The National Education Association (NEA) is one of the largest national
labor unions in the nation, and is THE single largest "white collar" labor
organization in the world.

I'm not a teacher, but my wife, Laura, teaches.  When we were married, she
was teaching in a "union shop", so to speak, and there was heavy pressure
from colleagues and (non-elected) management to be a member of the NEA.  The
monthly dues were outrageous for a couple of newlyweds, the organization was
overtly politicized (labor relations to a back seat to their political
machinations) and their political stance was about 180 degrees out of sync
with my wife's.  The only plus that we could see was that the "union" would
help cover teachers' malpractice insurance premiums and offered cursory
legal advice when there were "problem" kids or parents.  Fortunately, we
never made use of the insurance.

Laura left teaching for a year and came back to the field in a system that
did not require union membership.  Saved us about $85/month at the time.

Kyle

-----Original Message-----
From: Magenta Raine [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2003 5:37 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: civil war, was re. earthquake


I still think the farmworkers need a union. They are still living in
terrible
conditions.
But I just read an article about how unions are dragging our 1-12 schools
down, it was very sad.

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I am available to do writing, editing, reporting, designing jobs, including
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