Last year, I was a candidate for the school board and the GTA union bosses did not choose to support my candidacy. What was galling and disgusting was that the GTA bosses used our own union dues to try to defeat me. Their action was unconscionable and disrespectful to a member's will and choice. Ironically, the primary support for my candidacy came from enlightened and independent GTA members and their classified counterparts who resented the GTA leadership's position and worked hard to insure my election. I do not have a problem with union bosses and executives who endorse and recommend candidates and positions on critical issues of importance to their members.
Intelligent leaders have a responsibility to educate and lead their members.
And the union leaders did not have to support me just because I was their former president or because my wife is a member. But they most certainly should not have the right to ignore our wishes and spend our own union dues to defeat me. Many find it appalling that union bosses are using member dues to defeat Proposition 226. The California Teachers Association is spending vast sums of member dues in opposition while the overwhelming majority of its members support it. This is a prime example of how union bosses are not in tune or in touch with the reality of their members' wishes.