Teachers Union Bullies Members to Support “Anti-Bullying” Bob Gordon

The hypocrisy of the teachers union leadership knows no bounds, Save Jerseyans.

As you may or may not know, the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) operates out of a couple dozen regional offices. From here, they attempt to “organize” member-volunteers for pro-union candidates and causes. It’s usually easy to do since they raise roughly $130,000,000 per year from taxpayer-subsidized union dues. Imagine how stable the pension system would be if this money went towards membership retirement instead of anti-Republican political advertisements and HUGE salaries for union bosses?

But times are tough, and teachers are starting to openly question whether their leadership is working for them OR the Democrat Party. So for all their “anti-bullying” talk, the teachers union is trying to pressure its membership into backing anti-pension reform legislative candidates in 2011.

Check out this solicitation email obtained by Save Jersey:

From: ###### #######
Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2011 10:53 AM
To: USREA
Subject: Literature Drop for Our Friends

Literature Drop for Our Friends

Dear USREA

At the presidents’ meeting on Tuesday, a request for volunteers was made. They are needed to do literature drops for the endorsed candidates below. We need at least five volunteers from each local association. Please review the information and contact the Region 25 office as noted.

Senator Bob Gordon
Assemblywoman Connie Wagner
&
Joan Voss for Freeholder

Saturday November 5 at 9:30 AM at:

Region 25 UniServ Office

777 Terrace Avenue, First Floor – Suite 108

Hasbrouck Heights, NJ

Your future depends on it!

If you can volunteer for three hours, please let me know and then call the Region 25 office ###-###-#### and give us your name and a contact number.

####### ######  ####### #######  #########

Region 23 UniServ Field Representatives

#######  ########

Region 25 UniServ Field Representatives

Does “their” future really depend on electing incumbent Democrats?

Or does the union leadership’s power depend it?

What makes this email extra-ironic, Save Jerseyans, is that Senator Bob Gordon (D-38), one of the state senate’s most vulnerable incumbents this cycle and the focus of the email posted above, had previously sponsored a 2006 bill to “protect” employees from religious and political opinions in the workplace. You can read the S-1123 bill statement here. It provides, in part, that,

This bill, as amended, protects employees from employer intimidation by prohibiting any employer, with certain exceptions, from requiring its employees to attend an employer-sponsored meeting or participate in any communications with the employer or its agents or representatives, the purpose of which is to communicate the employer’s opinion about religious or political matters. “Political matters” are defined as political party affiliation and decisions to join or not join or participate in any lawful political, social, or community organization or activity.”

These people are a little too comfortable playing the part of hypocrites. It’s chilling! Teacher union intimidation is nothing new; we saw plenty of it in Wisconsin last winter. The hostility displayed by so-called “educators” to any dissenting political opinions is shocking and sad.

So in the end, I suppose the NJEA and Bob Gordon share something in common besides antipathy towards taxpayers: extremely FLEXIBLE “principles” when their jobs are threatened!

 

Matt Rooney
About Matt Rooney 8405 Articles
MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.

6 Comments

  1. How is it "bullying," Matt, for teachers to protect their pensions? They're taxpayers too you know. A rich little asshole like yourself wouldn't understand what it is like to work for a living.

    Chris Christie is trying to destroy New Jersey's middle class and I applaud anyone who is willing to stand up to him.

  2. Yes, because New Jersey's middle class was healthy, strong and growing under Jon Corzine and a decades-old Democrat legislative majority.

    New comment board rule: THINK before you write!

  3. Matt, people do have a right to protect what they earned, in this case their pensions. And I believe that teacher health care benefits needed to be adjusted. But your perspective on the middle class' decline in NJ being due primarily to Corzine and Democratic policies (I can only assume that because that's all you said), is insular and limited at best. It's as if you don't want to acknowledge that the gaming of the system by corporations and banks had nothing to do with the decline in middle class wealth in NJ and everywhere else. You're smarter than that.

  4. No, corporations and banks are not the problem.

    You act as if they are biological, thinking, breathing things capable of thought and emotion. A common liberal misconception! They exist for one purpose: a legal shelter for making profit and limiting liability; profit which, by the way, is enjoyed by their predominately UNION pension stockholders. And these corporations will look for legal ways to preserve their profit.

    The problem? Politicians who EXPAND government to the point where individuals/entities have an ability to lobby and steer large amounts of public funds in their direction.

    Bottom line: Big government is the gateway for corruption. That's the irony of young Obama supporters chanting "death to corporations." They voted for the world's #1 crony capitalist! Has GE paid taxes lately? Solyndra anyone? And there are 4x lobbyists on K Street since January '09. No coincidence…

    But you're smart enough to get that… right?

Comments are closed.