In case you didn’t see yesterday’s press release regarding the AFT’s attempt to close this website through legal intimidation, we thought we would review one point that was included in the release:
The AFT’s embarassing ties to ACORN, the criminal organization that’s been accused in recent months of a variety of illegal activities in several different states.
According to the AFT’s latest LM-2 report, which it’s required to file with the federal government every year, the union donated $25,000 this year to ACORN’s “event sponsorship” fund, plus another $21,894 to D.C. ACORN’s “organizing assistance” initiative.
This is not to suggest that the AFT had any knowledge of the multiple misadventures that ACORN has been accused of, including voter registration fraud, misuse of tax dollars, and helping a presumed pinp and prostitute secure a home for illegal purposes.
But ACORN was suspected of slimy behavior long before the poop hit the fan, and it’s hard to believe that its sponsoring agencies were really under the impression that it was the urban equivalant of the Boy Scouts of America.
A quick look at the rest of the LM-2 report shows that the union gave freely this year to many radical left-wing organizations, some with reputations nearly as sullied as ACORN’s.
They include American Rights at Work ($1.5 million), Working America ($595,000), Apollo Alliance ($15,000), HCAN ($225,000), Center for American Progress ($10,000), Rainbow Push Coalition ($25,000), the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate ($500,000) and the SEIU general fund ($377,093).
They say we’re judged by the company we keep. SEIU employs many of the same tactics as ACORN, like picketing in front of the homes of company executives. The Center for American Progress, funded by George Soros, is the feeder organization that supplied many of the more controversial figures in the Obama administration.
So why would a national group of teachers, whose primary concern is supposedly the education of our children, be rubbing elbows with so many left-wing political groups? Maybe because it’s devolved into little more than a left-wing poltical group itself, misrepresenting the fundamental beliefs of many of its members, and drifting far away from its original purpose.
We have to believe many rank-and-file AFT members remain ignorant of their organization’s political activities, and the type of people who benefit from union dollars. If they really understood, we believe the AFT membership list would shrink considerably in a short period of time.
I agree, most members have no idea where the AFT spends THEIR money. In addition to the 377K, I believe they gave another 422K to an SEIU effort too (see Colorado wins) and made a contribution to the Ctr. for American Progress.
A pro-union group, the Assoc. for Union Democracy called Andy Stern from the SEIU “democracy’s nightmare.” I think they should add Randi Weingarten and the AFT to that list. This union is lying scum and have no interest in the employees that they claim to represent or the children that they claim to educate.
I hope you don’t mind…I have a few suggestions so that Teachers can find out where their dues money is going. The reports listed are for AFT national only. There should be a report for each local also. The national only lists the per capita tax not all the union dues. Can you put a link up to the DOL search, so that members and others can look them up and see?
And, since the AFT isn’t forthcoming with union worker rights under the law, that might be a good thing to link to or post too.
They like to embezzle too!
http://www.nlpc.org/category/keywords/american-federation-teachers-aft
http://www.nrtw.org/en/blog/washington-teachers-union-bosses-convicted-seven-year-orgy-greed
http://www.nrtw.org/en/press/2008/08/new-milestone
This is how the Assoc. for Union Democracy describes Andy Stern, SEIUs leader. And the AFT send them tons of money. What does that say about the AFT? They obviously support organizations that could care less about democracy.
http://www.uniondemocracy.org/UDR/170-Sterns_illusion_and_democracys_nightmare.htm
Union members interested in union reform see the website below. Some seem to offer good change others (that include the words, radical and social justice, are not so good reform groups.)
http://www.uniondemocracy.org/AUDLinks/RNFLinks.htm#teachers
If you are interested in getting rid of the union at your workplace completely you can decertify, but you have to do that right before the contract is up.
How to decertify a union:
http://www.unionfacts.com/articles/memberDecertification.cfm
Decertification info specific to public employees.
http://www.nrtw.org/d/deauth_decert_laws.htm
[...] Every minute the union is pestering us over our website that apparently is embarrassing to them (ie. 2009 funding to ACORN), it’s one less minute it is strong-arming school boards, stifling parental choice or putting [...]
Children should not be kept in school more than 4 hours per day. Most of their time is spent being indoctrinated by these sorts of miscreants.