Pasco teachers pay highest union dues in state

OLYMPIA — Are Pasco teachers really getting their money’s worth for their union dues? The Evergreen Freedom Foundation believes they may not be.

Following is a copy of an email message sent to members of the Association of Pasco Educators:

Association of Pasco Educators members' dues are at least $829 each year. By way of comparison, the average dues for WEA members are $670 and Prosser Education Association members pay $570 per year.

Each of approximately 500 Pasco members pays:

• $118 for NEA services
• $5 for NEA's political "contingency fund"
• $287 for WEA services (includes legal liability insurance approx $30)
• $12 for WEA "community outreach"
• $98 for Southeast UniServ services
• $309 for Pasco Education Association services (approx)

In other words, Pasco teachers pay $414,500 EACH YEAR for a contract negotiated every THREE years.

WEA officials estimate that $40,870 of the funds they take from Pasco are used for extraneous activities unrelated to core union functions.

NEA officials estimate that $24,600 of the funds they collect from Pasco are also used for these extraneous activities.

Since collective bargaining, contract management and grievance processing occurs almost exclusively at the local union level, Evergreen Freedom Foundation believes that MOST of the $211,000 Pasco educators send to Federal Way or Washington DC are not spent on core union activities. And are $203,500 really spent at the local level on contract issues and grievances each year?

Getting your money's worth?

The money spent on extraneous things (things not related to collective bargaining, contract management, and grievance processing) can be reclaimed each year by those who resign from the union and request a refund in September (see our website http://www.myrefund.org)

As an alternative, educators can form a "local only" union and pay only for services that members need for potentially less than half of what Pasco Educators currently pay. It has been done before.

If you are interested in this option, please let me know since a Tri-Cities educator is in the process of forming such an organization. However, Pasco school district teachers would not be eligible to change to an independent local union until the summer of 2002 when the current contract expires.

Contact: Jami Lund, Project Manager, (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