Posted on 05/21/2002 8:12:54 PM PDT by doug from upland
Contact: Marsha Richards, Communications Director
(360) 956-3482 or mrichards@effwa.org
WEA orders teachers and their representatives to be quiet, or else . . .
After an annual arbitration hearing last week, the Washington Education Association (WEA) drafted a retroactive “gag order” for staff of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation (EFF) and several other individuals. The order, signed by attorneys from the WEA and an American Arbitration Association arbitrator, attempts to prohibit teachers and their representatives from ever talking about what took place at the union’s hearing.
“The WEA cannot intimidate us or the teachers we represent into being quiet,” said Bob Williams, president of EFF. “We will not comply with such an unlawful and capricious order.”
In an editorial last November, WEA president Charles Hasse stated that teachers have “full and open access to the minutest detail of our budget.” The union’s annual arbitration hearing is designed for teachers who want to challenge the union’s statements about how much money officials spend on politics and other non-union activities. But teachers and their representatives who have attended the arbitration say the process is not teacher-friendly.
The hearing takes place on a school day, during class time, and teachers who want to attend must pay for their own substitute and take time away from their students. In addition, the WEA’s books are difficult to understand, even for the professional accountants and lawyers who have represented teachers in the past.
Jim Dugan, a Kirkland CPA, was asked by a Tacoma teacher to attend the arbitration hearing on her behalf.
"Nonunion teachers wishing to challenge the union's calculation of agency fees are facing an uphill battle," said Dugan. "The whole process is stacked in the union's favor, making the teacher the decided underdog."
Teachers who can arrange to take time off work to attend the hearing are not permitted to see any union documentation beforehand. When they arrive at the hearing, they are presented with a large stack of documents and they are given about one hour to do three things: read the documents (this year about twelve inches thick), listen to the union’s oral presentation, and prepare a defense if they have any objections to the union’s calculations.
“I have serious doubts about the union’s calculations when it comes to political activity, but there was no way I could have mounted an effective challenge to the union’s claims,” said Sue Hoffman, a computer instructor at the West Seattle High School.
The arbitrator is chosen from a pool previously approved by union officials, and he is paid by the union--$1,100 per day this year--from teachers’ mandatory dues and fees.
Teachers have found the WEA’s arbitration process impossible to negotiate in the past, so this year more than two dozen teachers granted powers-of-attorney to EFF and other experts familiar with accounting and union activity so they could have experienced representation.
Representatives included Ken Eikenberry (former state attorney general), two certified public accountants, Bob Williams (EFF president and former CPA), Jami Lund (EFF project manager), and Jeanne Brown (attorney).
A few hours into the hearing, union attorneys informed everyone present, including a former journalist, that they would have to leave immediately or sign an agreement stating they and the teachers they represented would never discuss any information “concerning, or in any way related to” the arbitration hearing.
“Never is a long time, so we chose to leave,” said Bob Williams, EFF’s president. “We understand the need for reasonable terms of confidentiality, but we will not allow ourselves to be gagged in all matters for all time.”
The union later drafted an order that would apply the gag retroactively to all portions of the hearing.
After going through the process, Sue Hoffman says the union’s arbitration is a sham.
“It’s an insult to teachers,” Hoffman said. “WEA officials like to tell the press and my colleagues that they are open to us, but that’s not true.”
TEACHER CONTACTS:
Sue Hoffman, West Seattle High School - (253) 735-9981
Bruce Gallagher, Monroe Middle School - (360) 794-3020 x6244
Lowell Johnson, Rogers High School - (253) 582-0532
Randall Owyang, North Thurston School District - (253) 756-5435
James Palmer, Burlington-Edison School District - (360) 755-2294
Gwen Caggiano, Tacoma School District - (253) 305-6283
I sent it to everyone that I could think of at Fox News.
It is an eye popping look at the roots of our education system and the fascist machinations being put INTO ACTION as you read this post.
Workforce 2000 - a plan to funnel kids into work CHOSEN by the education elites
the introduction of work cards without which NO ONE (even citizens) can get work. And it gets crazier...
Psychological testing inserted into school "assessment tests"
where the info goes
how it is used
Professional agitators (Change Agents) who come in to "facilitate" community meetings and manipulate the outcome.
READ THIS BOOK! Also notice a certain ex-"First Couple" who are involved. And others more unwittingly. Anyone who has kids in school needs to get this information.
Communities need to take a stand against the WEA (and the NEA) and support their teachers. Union thugs need to be exposed.
Also see:
Sounds like an infringement of Freedom of Speech, here.
This guy has the right attitude for dealing with these monsters, I might add.
"The arbitrator is chosen from a pool previously approved by union officials, and he is paid by the union--$1,100 per day this year--from teachers’ mandatory dues and fees.:
~snip~
"Teachers have found the WEA’s arbitration process impossible to negotiate in the past..."
Do ya think?!!?
Slick-as-snot, eh?
C'mon, admit it; is this not among the best, most clear-cut examples of our Liberal-Socialists in their *finest* hour & all their glory, or what??
...thanks for the ping, EdR; I'd have totally missed it, otherwise.
You don't know the media here in The People's Soviet of Washington. The only place this will get aired at all is on talk-radio station KVI, 570 AM.
(Several weeks ago I went to a pro-Israel rally in Seattle... not a word in the press. it was like it never happened.)
The WEA is organized crime. Bob Williams and the EFF have caught them out before, though the powers-that-be have only given the WEA minor painless slaps on the wrist for their misdeeds.
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