How about asking Del. Sheila Hixson,D-Montgomery County, to shove it up her fat

oops...sorry.

These teachers have no souls.

You had to see this coming.

How´s about this, BAN all Public Sector Unions!

Things like this are just getting completely out of hand and I fear that we may soon see this whole society hit a wall where people who actually produce and who are interested in actually doing a good job finally get sick and tired of listening to crud like this and being threatened by union slugs and are finally going to fight back...

...but not with heated words.

Why stop there Sheila! How about asking the taxpayers to pay your union dues for you?

I see no problem with negotiating for all teachers, but if they have to represent those who are not union members when there is a problem that is a conflict of interest. Perhaps they should not be required to represent non-members and those non members should purchase liability insurance. That is what teachers here in Oklahoma do when they choose not to join the union. It is very inexpensive insurance.

If this law is passed, sue the unions! Force them to state what portion of their outlays are for working directly for the employees, and what portion is for lobbying. I bet 68% is an overestimate, by far.

I actually agree with the concept. However... the teacher´s union must make its books public, and be audited by a recognised independent auditing firm. The fee paid by any non-union teacher would be the direct cost of the negotiations, not union leadership salaries and benefits, political expenses and the myriad other garbage extracted as dues.

Such actions used to be called extortion.

Why don´t they just rob them in the parking lot. It would be quicker.

#9 writes that the plan seems okay as long as "[t]he fee paid by any non-union teacher would be the direct cost of the negotiations..."

The problem with that ideal is that the negotiations themselves (and "agreements" arrived at) have hidden costs, costs the non-union member may wish to oppose. Union agreements typically extort "benefits" by means of lost management flexibility, lost job opportunity or advancement for new and younger employees, loss of accountability to parents and taxpayers, higher taxes, etc.

Just say NO.

Extortion.

This is the opposite of what the voters in Michigan and Wisconsin just achieved! They finally got out of having the unions´ taking non-member´s money to use for their own greedy means. The people of Maryland have this right and the unions want to take it away. They want to change it so they can legally steal from non-union members.

It´s not extortion, it´s ´protection.´

Not sure if this is a way to get teachers at charter schools to pay into the union (we don´t current;y) but the union does NOT negotiate anything for charter school teachers.

One of the reasons charters work so much better than other public schools is that we do NOT have the union. If a teacher sucks, they´re gone--sometimes the next DAY!

They aren´t perfect, but charters provide choice. Let´s not mess that up by bringing them under union control.

Kind of like the street corner thugs who walk up uninvited to your car at the traffic light and start washing your window, then demand a few dollars while making sure you see the sharp bottle opener in their hand.

A union is the exclusive bargaining representative for all of the member of the bargaining unit, members or not. If the union allowed non members to settle their own grievances with the employer, all sorts of bad precedents would be established. There is also case law, going back to 1945, called the duty of fair representation, coming out of a steelworkers´ case in Alabama, where a black worker didn´t get promoted, and the union declined to represent him.

What Maryland is proposing is called Agency Shop, where non members pay fees for the costs of representation. Pennsylvania has that already, and in the 14 state university system, the agency fee is about 95% of regular dues.

I don´t think the union spends one iota of time representing nonunion members. Nonunion members do not vote in union elections, and don´t give a whit about the union. If nonunion members want representation, they can elect representative among themselves, thank you.

Phat chance!