Teachers’ Unions 101: “A” is for “agitation”
My column today expounds on my blog post yesterday on the New York State teachers’ union call to “agitate.” Both the New York state and New York city teachers’ unions wields immense power with massive budgets funded with forced member dues. You may have read the exclusive story in the NYPost on the NYC’s United Federation of Teacher’s double-dipping racket. UFT, you may also recall, is the same Big Labor crony of President Obama’s that has received the largest Obamacare waiver to date.
Agitation = special dispensation.
On the legislative front, Ohio is considering SB 5, the bill to curtail public employee union collective bargaining today — and Big Labor agitation is at full-tilt.
Stay tuned for updates…
Update: Ohio Senate committee passes SB 5.
***
Teachers’ Unions 101: “A” is for “agitation”
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2011
If public school teachers spent more time teaching in classrooms and less time community-organizing in political war rooms, maybe taxpayers wouldn’t feel as ripped off as they do. Before the Big Labor bosses start complaining about “teacher-bashing,” let’s be clear: An increasing number of rank-and-file teachers feel exactly the same way.
Retired New York teacher Vinne Cusimano, who was required to pay forced union dues in order to work, wrote me this week after receiving the March 2011 edition of his union’s monthly publication. The cover of the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) magazine reads: “Defend What Matters! Educate. Collaborate. AGITATE.” Inside the pamphlet, NYSUT President Richard Iannuzzi rails against “malicious politicians” in Wisconsin and elsewhere proposing “extreme anti-union” budget cuts. He urges his members to join “advocacy” efforts to “maintain critical resources” and lectures about the need to “value education over ideology and greed.”
Cusimano, who taught for four decades in the Empire State, fired back at Ianuzzi in an open letter:
“As a member for over 40 years, I have never been so disappointed at the stand you are taking to call members to ‘AGITATE!’ We are trying to tamp down the rhetoric and you are outward(ly) inciting agitation. How dare you! You are supposed to be for the students/teachers. … How can you support ‘EDUCATE,’ ‘COLLABORATE,’ and then encourage agitation?”
More to the point, what business does Iannuzzi — a fat-cat union official who rakes in nearly $300,000 a year (plus a $100,000 pension) while his organization’s net assets are more than $117 million in the red — have lecturing anyone else about “ideology and greed”? Instead of imposing fiscal discipline on NYSUT, Iannuzzi and his cronies have gone on a spending spree — dumping nearly $10.5 million into left-wing Democratic politics this past year alone. The NYSUT boasts a lobbying staff of 500, a 200,000-square-foot palace in Albany and a $213 million operating budget — paid for through compulsory union dues of about $300 a year from some 600,000 members.
“Agitation,” of course, is a full-time job for teachers union officials in New York and across the country. As the New York Post reported exclusively this week, the city Department of Education compensates some 1,500 teachers for their union activities and also subsidizes other teachers who take their places in the classroom: “It’s a sweetheart deal that costs taxpayers an extra $9 million a year to pay fill-ins for instructors who are sprung — at full pay — to carry out responsibilities for the United Federation of Teachers.”
The UFT soldiers “collect top pay and fringe benefits, but work just one class period a day.” Nice non-work if you can get it.
NYSUT, by the way, is the parent of the double-dipping UFT, which itself rakes in $126 million in member dues — but only reimburses the city less than $1 million out of the $9 million it costs to take teachers out of the classroom to serve at the altar of Big Labor. UFT is also a chapter of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which spent nearly $2 million on the election of President Barack Obama in 2008. (In return, you may recall, the Obama administration granted the UFT one of its coveted health care Waivers for Favors last year — exempting the behemoth union in a sweetheart deal from the federal mandate’s costly rules on phasing out annual health coverage limits.)
The forced-dues racket is big business for teachers unions crying poor. In Ohio, the state’s education association siphoned nearly $23 million from rank-and-file school workers to fatten up its union staff. The Ohio Education Association donated more than $1.6 million to Democratic campaigns last year and tossed off five-figure checks each to union and progressive allies in Oregon, Colorado and Policy Matters Ohio, a left-wing think tank funded by radical billionaire George Soros.
At the federal level, the National Education Association squandered $13 million in teachers’ dues on every pet liberal cause and crony from the AFL-CIO ($150,000) and AFSCME ($90,000), to the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate ($200,000), Media Matters for America ($100,000) and the White House brigade at Health Care for America Now! ($450,000).
