I'm not sure exactly who teacher's unions represent. Certainly not the kids they routinely throw under the bus. And in this case not even their own teachers who astutely recognise they harm everyone concerned. God bless these brave soles who remember why they got into the teaching profession in the first place and tell their corrupt union bosses to get f-cked.
By the way, teachers unions do a tremendous job stifling competition and keeping charter schools from being created. That's why in inner cities most charters have 5-6 applicants for every space. Because their better.
A Teachers Union Showdown in Florida
United Teachers of Dade falls short of its required members in Miami-Dade to be recertified. An election with competition looms.
By The Editorial Board, WSJ
Dec. 28, 2023 6:33 pm ET
Public unions once in power rarely have to prove their value to workers in order to keep power. A new law in Florida set out to change that, and it’s getting results.
Signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May, the law requires public unions to prove that at least 60% of workers in a bargaining unit are dues-paying members, or face potential decertification. Unions also can no longer automatically deduct dues from paychecks. United Teachers of Dade (UTD)—the largest teachers union in the state and one of the largest in the country, representing school employees in Miami-Dade County—recently announced it fell short.
UTD reported 13,257 dues-paying members out of 23,558 eligible employees in a filing with the state Public Employees Relations Commission this month. That’s about 56%, some 877 members short of the threshold. This is despite heavy union campaigning to sign teachers up.
Now the issue could head to the ballot. For a recertification election, UTD needs a show of interest from 30% of relevant employees in the district. The good news is employees may not be left with a choice between the status quo and no representation.
Another union, led by Miami teachers who are dissatisfied with UTD, is trying to get on the ballot too. The Miami-Dade Education Coalition (MDEC) needs a 10% showing of interest by mid-January to qualify. The new union’s pitch is that it will fight for teachers’ and students’ interests without the politicking and divided alliances of the UTD.
“We are going to be totally and completely nonpartisan,” says MDEC Vice President Renee Zayas, a district high school teacher and former UTD member. “We will not be endorsing candidates.” In 2022 UTD endorsements included Democrat Charlie Crist against Mr. DeSantis, and union president Karla Hernandez-Mats ran for Lieutenant Governor.
Ms. Zayas says she left UTD this summer because she was tired of its partisanship and felt that it wasn’t doing enough for teachers’ wages and practical classroom needs. “More and more I saw the lack of representation of our educational staff,” she says. Meanwhile, Ms. Hernandez-Mats made a base salary of more than $200,000 in 2021.
MDEC also won’t be affiliated with outside organizations, Ms. Zayas says. UTD teachers pay roughly $1,000 in dues each year, much of which goes toward national union outfits like the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers.
UTD has provided the only representation for Miami teachers for some 40 years. The new union law created an opening to take it on, and it’s no surprise the UTD is fighting the start-up effort. MDEC is “only interested in public workers losing their union, contract, and benefits so that politicians can destroy public education,” the union railed in an email to members.
But why would district teachers initiate an effort against their own interests? Teachers unions show consistently that they’re not putting students’ interests first, and it turns out they often don’t look out for teachers either. Florida’s new union law allows for healthy choice and competition.
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