The Unions’ Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week

By Larry Sand
02/14/2017
Which meant it was a very good week for the rest of us.  Last week, labor unions took a series of body blows. First, it was announced Monday that Missouri had become the 28th right-to-work state. The Show-Me State showed the unions that worker freedom now takes precedence over their forced dues racket. Not only that, but...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Betsy DeVos, California Teachers Association, Center for Individual Rights, Eric Heins, F. Vincent Vernuccio, Friedrichs, Larry Sand, Lily Eskelsen Garcia, Mike Petrilli, National Education Association, release time, Right to Work, school choice, seniority, teachers union, tenure

Bain Explained

By Larry Sand
04/14/2015
Bain v. CTA is the latest lawsuit to challenge teacher union hegemony. For the third time in three years, a lawsuit has been filed in California that challenges the way the teachers unions do business. In May 2012, eight California public school children filed Vergara et al v. the State of California et al in...

TAGS: agency fee payer, American Federation of Teachers, Bain v. CTA, California Federation of Teachers, California Teachers Association, Center for Individual Rights, collective bargaining, EdSource, John Fensterwald, Larry Sand, Michelle Rhee, National Education Association, Randi Weingarten, Students Matter, StudentsFirst, teachers union, Vergara

Fifty States of Right-to-Work?

By Larry Sand
02/17/2015
Elected officials, the courts and John Q. Public are supporting worker freedom these days; teachers unions and other public employee unions are on the run. Last Monday, Illinois governor Bruce Rauner issued an executive order that, if it stands, will absolve state workers from paying forced dues to a union. As The Wall Street Journal...

TAGS: Bruce Rauner, California Teachers Association, Center for Individual Rights, Chicago Teachers Union, Harris v. Quinn, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois Policy Institute, Karen Lewis, Larry Sand, Mike Antonucci, National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Paul Kersey, Right to Work, Service Employees International Union, teachers union

Union-dues case moves closer to Supreme Court

By Private: Gloria Romero
11/25/2014
Sometimes you win by losing. That’s precisely what occurred last week, when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the motion by Rebecca Friedrichs’ attorneys to decide her case (Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association) on the basis of the pleadings, without a trial or additional oral arguments. The “loss” actually means that plaintiffs –...

TAGS: Center for Individual Rights, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, Friedrichs vs. the CTA, Gloria Romero, Harris v. Quinn

Interview With Rebecca Friedrichs – Fighting for Teacher Freedom

By Editor
11/14/2014
In April 2013, the Center for Individual Rights (CIR), as noted on their website, “filed suit in the United States District Court for the Central District of California on behalf of 10 California teachers and the Christian Educators Association International, challenging the constitutionality of California’s “agency shop” law, which violates the First Amendment by forcing...

TAGS: California Teachers Association, Center for Individual Rights, Christian Educators Association International, Rebecca Friedrichs

Will the Supreme Court Do an “Abood Face?”

By Larry Sand
07/08/2014
The decision in Harris v Quinn could be just the first shoe to drop in the fight against forced union dues. Last month was not kind to Big Labor. First, the teachers unions in California had some of their favorite work rules knocked out of the state constitution by Judge Rolf Treu in his Vergara...

TAGS: Abood, agency fee, American Federation of Teachers, big labor, California Teachers Association, Center for Individual Rights, collective bargaining, Dennis Van Roekel, fair share, Harris v. Quinn, Larry Sand, National Education Association, Randi Weingarten, Rebecca Friedrichs, Samuel Alito, Service Employees International Union, Supreme Court, teachers unions, Vergara

California Lawsuit Challenges Mandatory Agency Fees

By Larry Sand
07/12/2013
If the California Teachers Association and its parent, the National Education Association, represent Goliath, then ten teachers and a small union alternative called the Christian Educators Association International are fitting stand-ins for David. They’re taking on the CTA with a lawsuit aimed squarely at California’s “agency-shop” law, which they claim violates public school teachers’ First Amendment rights...

TAGS: agency fee, California Teachers Association, California Teachers Empowerment Network, Center for Individual Rights, CTA, Knox v. SEIU, National Education Association, NEA

Opportunity Re-Knox

By Larry Sand
05/07/2013
A recently filed lawsuit in California picks up where Knox v. SEIU left off. In a case brought to the Supreme Court by the National Right to Work Foundation last June, the justices ruled 7-2 that the Service Employees International Union could not force its members to pay the part of union dues that goes...

TAGS: agency fee, California Teachers Association, California Teachers Empowerment Network, Center for Individual Rights, Christian Educators Association International, Knox v. SEIU, Larry Sand, National Education Association, National Right to Work Foundation, Samuel Alito, Service Employees International Union, Steve Greenhut