The goals of the teachers union machine are not academic excellence, professional development and fairness. As former NEA official John Lloyd explained it: “You cannot possibly understand NEA without understanding Saul Alinsky. If you want to understand NEA, go to the library and get ‘Rules for Radicals.’”
The goals are student indoctrination, social upheaval and perpetual agitation in pursuit of bigger government and spending without restraint. No wonder the signature “solidarity” color of the teachers union protests this month is red.
See what others have said
Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
 |
Video: Unhinged, bat-wielding Big Labor thug of the day repeatedly whacks Nikki Haley pinata
May 22, 2012 03:01 PM by Michelle Malkin
70 Comments
High school fined $15,000 for… selling soda pop during lunch
May 19, 2012 01:29 PM by Doug Powers
101 Comments
1997 Fordham Law Review article: Elizabeth Warren was Harvard’s ‘first woman of color’
May 15, 2012 11:38 PM by Doug Powers
83 Comments
Eye on Indiana and Wisconsin; Update: Lugar defeated; Barrett to face Walker
May 8, 2012 06:04 PM by Michelle Malkin
129 CommentsEverything you need to know about Occupy in one photo
May 1, 2012 10:37 AM by Michelle Malkin
158 CommentsAnarchy 101: How Wisconsin’s Left embraces chaos (promo video)
April 30, 2012 11:34 AM by Michelle Malkin
36 CommentsThe latest green energy experiment to receive taxpayer dollars is…
April 25, 2012 03:28 PM by Doug Powers
36 Comments
Conservative consumers: Stand your ground
April 25, 2012 04:22 AM by Michelle Malkin
183 CommentsObama asks for an amen from students racking up loan debt
April 24, 2012 04:51 PM by Doug Powers
74 Comments
Babalu Blog
» U.S. Manned Space Flight in The 21st CenturyVillainous Company
» Must Read Post of the Day. Possibly, the YearRedstate
» Kimberlin’s Associates Caught on Tape?
Please look at video from BrietbartTV showing confrontation between one tea-party person and the union in Denver. Hopefully link works. I’m new at this.
http://www.breitbart.tv/lone-tea-party-protester-stands-up-to-throng/
So does this, unfortunately. But there’s no mention of the unions.
A is for apology.
I did not mean to hi-jack this thread.
I stand by my first post.
He has pulled off the most audacious fraud of all time and used Alinsky to achieve it.
It stands as the crown jewel of the art.
I still contend that a liberal is a person, who at the most critical junction of their maturity, refused to admit that maybe his/her parents may have been right about something.
It is if you are talking about Obama.
He’s gone around the world apologizing for America.
Here’s what else A stands for to Obama and FOB (Friends of Obama):
A is for Agitation
A is for Alinsky
A is for Ayers
A is for Anarchy… Ayers said:
A is for Amnesty
A is for Audacity
A is for Annenberg
A is for ACORN
A is for Apparatchik
A is for Affirmative Action
A is for Abortion
A is for Allahu Akbar
A is for Anti-American
A is for Arrogant
A is for Avarice
A is for Axis of Evil
A is for Ayatollah
and yes…
A is for A.K.A. Barry Soetoro
Listen up, ITRP … this is MM’s blog – not yours. All you ever do here is endlessly promote your own blog. Perhaps you ought to PAY Michelle to advertise like others do – or others she feels worthy of linking to. Your endless self-promotion is tiresome.
And just who the hell are you to question MM on her own blog, anyway? You dare to question her support and defense of the Constitution? HOW DARE YOU!
Michelle graciously provides a link feature for anyone to use. If you’re not interested in someone’s links don’t click them. Pretty simple.
ITRP and others here feel strongly that Michelle should pursue the eligibility issue, which is their right. He is not challenging MM’s patriotism – the questions are rhetorical. Michelle gave her opinion on the subject 2 years ago and has not commented since.
Red Pill has contributed substantive comments here for years and I appreciate his imput, and allow for his position on eligibility – agree or not. I suggest you consider doing the same.
Thanks for your input, I knew most of this, but maybe many didn’t. Also thanks for your diplomacy.
BTW Bruce – everytime you click a link then return it registers another site visit for MM, which improves her advertising revinue. The more visits, the more valuable the site is to advertisers. Just sayin’
To our HI friends, great news Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI) has just announced he won’t seek 2012 re-election.
I don’t think MM should pursue it if she doesn’t want to. I understand the risks.
I do wish someone would.
Thank You Jesus!
Somebody on here remarked the other day that he’s in his 80′s, at least we won’t have to carry him out like Byrd.
