Former Local Prez: Union May Lose 40% of Members – Including Him – if Teacher Right to Work Passes

Michigan Capitol Confidential ^ | Sept. 14, 2011 | Tom Gantert

[george76]

Michigan Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, is pushing for a Right-to-Work law that would allow unionized school teachers to leave their union.

As a teacher in the Grand Ledge Public Schools and a former teachers union president, John Ellsworth says the various education reforms coming from Michigan’s Republican-led government are “despicable.” He thinks the much-talked about “right-to-teach” legislation for public school employees, which would make joining a teachers union voluntary, is part of “a continued attack” blaming teachers for school woes.

Yet, even Ellsworth says he would drop his Michigan Education Association membership if right-to-work for teachers became a reality...

Depending upon what districts would be willing to offer to teachers who declined union representation, Ellsworth estimated that somewhere between 10 percent and 40 percent of teachers would bolt from the MEA.

The reason? He says some don’t think they are getting real value from the $90 per month in union dues he says they pay.

...

Ellsworth ...noted news reports of MEA officials getting hefty raises during a period when he says many teachers are facing cut backs.

“Why not take the money and run?” Ellsworth said. “… There are a lot of people upset they are sending their money to East Lansing (MEA headquarters) and not getting a whole lot for it.”

[ken5050]

FYI..this has already happened, and not surprisingly, hasn;t receive any attention.

A while back Indiana Gov Mitch Daniels instituted, vua executive order ( as he was able to do) many of the reforms just passed in Wisconsin, and proposed in other states. A few years after, in some cases, union membership has dropped by 90%....

[muawiyah]

Assuming you have, in the aggregate, a fairly close balance between Republican and Democrat voters, an 11% loss in the total vote suggests that as many as 22% of the Democrats do not qualify to vote, or that 22% of Democrats claimed to have voted don't really exist.

This may well explain a fairly visible phenomenon ~ that is that African-Americans frequently vote in numbers as high as 90% of their number, but more often 80%, in districts with maybe 30% white Democrat voters, and yet news on voting day shows only AA voters.

That would account for that 22% ~ that the white Democrats don't really exist ~ and that those who do simply don't go out to vote.

I know there are some who will persist in the argument that vote fraud is endemic in AA precincts, and that may be so, but what kind of voters are being "created"? You'd think we'd be picking up AA's left and right, but if the fraud is in the creation of phony white voters, we'd always miss them.

[KarlInOhio]

I expect the union to use some enhanced retention procedures on those trying to leave. (I wish I was joking.)

[MrB]

I think the vote fraud in AA precincts it simply someone voting for someone else that can’t be bothered to show up on election day.
Indeed, had they put forth the effort to vote, they would have voted Dem anyway, but showing up is part of the voting process.

[muawiyah]

We still need to nail down those white voters ~ who are NEVER seen in those districts. Just because there are few of them doesn't mean they aren't "created" in the records.

That'd be what I'd do ~ find a black precinct ~ create phony white voters ~ you'd be looking for lazy black voters and I'd be winning the election!

[hosepipe]

Thats the ticket.. right to work legislation..
NEXT...... The whole State becomes a right to work State..

Being forced to join a Union IS NOT FREEDOM...
Currently several States have little FREEDOM...

[hosepipe]

Voter fraud is tested and perfected in the UNIONS...
THEN implemented Statewide..

[blueunicorn6]

Johnny Friendly is not happy.

[PapaBear3625]

Teachers unions are a big supporter of Dems. Eliminate much of their revenue, and Dems will have a harder time in future elections.

After getting rid of the union, go after education establishment credentialism. There is no reason that a math major is qualified to teach freshmen match courses in college, but not high school seniors just because he doesn't have an "education" degree.

[jurroppi1]

90*12 = 1,080...

[political1]

There was a side note in the Article that said the union put a cap on dues at $788.00 dollars so that was the number I was going by.

[okie01]

Almost $800.00 dollars a year for Union dues. I would leave also. Considering that they are forced to join in the first place.

At ninety dollars a month. That's $1,080 in union dues -- not "almost $800".

All so union fat cats can buy their $500 suits, work out of luxury offices, drive Cadillac Escalades, eat at 5-star restaurants...and shovel millions into the Democrat party coffers.

If the average Michigan teacher is getting $50 worth of representation out of their $1080 in dues, I'd be shocked.

[Darren McCarty]

Because Richardville is pro-union. He represents Monroe, so he has to be.

[Pearls Before Swine]

He says some don’t think they are getting real value from the $90 per month in union dues he says they pay.

He's right. Teachers definitely get their money's worth out of the unions--it's the taxpayers who get screwed.

[jurroppi1]

Well, far be it from me to read the whole article... LOL

Thanks for the correction.

9 months, 90 bucks would be 810, so they don’t even have to pay for the full 9 months they are working.

Wait, is the union subsidized by the state too? (I’m only half joking there - it wouldn’t surprise me at all to find out they were subsidized somehow).

[cripplecreek]

Get me a tissue, I’m fixin to cry.

[cripplecreek]

We killed the 20,000 home child care workers union back February or March. It was another forced unionization that none of them wanted. The home health care workers are next on my list.

[upsdriver]

OMG, people with the free right of association. That could shut down another DNC laundry operation.

Exactly! Why do you think the union thugs and Democrats are getting so violent? Their criminal empire is in jeopardy and they know it.

[wetgundog]

They get a nice magazine to read ... full of DemoRat Bullsh*t. I throw my wife’s copy away before she sees it.

F the MEA.