Teachers for Senate Bill 5: The Sequel

A few months back, I highlighted a teachers group called the Association of American Educators (AAE), a non-union professional teachers organization. Since the AAE had made a statement in support of Senate Bill 5, I titled the post, "Teachers for Senate Bill 5."

“The fact that Senate Bill 5 will save over $1 billion a year is a testament to the years of out-of-control demands by the unions. This law should be of no surprise to the leadership who have been overreaching for too long. Clearly lawmakers and voters aren’t listening anymore to the overreaching mentality of the unions. If this is really about the children, as the teachers union claims, we need fiscal discipline and more efficient ways of running our schools, not insurmountable debt. Everyone wants to see educators paid fairly without the threat of layoffs. The union's over asking, overreaching model has created this problem, leaving legislators to take the heat when tasked with bailing out the sinking ship that is the state budget.”

That got the attention of some of the most vocal SB5 opponents, especially the folks over at Plunderbund, the main online hangout for Ohio's moonbat left. For some reason, they felt a compelling need to respond directly to our post with a post of their own.

In their post, they put forward 2 themes. The first was to tear down the legitimacy and the credibility of AAE. You see, progressives and the teachers unions want the public to believe that every single teacher in Ohio, is 100% behind the teacher's union agenda. A professional teachers organization like AAE, being non-union, is a threat and a contradiction to that facade, so they have no choice but to do their best to discredit them!

This leads into the Plunderpal's second assertion:

What’s also surprising is that their statement in support of SB 5 omits any indication of how many, if any, members they have are from Ohio, which is remarkable since they’re being quoted in a news story as attitudes about the referendum on SB 5 in Ohio.

In other words, "you can't prove AAE has any members in Ohio, thus, your assertion that there are Ohio teachers who support SB5 is false, you wingnut!"

Really? There are no teachers in Ohio who support SB5? Not any? That's as ridiculous as saying that it is literally impossible for a teacher to be a Republican. Now, come on Bytor, I know they are silly liberals, but they wouldn't say something THAT stupid! Would they? Hey, wanna bet these teachers support SB5?

Teachers suing union over use of fees

Some public school teachers say the Ohio Education Association is forcing them to help finance the union’s political activity.

In a class-action lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Columbus, 15 teachers claim that so-called fair-share fees taken from their paychecks are unlawfully being used to finance campaigns, lobby elected officials and similar efforts.

The teachers have declined to pay membership dues to the union, but are assessed a fee to help cover expenses incurred by the union in negotiating contracts which cover both members and non-members. In their suit, they contend their fee is also contributing to the union’s political work.

See, in Ohio, you CAN refuse to pay union dues, but if you do, you are still required to pay the union. They call them "fair share fees". Its a nice racket the unions have going on there, thanks to their pets in the Ohio Democratic Party.

You see, for decades, it's been a nice, corrupt little scheme for both parties involved. The Democrats make laws that are heavily tilted in the unions favor. Laws that require that every public school teacher must pay the union. In return, the unions take that free money forcibly stolen from their members, and give almost all of it back to the Democrats, after skimming some off the top to pay for their nice fat union boss salaries.

This highlights another reason the unions oppose SB5. It changes the law so that these fair share fees are no longer mandatory.

Mix was referring to the union’s efforts to support of a ballot measure to repeal Senate Bill 5 which would make fair-share payments voluntary for teachers and other public employees who refuse to pay union dues.

So, there you have it. I think its safe to say that these teachers, and many more like them, will be voting "yes" on Issue 2 this fall. Of course, they will be the minority of teachers, but I never claimed otherwise.

My point was, that there are many many teachers who do not like being forced to pay the unions and their far-left benefactors, and that they should have the choice to join the union. Or, perhaps, a voluntary organization like the AAE. Until that happens, the Democrats and unions will continue to lie to and distract the public from their crooked alliance. Democrats will continue to do whatever it takes to keep the coerced union cash flowing into their campaign accounts. And the unions will stop at nothing to keep every single public school teacher in Ohio as their legally mandated financier.

Bytor on Twitter