Chalk up another one for President Bush’s conservative stacking of the U.S. Supreme Court: Last week, union teachers in Washington State lost a case over how they collect dues that are used for political lobbying.
On June 14, the high court ruled that the Washington Education Association didn’t have a right to use the portion of dues that go to lobbying without first getting each teacher’s or school employee’s permission. The case was brought by non-union members who are nonetheless subject to union dues under a blanket contract that covers all of the state’s educational employees, whether they chose to join the WEA or not.
The lobbying portion of the dues is only about $10 or $25 a year per person, according to the WEA, which had offered a form for people to send in and get the money back. But the court’s decision won’t stop the WEA. After Democrats took over the state Legislature, they changed the law that the non-union members were fighting, allowing the WEA to continue collecting the political dues up front.
—Cydney Gillis