I dont think the Obama nativity story is 100% factual, either. I just want to read about the topic, OK?
Specifically, here in Douglas County, Colorado, the school board is poised to vote on a non-restricted voucher program. One designed to withstand (hopefully) court challenges. Unions dont like it because it moves revenues to private schools.
I have offered my services to Obambi as Ambassador to the country of Europe. So far no response.
Agreed. She has enough ordinance incoming from loony land. As always hoping and praying you guys are right.
Who the h*ll is Barry Soetoro?
Off Drudge. http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2011/03/02/obama-says-race-a-key-component-in-tea-party-protests
Typical Alinksy. The Marxist in him will never give it up.
Swede:How is Rags doing?I’m sorry he isn’t here any more.
btw the link to Cleveland.com has a picture. One of the signs says “Litracy takes a dive with SB5 Vote No!”
LOL teachers crack me up
Here’s the link MM posted directed to the pic.
http://photos.cleveland.com/plain-dealer/2011/03/union_protesters_expected_at_s.html
Do you speak European?
We boo the teacher’ union when they parade during labor day weekend. it’s a hoot!
Swede ~
Did you reject the Ambassadorship to the country of Asia? Surely you speak Asian or ASEAN!
Something I just don’t understand is how, in this day and age, Obama’s birth certificate and college records haven’t been “leaked” yet.
I mean, the Pentagon can’t even keep its secrets.
To my Okie friend, thanks for spreading the good news like a modern-day St. Paul.
That’s the spookiest thing about this, no one can independently confirm anything about this man. He has successfully sealed, lost or destroyed all documents. The only possible loose end was found dead in his car in Washington D.C.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/apr/19/key-witness-in-passport-fraud-case-fatally-shot/
What the linked article doesn’t tell you is that the dead man worked for John Brennan’s company at the time. He was cooperating with Federal investigators regarding tampering with State Dept. passport records.
Brennan is now National Security Advisor.
Super busy with the practice. Haven’t heard from him in a while. Still posting at HindenBlog, but not as much.
Oui oui, Jawohl, si, ya sure youbetcha.
It’s a big country in the Far East, but that’s not important now. And don’t call me Shirley.
swede,
Thank you for your comment at 8:40 pm.
guest suggested that when Tea Party activists said they wanted to “take back” their country, their real motivation was to stir up anger and anxiety at having a black president, and Obama didn’t dispute the idea. He agreed that there was a “subterranean agenda” in the anti-Obama movement—a racially biased one—that was unfortunate. But he sadly conceded that there was little he could do about it.
Dick Morris is out peddling his new book ‘REVOLT’. Haven’t read, only heard him on Hannity radio the other evening on way home.
He speaks of how °O° always goes back the personal issues (race, class) when he is loosing the argument. Classic Marxism.
Morris was also on Levin tonight and Mark was charged up about the book.
Remember how we were repeatedly told all of last year that the true violent radicals were Tea Party members? This was an outright lie of course, but some apolitical folks clearly bought into it.
Now the truth is getting wide exposure and slowly the intelligent leaders on the Left are starting to realize what a terrible PR image they have.
Michelle, if you could get on Dennis Miller’s show anytime soon to talk about Wisconsin et al, I know he would be thrilled!
Another Miller fan !!!!
Sandy Berger (Burglar) has got all Obama’s records stuffed in his underpants…
Obviously it’s the safest document repository in existence.
A few more… to Obama and his FOB:
A is for Arugula
A is for Arizona (Attack Arizona SB 1070, Assume Sarah Palin is responsible for the attack on Gabrielle Giffords)
A is for Alienate our Allies
A is for Associate with terrorists
A is for Assist foreign and domestic Communists
A is for Abrogate the Constitution
Yes, the immediate focus of this post is those four categories. But, I think it’s obvious that Michelle is leading us to look at the bigger picture:
It’s fairly obviously that Michelle sees this “agitation” in light of the bigger picture: a network of Alinsky radicals.
Alinsky was a Lucifer-praising Communist revolutionary.
The reference to red is a reference to the Communist Party. Michelle doesn’t have a category for communism, probably because she doesn’t want to be labelled a “McCarthyite” (even though Senator Joe McCarthy was proven right, not proven wrong), but this is as close as Michelle is going to come to calling these union bosses and Friends of Obama what they are: Communist Revolutionaries.
A “community organizer” is really a “communist agitator”.
