Larry Sand against the bloated, leftist CTA

VFR reader Larry Sand, a recently retired teacher in California and critic of the NEA-affiliated California Teachers Association, spoke at a tea party rally last month and it’s on YouTube. He points out how the CTA collects $1,000 in dues from each of its members per year, giving it receipts of $200 million per year, and what does it do with that money? It backs the panoply of left-wing political causes.

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November 3

Mike Berman writes:

New York’s UFT follows the same far-left agenda. When I retired, the union was led by a lesbian attorney who had taught for a term so that she could claim to be a teacher. She was installed by her predecessor, a Jewish woman who was married to a black activist.

We never knew if the union was an extension of the Democrat party or the other way around but they were bound at the hip. When I would visit union headquarters around election time, the posters for Democrat candidates were everywhere and we received instructions in mailings and the union newspaper on how to vote.

I am aware of only one instance where membership resisted union dictates. A friend attended a retired teachers’ UFT meeting in North Carolina. The union was backing Hillary Clinton in the presidential primary and exhorting the attendees to support her at this meeting. This being North Carolina, most of the retirees were black. A black retiree interrupted one of the speakers to shout, “You know that most of us are voting for Obama!” A long, deafening silence ensued. Finally, a black union leader addressed the membership to tell them that the membership wasn’t being told whom to vote for but, rather, whom the union leadership would prefer that they vote for.

Educators are required to pay union dues but retirees are not. I am, however, the only retiree I’m aware of who does not. The union is successful in retaining membership by providing a portion of the retiree health benefits. They can keep their “home nursing care.” I don’t need a Jamaican boss in my old age.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 02, 2009 05:11 PM | Send