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FAST FACTS ABOUT WEA ARBITRATION PROCESS
 + WEA officials claim membership in the union is voluntary. + Teachers and public school employees who do not want to belong to the WEA can opt out and become "agency fee payers." They are required to pay fees equal to 100 percent of mandatory dues and they lose legal liability insurance and the right to vote on their contracts. + WEA is prohibited by state law from spending any agency fee money for political purposes without permission from agency fee payers, but was found guilty of violating the law last year and ordered to pay penalties of more than $770,000. + Agency fee payers are entitled to a rebate of the portion of their fees spent on activities not related to collective bargaining, contract negotiation and grievance adjustment. WEA does not provide refunds unless non-members know to ask and jump through the hoops. The refund currently averages $180 each year. + WEA calculates the refund and must defend that calculation at an annual arbitration for teachers who wish to challenge it. + WEA schedules the annual hearing on a weekday during class hours. + The hearings take place at union headquarters in Federal Way. + The arbitrator is chosen from a pool previously approved by the WEA and paid by the union (using dues and fees). This year officials paid the arbitrator $1,100 per day. + Challengers are not permitted to see any of the documentation the WEA will present against them until the day of the hearing. + On the day of the hearing, challengers are presented with about 12 inches of documentation justifying the union's fee calculation. They have one hour to review the documents during the union's oral presentation, after which they are given an opportunity to present their response. + Experienced certified public accountants who have looked through the documents provided by the union say there is no way they could make sense of the information in the time frame allowed, much less a teacher who is not trained to read financial books. + And of course, now the WEA will not allow expert representatives chosen
by teachers to be present at the hearing without signing a gag order.
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1 Part Honesty; 2 Parts Arrogance At a March 23, 2005, House Appropriations hearing on a bill to gut the voter-approved I-601 spending limit, Rep. Jim McIntire (D) asked a supporter of I-601’s two-third supermajority requirement for the legislature to raise taxes the following question: "Can you name a time when we [legislators] have actually not just set it [supermajority requirement] aside by majority vote? I mean, this is in many respects a procedural motion that has no bearing. It’s a statutory constraint that cannot constrain any legislature that chooses as a majority to set it aside . . . have we ever used a supermajority [to raise taxes]?" - Rep. Jim McIntire (D - 46) Despite the arrogance of some state officials, Washington's constitution is clear: "All political power is inherent in the people..." |