And while many on the right laugh when Hillary Clinton speaks of a “vast right-wing conspiracy”, we need to understand that that is classic Democrat[ic Socialist] PROJECTION. There is not a “vast right-wing conspiracy”, but there IS a “vast left-wing conspiracy”.
Alinsky radicals are conspiring together and hold positions of power in every domain of power and influence: Government, Education, Finance, Industry, Law, Military, and Religion. Every one of those areas, people who have been raised in Marxist indoctrination camps have risen to positions of great power and influence.
They see US as the enemy, and are unified to defeat us.
One of my former conservative friends just shared a petition on twitter in support of the Wisconsin 14.
I swear he is more liberal than I am now.
My Father In Law was as liberal as they come until Health Care reform directly affected him and his wife. (And exactly like his son said it would) In talking with him about how disgusting the behavior of these union members in Wisconsin is this last week, I swear he talks more Conservative than me now.
Funny how that works..
I didn’t even know who the Wisconsin 14 were, actually.
It’s funny how that makes them sound notorious.
I went to college with someone whose dad was one of the Chicago Seven.
Like they say, a liberal is really just a conservative who hasn’t been mugged yet.
***
HI CHRISTIAN LADY–#101. You’ve got the linky thang down good. Good video–strong conservative standing up to a small liberal / union crowd on a beautiful Denver day. Signs of economic improvement with the cranes in the background.
***
The bike police did a good job keeping him safe. And the crowd looked more like ordinary people than the professional thug Madison, Wisconsin crowd did.
***
However, the same obscene signs tarring the Teaparty as Kochs*****s, and the tired Fox Lies meme. Class warfare against those who are successful and provide jobs for many are standard with these socialists / marxists.
***
I don’t think that this small tail will wag the dog in the Nov. 2012 election in Colorado. Comrade Obama’s damage to the economy will continue to lower everybody’s living standards. Wait until the energy crisis and high costs hit home–along with the medical costs and Medicare / Medicaid problems getting worse.
***
Some Alinsky style demonstrations won’t “hide the decline” when the 2011 Federal Tax bills come home.
***
John Bibb
***
***
I hope Michelle Malkin’s health is O.K. I saw her brief appearance on Hannity’s show last night–she seemed very pale.
***
Or it could be that the excellent Fox makeup crew overplayed their hand. Or that the cold Colorado winter is keeping the Patrona indoors more than usual.
***
John Bibb
***
I’ve been mugged! But I had my pepper spray, so that took care of that.
That doesn’t count, Stacey. Having avoided the pain, you didn’t get the educational benefit of the mugging.
An overwhelming sense of helplessness, fear for your life and perhaps a black eye or a broken nose, plus the nightmares later on, would have considerably enriched your learning experience and increased your understanding of the minds of mugger sympathizers.
ITTRP: I erred a bit by insinuating that Alinsky wasn’t a part of Michelle’s column (obviously now that she has another Alinsky-related post). I understand that the unions’ modus operandi is part of a bigger inherent problem, but this thread was returning to the same old birth certificate issue. I was trying to help get the discussion back on track to what Michelle’s post was about. Michelle recently wrote her displeasure when it appeared that commenters weren’t paying attention to what she was writing, which was one reason why she opened up the comment registration. I don’t want to see people kicked off these comment pages, especially long-time comment writers like yourself, because they were going too far off the topic and violating our hostess’s Terms of Use. In fact, I’m hoping we can move-on-dot-please now.
Aww, and here I was hoping for a fist bump.
I mean a high five. You guys don’t like fist bumps, right?
Cornered animals are the most vicious and dangerous. The union mob is cornered by reality, and flailing for its life.
In light of the current union circus, it’s worth repeating some relevant history where principle, character and guts matters. Thirty years ago – The PATCO story. Via Politico:
Busted / The End – And we lived happily ever after. It’s time again for reality, guts and tenacity. The public unions no longer have a rational or realistic basis for their existance… and all this present indignant hyperbole is “…a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” – Hamlet
Don’t maintain the pressure – crank it up.
Fist bumps are good, especially during a mugging when my fist bumps the perp’s chin.
I received three emails this morning linking to michellemalkin.com. The TRUTH is spreading like wildfire and it cannot be denied. We have proof, and we’re not afraid to use it!
I, for one, no longer hesitate in the slightest to bring up and talk about what’s happening in our country when I’m out in public. It’s amazing how many people agree with you, even here in NJ. I’ve been known to whip out my iphone and help them educate themselves on the spot.
