Teachers Fight to End Coercive Unionization

Suit seeks to break union monopoly on public sector workers

After spending nearly three decades teaching first graders, Rebecca Friedrichs is suing to opt out of the union she was forced to join in 1988.

Her doubts about teacher unions started in college when she shadowed a teacher at an elementary school.

“The teacher [in the neighboring classroom] was frightening in how she dealt with the children, very aggressive, even physically. I was a naïve college student, so I asked my master teacher about it. She told me about tenure and how it was incredibly difficult to fire anyone,” she said. “The kids were out of luck.”

Friedrichs put the incident behind her and began teaching full-time in Orange County, CA. public schools in 1988, but remained distrustful of the concept of tenure and the forces that fight to keep bad teachers in classrooms. She joined the California Teachers Association as a condition of employment, but paid partial dues known as agency fees, which represent the percentage of dues that pays for employee representation while leaving out the costs of political activities.

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