American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten on Tuesday crowed about the state of her union in the wake of the Supreme Court deciding accepting fees from public sector union nonmembers was unconstitutional.
“What we are seeing is an amazing sense from our members that they are sticking with the union. Something has shifted in the last few weeks and months. I, frankly in the 25 years of union advocacy that I have done, I have never seen what I’m seeing right now,” Weingarten told a Democratic Policy and Communications Committee meeting on Tuesday. “There’s a lot of hope in a very terrifying and dark period of time.”
Weingarten added that the AFT was enjoying its “largest numbers ever” because it was educating, engaging, and empowering its members, while exposing problems with the profession. She said the strategy was implemented long before the Supreme Court’s ruling in preparation for its ramifications.
“So the same day that Janus was decided 2,400 faculty at Oregon State University joined the AFT,” she said. “You hear the defiance in my voice.”
In June, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees that mandatory fees violate the First Amendment rights of nonunion government workers. The court found that employees who previously had the fees automatically deducted from their paychecks should be able to tell whatever local, state or federal body they work for to cancel them.
Weingarten’s appearance before the Democratic panel was part of a discussion about the influence of “dark money” in politics and advocacy.
Former 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., will also address similar topics at AFT’s biennial national convention in Pittsburgh, Pa., from July 13 to July 15.
