Thursday, October 13, 2011

OEA President: "Members can not afford higher dues"

The Ohio Education Association (OEA) has nearly 130,000 members, and takes “fair share” dues from thousands more education employees across the state. OEA is the biggest in-state donor to We Are Ohio, so documented proof of OEA hypocrisy is… inconvenient.


OEA President Patricia Frost-Brooks, through an OEA employee's eyes
Is that why the official blog of the Professional Staff Union (PSU), which represents more than 100 OEA employees, disappeared a few weeks after I began posting quotes? Of course not, according to We Are Ohio apologists!

Still, in that boring, irrelevant blog, an 8/29/2010 email from OEA President Patricia Frost-Brooks included this startling revelation:
I’m also taking into account those locals who have had wage freezes, no step increases, and pay higher cost for health care, or who took no increases in pay to keep healthcare.
Last summer, the OEA President was eager to explain why OEA salaries couldn’t increase forever with no relation to reality. A fair argument, with union staff pay averaging more than $95,000.
I’m also taking into account the local presidents who have told me to please keep the cost down of PSU because there [sic] members can not afford higher dues for their(PSU)contract
Cause and effect, both together in one sentence!? When it comes to once-public funds that have been siphoned into OEA’s hands, OEA is quick to explain nothing is free.

More money for OEA employees has to come from somewhere, and President Frost-Brooks doesn’t want members to have a reason to step out of line. Taxpayers, on the other hand, are none of OEA’s concern, so basic economics go out the window when defending the unsustainable benefits union bosses promise to members.

In an email from the previous year’s OEA – PSU contract fight, President Frost-Brooks showed how much tact $196,294 could get you in 2009:
Communications by PSU lack credibility because they are misleading and sometimes inaccurate.
Nothing says “solidarity professional” like calling your employees liars! I doubt this is the sort of representation many Ohio teachers have in mind when they fork over hundreds of dollars to OEA each year.

Unlike communications from OEA employees, the words of OEA bosses carry unquestionable authority. Undermining my point that government union leaders tend to be selfish hacks, Frost-Brooks took a paltry $190,000 from Ohio educators in fiscal 2010.

Ohio teachers and taxpayers should unite to limit the power of selfish, cynical union bosses: Vote Yes on Issue 2!

Follow me on Twitter: @jasonahart
Cross-posted at that hero.

10 comments:

  1. Thanks, Jason. You are lazy.

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  2. Stupid Troll is stupid.

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  3. In other news, we apparently found the one union Jason Hart likes. Why else would he spend months writing about a ten-day strike?

    Seriously, Jason, I don't think anyone is buying this line of argument.

    You attack them for having high staff salaries, and then you attack them for not having them... higher?!? Even you have a hard time finding a consistent argument in your own post.

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  4. Wow, Modern - somehow you forgot (again!) that this series is about the strike and years of hypocritical quotes from OEA bosses & staff.

    OEA is completely untrustworthy, as their own words prove. Government union "solidarity" is a farce, but that's of no concern to you because union bosses dump millions into the Progressive nonsense you adore. Keep up the good work, I guess...

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  5. Teachers in Ohio do not make $95,000.00 a year. Check your facts. I'm sure that you do not make $250,000.00 a year, so why would you side with the party that is against you. Republicans are NOT supportive of minorities, working America, women or the elderly. I would not want Policemen, Firemen or Teachers to be dependent on people that do not have their best interests in mind when it comes to their salary. I would NEVER want to do their job. Stop irresponsibly pitting the middle class against each other, and work towards bettering each others lives.
    Previous generations have fought for the rights that this and the upcoming generation take for granted. Perhaps the rights won by Unions should be cast by the wayside, and employers and big business can pay a pittance with no benefits.
    I AM NOT A POLICEMAN, FIREMAN OR A TEACHER, I AM WHITE, EDUCATED, AND MIDDLE CLASS, BUT I DO APPRECIATE WHAT THESE PEOPLE DO, AND THEIR RIGHT TO GOOD WAGES.

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  6. Teachers in Ohio do not make $95,000.00 a year. Check your facts. I'm sure that you do not make $250,000.00 a year, so why would you side with the party that is against you. Republicans are NOT supportive of minorities, working America, women or the elderly. I would not want Policemen, Firemen or Teachers to be dependent on people that do not have their best interests in mind when it comes to their salary. I would NEVER want to do their job. Stop irresponsibly pitting the middle class against each other, and work towards bettering each others lives.
    Previous generations have fought for the rights that this and the upcoming generation take for granted. Perhaps the rights won by Unions should be cast by the wayside, and employers and big business can pay a pittance with no benefits.
    I AM NOT A POLICEMAN, FIREMAN OR A TEACHER, I AM WHITE, EDUCATED, AND MIDDLE CLASS, BUT I DO APPRECIATE WHAT THESE PEOPLE DO, AND THEIR RIGHT TO GOOD WAGES.

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  7. M. Janda - "my" facts are much better than your reading comprehension. Teachers' union staff make an average of more than $95,000 a year, taken from the pay of the teachers you're so concerned about.

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  8. M. Janda - don't bother. Jason is lazy. He can't write about anything else.

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  9. OK, M Janda, let's define "good wages" shall we?

    A recent pro issue 2 ad noted that government employees get 42% more pay than the average taxpayer. Basically every penny that goes to the folks you admire comes from me and people like me.

    I don't mind paying "good wages" but this is a gouge. I'm being screwed and it is long past time for that to stop.

    Other states have right to work laws which weaken the stranglehold of the unions. Are their teachers, policemen and firefighters some how not as good as the ones on which my tax dollars are lavished?

    The public nipple suckers should pay what I pay. they should not retire before others, they should contribute the same amount to their pensions as private sector employees and they should pay the same for their benefits as the private sector folks who support them.

    The people you admire so much are JUST. PLAIN. GREEDY.

    skip

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