused on advancing individual liberty, a free-market economy, and limited and responsible government.

Contact: Michael Reitz | TPP Legal Analyst | 360.956.3482

Evergreen Freedom Foundation P.O. Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507 Phone: (360) 956-3482, Fax: (360) 352-1874 Email: effwa@effwa.org