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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowPart of a new Indiana law requiring teachers to renew requests every year for automatic paycheck deduction of union dues has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge.
U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker said in her ruling Wednesday that the law violated educators’ free speech rights and that it “substantially impairs” existing contracts between school corporations and their teachers unions that allow for dues to be withdrawn from teachers’ paychecks.
Barker added that Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita did not adequately justify the new annual three-step process for the collection of teachers union dues, including a requirement that school districts send an email to all employees who have union dues deductions with a boldface message in 14-point type that they have the right to not join the union and may stop their paycheck deduction at any time.
The preliminary injunction prevents the state from enforcing the law, which took effect Thursday, to terminate any existing dues deduction withholding agreements until after the final pay period of the 2020-21 school year.
It also blocks the state from enforcing the law on any new agreements until the judge issues a final ruling.
Three Indiana teachers unions filed a federal lawsuit in June seeking to block the new requirement. They contend the law unfairly targets teachers and makes it harder for their unions to collect dues.
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Typical Republican conduct; make things more difficult for working men and women, ignore the widening wealth gap, then divert attention from their anti-worker agenda by raising lies and silly arguments about social issues to divide and distract. That party is in a death spiral and the sooner it hits the ground, the better the country will be.
Amen!!!!!!!
Someone needs to send a bold 14-type message to Rokita…
Teacher unions seem to be more about funding Democratic party movements during election seasons than providing actual help for teachers. I was an IPS teacher for 2 years and chose to opt out of paying dues. In my opinion unions make it difficult for our schools to get better because the instant schools try to install some merit/incentive system for good teachers that are performing at a higher than mediocre level, the unions come along and squash it with their collective power.
Article on what teacher unions have done in California: https://californiaglobe.com/section-2/assemblyman-kiley-urges-teachers-to-opt-out-of-paying-union-dues/