Boston Globe writer Michael Reitz answers this question today — [h/t: Townhall.com]

ON AUG. 10, the National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers union, participated in a nationwide back-to-school boycott of Wal-Mart. The ”Send Wal-Mart Back to School” campaign urges parents and teachers to pledge not to shop for school supplies at the bargain retailer.

Why would the NEA, an organization whose stated mission is to ”promote the cause of quality public education and advance the profession of education,” care about where parents buy pencils and backpacks?

The union says Wal-Mart employees are forced to seek government-subsidized health care benefits, which drains billions from public money that could be used to fund public education.

The boycott is little more than a union solidarity move, coming at a time when Big Labor’s numbers are plummeting and the movement is experiencing the shockwaves of the rift within the AFL-CIO.
(…)
Asking parents and teachers to boycott a retailer does nothing to advance the NEA’s stated mission. Rather, it is a convenient means of political payback. Once again, the National Education Association has demonstrated that it is more interested in entrenching organized labor’s power than in promoting the quality of education.

I remember very well the lecture during my first Education class at Tulsa University in the ’73-’74 class year. The professor was discussing the organizing efforts of Big Labor in the nation’s K-12 teachers groups. He was asking us if the NEA was going to continue being a “professional” organization ala the American Medical Association, or did we want to be members of a “blue collar” group via joining a union? The current state of the NEA and the AFT answers his question — to the detriment of students all over the U.S. for the last several decades.

Boycott Wal-Mart? I don’t think so! (db)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 16th, 2005 at 11:50 am and is filed under Fever Swamp Madness, Labor Pains. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  |   Print This Post  |   Email This Post

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