The Washington Education Association guilty again!

On August 11, 2000 the Evergreen Freedom Foundation filed a complaint with the Washington State Attorney General charging the Washington Education Association (WEA) with using funds collected from non-member "agency fee payers" for politics in violation of the law.

Our Washington state’s campaign finance enforcement agency, the Public Disclosure Commission, investigated these charges. As a result, the WEA stipulated that it had committed multiple violations of the statute that prohibits using agency fees for politics. Concerned that its $2,500 maximum penalty was insufficient to adequately penalize these violations, the PDC referred the matter to the Attorney General for prosecution.

Just days prior to admitting their guilt in this matter, however, the WEA paid for a mailing to 60,000 teachers at their home addresses to inform them that the Evergreen Freedom Foundation is "misguided" and that the WEA is "in full compliance with the law." This internal misinformation campaign is perhaps the best indicator of the significance of their violation.

On October 9th, the Attorney General (AG) filed a lawsuit against the WEA in Thurston County Superior Court. The AG is authorized by statute to seek a maximum penalty of $10,000 for each violation.

In October of 2000, the Attorney General’s office filed suit against the WEA in a Thurston County Superior court for the alleged misuse of non-member funds. Teachers who opt out of the union, often for political or ideological reasons, become agency fee payers. They are required to pay a fee equal to 100% of regular member dues, but are entitled to a refund of the portion not spent for traditional union activities like collective bargaining. They are not allowed to vote on contracts and they lose certain services, such as liability insurance.

There were an estimated 4,407 non-member agency fee paying teachers in the state in 2001.

State law requires union officials to get "affirmative authorization" from all fee payers before spending any of their money on political activities. Non-members are often unaware that they’re entitled to a refund and those who do not know to request one every year during the month of August. When teachers fail to request it, the money is rolled into the union’s general fund, from which political expenditures are made.

In January of 2001, nearly 1,400 citizens and teachers all around the state asked the state Attorney General Christine Gregoire’s office to fully investigate and penalize the WEA for its campaign finance violations.

May of 2001 saw the trial of AG v. WEA, in which the Attorney General’s office suggested a $200,000 fine for violation of state law and asked that it be tripled to $600,000 because the violations were intentional.

In August a "guilty" verdict was handed down by Thurston County Superior Court Judge Gary Tabor to the WEA for what he characterized as intentional violations in the union’s use of mandatory teachers dues and fees for politics. Tabor assessed a $200,000 civil penalty against the union, which he doubled to $400,000 as a punitive sanction saying he found the WEA intentionally chose not to comply with the clear language of the statute.

Judge Tabor gave the WEA 90 days to present him with a procedure assuring that union officials will comply with the law in the future. He also tacked on attorney’s fees and the cost of the investigation. Total cost to the union: $590,000.

In addition to the $590,000 in fines and legal costs, the judge ordered the WEA to send refunds totaling $180,000 to the 4,000 teachers whose fees were illegally spent on politics. Refund checks were to be sent out January 15^th, 2002.

PDC referral of case to AG’s office