Claire Waites – Baldwin Co. 8th Grade Teacher
A letter was sent yesterday morning to AEA President Dot Strickland by the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The letter says the committee is “examining the use of union dues and fees to fund political causes contrary to the will of many union workers.”
The committee sent letters to the United Autoworkers Union, the National Labor Relations Board and the AEA/NEA. But they apparently felt that the AEA case was so egregious that they also sent a letter to the Federal Election Commission asking them to investigate – which they didn’t do with the other unions.
Countless teachers across Alabama are being forced to donate to candidates and political efforts that are not in line with their personal beliefs and convictions. These teachers’ right to free speech is being trampled on by the strong-arm tactics of a union that calculates its every move with the sole purpose of preserving or gaining political power.
Below is a screenshot from the House committee letter to the AEA. You can read the entire letter here (it’s not very long).
Here is Claire Waites (teacher mentioned in the letter above) in an interview from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform YouTube page:
CLAIRE WAITES: Denied the Right to Choose by Teachers Union Leaders
And here is Claire Waites giving her opening statements before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform:
If you ask the majority of new teachers who are fresh out of college, you’ll hear them say that the liability insurance is affordable and that’s their main reason for joining. If you took the time to enlighten them about the AEA’s political involvement they might feel differently about what they are paying towards.
Alabama teachers are not “made” to join the AEA but they are surely “strongarmed”. This story is true. Many Alabama teachers who feel they “have” to join the AEA because of the AEA’s underhanded scare tactics, are conservative Republicans. But, their dues go to fund the Alabama Democrat party of which Paul Hubbert was the Co-Chair for years. Good for this teacher for standing up! She’s my hero!!
Solution: Dump AEA and AFT. Join ACOE. No politics and dues is 189.00 per year. Try it, you’ll like it.
This is stupid. Teachers in AL are not required to join AEA.
Part of joining a union (and, kind of, um, THE POINT) is to promote teachers’ interests, mainly through political activism. Teachers have been doing this for decades in both the US and throughout Europe. The difference is, they coalesce through worker’s unions here in the USA. They have every right to opt out if they disagree with the route of political activism taken by their union leaders. The point of it, as said earlier, is to promote the interests of teachers and to bring attention to the educational issues that they feel are deserving. If Ms. Waites has a problem, she should bring it up with her union leaders before wasting our gov’t time and money on trying to make it look like a scandal.
Speaking of which, the Children’s Fund is not a partisan/’scandalous’ place of donation. It sounds to me like she just wants her cash back and will bring a ‘scandal’ before the ignorant minds of union-hating red states before having to forge an intelligent argument against her union leaders.
… Just saying.
i thought the AEA only cared about getting students the resources necessary to do well in school!
this is simply outrageous that the nice old AEA would ever do such a thing, if only most Alabamians knew about the true AEA
…………………….wait