Ain't No Publicity Like Bad Publicity!

I'm unabashedly a union guy, but I've also been pretty honest about the fact that there are things that go on at the state level that drive me bat*hit crazy. This time, though, it's not the WEA that's making us all look bad, but the Vancouver Education Association. From The Columbian:

It's bad enough that public schoolteachers are required to pay union dues as a condition of their employment in Washington state. It's bad enough that educators' mandatory union dues end up funding ideological stances that some dues-payers abhor and that often have nothing to do with education or kids.

But enough is never enough when it comes to unions that are allowed to gather compulsory dues from teachers. And when a Vancouver middle school teacher, Susan Wiggs, went to the lengths of declaring a religious objection with the union -- which at least allows her dues to be diverted to a nonreligious charity -- union leaders still insisted on dictating how her money would be spent.

It's not right. And we hope the Public Employment Relations Commission helps Wiggs when her case is heard next month. Better yet, the union standing in her way should step aside and offer an apology for being so stubborn.

Background from the EFF here, another take here. The general gist is that the VEA didn't want Ms. Wiggs' money to go to this particular charity because of it's association with arch-conservative Linda Smith; if that's the real story, then this is one of the stupidest moves I've seen an association make in quite some time.