The Ohio Education Association (OEA) has nearly 130,000 members, and takes “fair share” dues from thousands more education employees across the state. OEA is the biggest in-state donor to We Are Ohio, so documented proof of OEA hypocrisy is… inconvenient.
OEA President Patricia Frost-Brooks, through an OEA employee’s eyes
Is that why the official blog of the Professional Staff Union (PSU), which represents more than 100 OEA employees, disappeared a few weeks after I began posting quotes? Of course not, according to We Are Ohio apologists!
Still, in that boring, irrelevant blog, an 8/29/2010 email from OEA President Patricia Frost-Brooks included this startling revelation:
I’m also taking into account those locals who have had wage freezes, no step increases, and pay higher cost for health care, or who took no increases in pay to keep healthcare.
Last summer, the OEA President was eager to explain why OEA salaries couldn’t increase forever with no relation to reality. A fair argument, with union staff pay averaging more than $95,000.
I’m also taking into account the local presidents who have told me to please keep the cost down of PSU because there [sic] members can not afford higher dues for their(PSU)contract
Cause and effect, both together in one sentence!? When it comes to once-public funds that have been siphoned into OEA’s hands, OEA is quick to explain nothing is free.
More money for OEA employees has to come from somewhere, and President Frost-Brooks doesn’t want members to have a reason to step out of line. Taxpayers, on the other hand, are none of OEA’s concern, so basic economics go out the window when defending the unsustainable benefits union bosses promise to members.
In an email from the previous year’s OEA – PSU contract fight, President Frost-Brooks showed how much tact $196,294 could get you in 2009:
Communications by PSU lack credibility because they are misleading and sometimes inaccurate.
Nothing says “solidarity professional” like calling your employees liars! I doubt this is the sort of representation many Ohio teachers have in mind when they fork over hundreds of dollars to OEA each year.
Unlike communications from OEA employees, the words of OEA bosses carry unquestionable authority. Undermining my point that government union leaders tend to be selfish hacks, Frost-Brooks took a paltry $190,000 from Ohio educators in fiscal 2010.
Ohio teachers and taxpayers should unite to limit the power of selfish, cynical union bosses: Vote Yes on Issue 2!
Follow me on Twitter: @jasonahart
Cross-posted at that hero.
