{"id":1982,"date":"2008-02-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-06T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T04:00:00","slug":"union-bosses-richer-after-campaign-reform-the-impact-of-initiative-134-in-washington-state-1","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.nrtw.org\/es\/union-bosses-richer-after-campaign-reform-the-impact-of-initiative-134-in-washington-state-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Union Bosses Richer After Campaign \u00abReform\u00bb: The Impact of Initiative 134 in Washington State"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEATTLE, Wash.<\/strong> \u2014 In 1992, the people of Washington state passed a law called Initiative 134 with a 73 percent majority vote. It was intended \u2014 but failed \u2014 to prevent union bosses from spending government workers\u2019 money for politics without prior written authorization.<\/p>\n

Yet initial reports of the initiative\u2019s impact triggered similar efforts in other states. Now, it is clear that since Washington passed its \u00abpaycheck protection\u00bb law, Big Labor\u2019s political coffers in that state are fatter than ever.<\/p>\n

Even after the implementation and enforcement of the initiative by the state attorney general, the Washington Education Association (WEA) continues to collect and spend more forced-dues money for political purposes than it did before I-134 passed.<\/p>\n

\u00abThousands of freedom-loving citizens across the state thought they were voting to secure individuals\u2019 right to prevent their money from being used for objectionable politics,\u00bb said Stefan Gleason, Director of Legal Information for the National Right to Work Foundation. \u00abImagine their anger when they learned union political power brokers were richer after their efforts.\u00bb<\/p>\n

### \u00abLife after I-134\u00bb committee easily sidesteps law<\/p>\n

Before Initiative 134 passed, WEA bosses siphoned a total of $576,000 per year into their political committee, Political Unity of Leaders in State Education (PULSE).<\/p>\n

But in February 1993, WEA operatives contrived the \u00abLife After [Initiative] 134\u00bb organization, the stated purpose of which was to find a way to frustrate the will of the people and continue to divert hundreds of thousands of dollars to their pet political causes.<\/p>\n

As long as the union bosses could keep their compulsory powers intact \u2014 which I-134 allowed them to do \u2014 they knew they could skirt around any legislative attempt to regulate the use of compulsory union dues for politics.<\/p>\n

### Union bosses juggled the books<\/p>\n

Accordingly, in April of 1994, WEA commissars easily sidestepped I-134 by disbanding PULSE and creating in its place two new organs: WEA-Political Action Committee (WEA-PAC) and the disingenuously named Community Outreach Program (COP). Under the new scheme, payments to WEA-PAC were subject to the law\u2019s requirement to obtain employees\u2019 authorization before deduction.<\/p>\n

But because COP was not structured as a \u00abpolitical committee,\u00bb WEA paymasters could continue to seize COP payments from all union members\u2019 paychecks. (Those employees who exercised their Foundation-won right to resign from union membership and pay a reduced fee were not charged any COP dues or for most other non-bargaining activities.)<\/p>\n

After I-134 took hold, WEA-PAC was still able to collect $144,000 annually.<\/p>\n

But because COP payments slip through one of the law\u2019s inherent loopholes, as of April 1993, WEA kingpins began collecting $924,000 annually in political contributions \u2014 60 percent more political booty than before I-134 passed.<\/p>\n

\u00abWEA bosses juggled the books and easily thwarted the will of the people,\u00bb said Gleason. \u00abClearly, as long as union officials have the power to seize union dues involuntarily, legislative schemes attempting to regulate the coercion will invariably fail.\u00bb<\/p>\n

Last February, Washington State Attorney General Christine Gregoire announced a \u00absettlement\u00bb of a lawsuit brought against WEA and National Education Association (NEA) teacher union bosses under the new so-called \u00abpaycheck protection\u00bb statute. While the terms of the settlement might look harsh on the surface, \u00abdoing the math\u00bb tells a different story: Teacher union officials must merely return less than $450,000 of the additional cash taken over three years. In the future, nothing prevents union officials from jacking up regular membership dues or COP dues to any level they desire.<\/p>\n

Teacher Cindy Omlin, one of the thousands of courageous educators in Washington state who are standing up to teacher union compulsion, expressed it best herself in her recent editorial in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer<\/i>. \u00abIt seems clear,\u00bb she said, \u00abthat no carefully crafted initiative. . . can overcome the natural evolution of a forced union law into union corruption and worker abandonment.\u00bb<\/p>\n

As Washington public employee Jennie Stephenson wrote in her recent letter to House Majority Leader Dick Armey, \u00abInitiative 134 has been a dismal failure in preventing unions from using members\u2019 money for political purposes….\u2018Paycheck Protection\u2019 simply… provides a false sense of security and protection.\u00bb<\/p>\n