We CAN and MUST keep beating these commies at their own game! We have them surrounded, and they are foolishly exposing themselves. All we have to do is pass it on.
hahahaha!
All I have to say is …
YES!!!
I hope to see some pretty mug shots soon. They would serve well on campaign posters during the recall elections.
CO2 Producer,
I consider it on-topic that an Alinsky radical has made it all the way to the White House.
This is a national security issue.
A Communist revolutionary is now acting as Commander-in-Chief of our entire military, and just got a treaty ratified that the Russians believe prohibits our missle shield defenses.
Alinksy radicals want to replace the United States Constitution with the Constitution of the Communist Party USA, and I think it is the duty of every patriot to support and defend the Constitution and our current laws.
Current immigration law requires every new employee to fill out an I-9 and supply documentation from an approved list. There are no exceptions. Obama is not exempt from this law. And if you filter that list of acceptable documentation down to only those documents that could be used to determine whethere or not a person is a “natural born citizen”, you’re left with the fact that Obama is legally required to suppy his birth certificate. And Congress is Constitutionally required to make the determination of whether or not the President and Vice President qualify to hold those offices under the Constitution.
Our best defense against this Alinsky Agitator-in-Chief is to support and defend the Constitution and our current laws.
I think that is very on-topic.
I think I am within Michelle’s Terms of Use.
If Michelle Malkin disagrees with me, and asks me to change my commenting habits, I will willingly comply with her instructions.
But I don’t try to tell other commenters what they can and can’t say,
and I expect the same respect in return.
The U.S. Supreme Court has an opportunity to grant certiorari on that question tomorrow, March 4, 2011.
Will they?
I don’t know. But I think it is worth following the example of our Founders of fasting and praying for the next 24 hours.
Well good for you. Most of us come here to read what MM has to say – not Pill. If you do, be so kind as to subscribe to his blog. He has been taken to task before by many others tired of seeing the comments taken up by self-serving ramblings with good reason. Comments are supposed to be brief “comments” on what MM has to say – not treatise’s. And I hardly view his questioning of MM to be “rhetorical.” To be it was accusatory drivel.
Let’s face it; Obama won’t be satisfied until Washington D.C. looks like Detroit.
Yikes. Okay, Red, you win. I’m not going to argue with you. Go nuts.
Not necessarily, Bruce. If they’re on topic, I don’t see why they have to be brief. Once you start getting into 10,000+-word dissertations, however, that might be pushing it just a hair’s width.
I’m being presumptuous of Michelle’s standards, mind you. And I’m off topic. Sorry, Ms. M.
I must admit that I got a chuckle out of the one female union supporter whose point to the Tea Party guy was that some billionaire was trying to tell the governor of Wisconsin how to run his state. She was right in principle, unfortunately, she wasn’t referring to
George Soros.
OFF TOPIC: JUST HEARD A FEW HOURS AGO THAT US MINT HAS DISCONTINUED PRODUCTION OF ONE OUNCE SILVER EAGLE BULLION COINS DUE TO OVERWHELMING DEMAND AND LACK OF SILVER.
Another self ordained thread cop. Whatever. You realize your posts are off topic and directed only at trashing other guests, right? Please don’t respond. OT and really not interested.
Motown Washingtoon? RE Detroit schools John Conyers wife Monica is doing time for bribery when serving on the Detroit School Board. She’d fit in ObaMao’s DOE very well, no?
ITookTheRedPill said:
A is also for Azzwipe
ITRP,
Forget the red ones, take the little yellow ones. You’ll feel so much better.
You really need a hobby dude. Maybe take a class at Northwestern or something?
Just sayin’
My beautiful wife and I didn’t need any class at Northwestern.
That’s awesome.
So, speaking of agitation and lack of civility…is this blog going to address this video from Orange County?
Or do we only criticize hatefulness when it’s from the left?
I like to criticize it no matter who’s doling it out, personally.
An internet friend of mine who lives in Madison just told me they think it’s going to cost taxpayers $7.5 million to clean up the mess left behind by the champions of the environment in WI.
On March 4th, 2011 at 12:02 am, OK_Loyalist said:
That remininds me of how the Obama inauguration left over 100 tons of trash on the ground, but the Restoring Honor Rally on 8/28/2010 left the national mall practically spotless.
Leftists are pigs.
9/12/09, same thing, all trash collected and properly disposed.
I don’t support anyone paying federal income or corporate taxes. I support the Fair Tax.
And the irony completely escaped the person holding that sign.
The sun rose today
Water is wet
Michael Moore is fat