WEA-PAC Donations Drying Up: Teachers Taking Their Political Dollars Elsewhere

By Bob Williams

Come fall the Washington Education Association (WEA) will once again be a major player in the political process—this time, spending an ever larger percentage of illegitimate money, illegally taken from union members’ compulsory dues. In order to protect and maintain their political clout in the state, leaders of the teachers union will not be relying on their own members voluntary contributions to the union’s political action committee. Instead, teachers union bosses will literally be "banking" on the early Christmas present given them by the state’s Attorney General this February.

Since the adoption of Initiative 134 in 1992 ended the WEA’s automatic payroll deduction for political contributions, an overwhelming majority of public school teachers in the state have exercised their option and withdrawn their voluntary support of the union. For example, before 1992, WEA-PAC had nearly 49,000 contributors; as of May of 1997, the number of contributors had shrunk to 11,671.

Over the last year the numbers haven’t gotten any better; in fact, they’ve gotten worse. According to the Washington Education Association’s own newsletter, Action, the number of teachers voluntarily contributing to the union’s PAC has fallen another 14 percent—some 1,600 teachers have withdrawn voluntary financial support of their own PAC. Incredibly, out of the 67,000 public school teachers in the state, a little over 10,000 now voluntarily show their support for the politics of union leaders. As it stands now, 85 percent of public school teachers in the state do not consciously support the politics of their union leaders.

The numbers are even more startling when they are broken down into specific school districts. In what one what would expect to be one of the most pro-union school districts in the state, 96 percent of Seattle School District teachers are choosing not to contribute to the PAC, despite the urging of a high-powered executive director specifically assigned and paid by the National Education Association to oversee the district.

But it is not just the teachers who are fed up with their union leaders’ politics here in Washington. Beginning with the enactment of paycheck protection in 1992, an overwhelming number of state government employees have walked away from their union’s PAC. As it stands now, AFSCME has just under 100 voluntary contributors out of a possible 19,000 members.

Many may dismiss these statistics by asserting that many union members can’t afford contributing to their unions’ PAC. Problem is, we’re only talking about a dollar-a -month.

But union leaders need not panic and violate the state’s campaign finance laws, as they did during the 1995-96 election cycle. Breaking the paycheck protection law is now sanctioned by the state.

Unfortunately, for the 85 percent of teachers across the state who have opted out of WEA-PAC and who believe that their actions have freed them from backing the union’s politics, labor will continue to use monies collected from their general union dues and, without their permission, spend it on political causes that these same teachers object to. The state Attorney General, in her settlement with the WEA, legitimized labor’s practice of using general, compulsory dues to fund union leaders’ politics.

It is for this reason that the fight to protect the paychecks of teachers and workers must go on. As it stands now, union leaders are playing politics with more and more illegitimate funds, and in the process they are distorting the electoral process.

Union leaders like Rick Bender of the Washington State Labor Council never tire of letting the public know that unions are "democratic institutions." The claim goes, if union members are odds with their leaders’ political agenda, a simple majority can change the face of the union overnight. Well, it appears that more than a simple majority has now spoken in at least two of Washington state’s high-profile public unions. Teachers and state employees have sent the same message: when given the choice, they have chosen not to support the union’s politics.

Union leaders are right to fear the enforcement of paycheck protection in Washington. It drains their political power, returns it to the individual union member, and forces union bosses to raise voluntary contributions like the rest of us. Is it any wonder that labor leaders spent more than $22 million to defeat California’s paycheck protection initiative?

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