Union leaders’ bully pulpit

Jeff Brown (Letters, March 9) asked for examples of teachers “ostracized, victimized, coerced or discriminated against for failure to belong to the union.”

Here’s a start. Union leaders threatened to sue nonunion teacher Jeff Leer, of Sedro-Wooley, Wash., when he asked his district to comply with the law protecting teachers from making involuntary union political contributions. Spokane union leaders distributed a “disloyalty list” in school mailboxes naming nonunion teachers. The Mead union contract prohibits nonunion teachers from serving on school committees. Union leaders sued two nonunion teachers, Cindy Omlin and me, when we exposed and challenged union spending on nonrepresentational activity.

Union leader threats have bullied districts into prohibiting distribution and posting of our scholarship fliers and brochures in Washington and Idaho schools. They coerced districts to force dismantling of association information tables manned by nonunion teachers in Emmett and Meridian, Idaho. Teacher union leaders have vilified and misrepresented our association in propaganda distributed in numerous districts such as Twin Falls and Caldwell, Idaho.

Union leaders’ bullying does not reflect the hardworking, ethical conduct of most union teachers. But, because these unprincipled actions dishonor our noble profession, they should be exposed and expunged from our public schools.

Barbara Amidon

President, Northwest Professional Educators

Olympia