### Right to Work legal action marches on<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in federal court, [thousands of teachers statewide continue their suit](https:\/\/www.nrtw.org\/b\/nr_43.htm), Leer v. WEA<\/i>, against the massive teacher union. This suit, unlike the failed \u00abpaycheck protection\u00bb scheme, challenges on constitutional grounds the very basis of forced-fee collections. At stake are hundreds of thousands of illegally seized forced-dues dollars used for all types of politics and other non-bargaining activities.<\/p>\n

As [Foundation attorneys](mailto:legal@nrtw.org) are now examining all the union\u2019s books and records, a teacher victory in this case could suddenly expose the full expanse of union political expenditures and drain union bosses\u2019 political warchests of hundreds of thousands of forced-dues dollars. Moreover, a strong judicial decision would leave lasting legal precedent safeguarding the rights of teachers in the future.<\/p>\n

\u00abRight to Work Foundation litigation has a real chance of having the impact on teacher union politics that Initiative 134 could only hope to have,\u00bb said Gleason. \u00abDollar for dollar, Foundation attorneys are doing more every day for teacher freedom than these regulatory strategies could ever hope to do.\u00bb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SEATTLE, Wash. \u2014 In 1992, the people of Washington state passed a law called Initiative 134 with a 73 percent majority vote. It was intended \u2014 but failed \u2014 to prevent union bosses from spending government workers\u2019 money for politics without prior written authorization. Yet initial reports of the initiative\u2019s impact triggered similar efforts in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1982","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nUnion Bosses Richer After Campaign "Reform": The Impact of Initiative 134 in Washington State - National Right to Work Foundation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nrtw.org\/es\/union-bosses-richer-after-campaign-reform-the-impact-of-initiative-134-in-washington-state-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Union Bosses Richer After Campaign "Reform": The Impact of Initiative 134 in Washington State - National Right to Work Foundation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SEATTLE, Wash. \u2014 In 1992, the people of Washington state passed a law called Initiative 134 with a 73 percent majority vote. It was intended \u2014 but failed \u2014 to prevent union bosses from spending government workers\u2019 money for politics without prior written authorization. Yet initial reports of the initiative\u2019s impact triggered similar efforts in […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nrtw.org\/es\/union-bosses-richer-after-campaign-reform-the-impact-of-initiative-134-in-washington-state-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"National Right to Work Foundation\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Tiempo de lectura\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutos\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nrtw.org\\\/es\\\/union-bosses-richer-after-campaign-reform-the-impact-of-initiative-134-in-washington-state-1\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nrtw.org\\\/es\\\/union-bosses-richer-after-campaign-reform-the-impact-of-initiative-134-in-washington-state-1\\\/\",\"name\":\"Union Bosses Richer After Campaign \\\"Reform\\\": The Impact of Initiative 134 in Washington State - National Right to Work Foundation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nrtw.org\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"-0001-11-30T00:00:00+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"es\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nrtw.org\\\/es\\\/union-bosses-richer-after-campaign-reform-the-impact-of-initiative-134-in-washington-state-1\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nrtw.org\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nrtw.org\\\/\",\"name\":\"National Right to Work Foundation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nrtw.org\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"es\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Union Bosses Richer After Campaign \"Reform\": The Impact of Initiative 134 in Washington State - National Right to Work Foundation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.nrtw.org\/es\/union-bosses-richer-after-campaign-reform-the-impact-of-initiative-134-in-washington-state-1\/","og_locale":"es_ES","og_type":"article","og_title":"Union Bosses Richer After Campaign \"Reform\": The Impact of Initiative 134 in Washington State - National Right to Work Foundation","og_description":"SEATTLE, Wash. \u2014 In 1992, the people of Washington state passed a law called Initiative 134 with a 73 percent majority vote. It was intended \u2014 but failed \u2014 to prevent union bosses from spending government workers\u2019 money for politics without prior written authorization. Yet initial reports of the initiative\u2019s impact triggered similar efforts in […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.nrtw.org\/es\/union-bosses-richer-after-campaign-reform-the-impact-of-initiative-134-in-washington-state-1\/","og_site_name":"National Right to Work Foundation","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Tiempo de lectura":"4 minutos"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.nrtw.org\/es\/union-bosses-richer-after-campaign-reform-the-impact-of-initiative-134-in-washington-state-1\/","url":"https:\/\/www.nrtw.org\/es\/union-bosses-richer-after-campaign-reform-the-impact-of-initiative-134-in-washington-state-1\/","name":"Union Bosses Richer After Campaign \"Reform\": The Impact of Initiative 134 in Washington State - National Right to Work Foundation","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.nrtw.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00+00:00","inLanguage":"es","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.nrtw.org\/es\/union-bosses-richer-after-campaign-reform-the-impact-of-initiative-134-in-washington-state-1\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.nrtw.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.nrtw.org\/","name":"National Right to Work Foundation","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.nrtw.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"es"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nrtw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nrtw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nrtw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nrtw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nrtw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nrtw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nrtw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}