Teacher "Paycheck Protection" Does Nothing Of The Sort
The legislative scam to actively harm teachers and lie to the public.
It is no surprise that, in an era of nationalism, fascism, and unprecedented restrictions being placed on public educators that teacher unions are also at the top of right-wing legislator minds. We already know how their media has amplified their own made up news an entire cycle. This example about the National Education Association recommending Gender Queer for summer reading is the perfect rendering of both the manufactured fear and outrage which leads to development of bills which are actively harming teachers and destroying their few protections simultaneously. But what has not seen much press outside of education circles is the influx of “paycheck protection” bills passing in several US states.
Four states passed these “paycheck protection” laws in the last legislative session: Arkansas, Florida*, Kentucky, and Tennessee. A Missouri Congressman has drafted legislation as of July 31 at the federal level as well. Although it likely does not need to be spelled out when you see the states listed here, the so-called “paycheck protection” bills are not what they purport to be.
“Paycheck protection” bills are a direct attack on teacher unions. These bills claim that taxpayers should not need to pay for the software used to cut checks to teachers that also allows teachers to divert part of those paychecks toward union dues. Yes, you read that correctly. The bill drafters claim that it is illegal for software used to pay people to have a way for people to choose where they send their money, if they choose to enroll in a union. This puts extra work on the educators, of course, who now need to find another way to pay their dues. The hope is by disallowing automatic withdrawal, the work to set up another account to pay the union dues will encourage educators to either forget to do it and forfeit their membership or it will be so difficult that teachers choose to just not do it.
Of course, that’s not how legislators are selling said bills.^
“This bill is about removing any potential fear or intimidation in the workplace,” said Senator Joshua Bryant (R), author of the Arkansas Paycheck Protection bill, per Forbes (and several press releases that landed in my inbox on the topic). “The technology is there to be able to pay our dues direct. Why do we have to go through and fill out a form, check a box and annually let people know what we’re doing? Why can’t we just take this like we do everything else and take it to our home?”
Why is it so offensive that some educators get to check a box to send some of their own money where they wish to from their own paychecks? Every year when I filed taxes in Wisconsin as a resident there, I had a host of options pop up asking me where I’d like to send an annual donation, including Lambeau Field. Last I checked, that was an NFL stadium with no benefit to me whatsoever, but I did not have to click the box, so I didn’t.
The language in these bills is incredibly deceiving. The bills claim these “protect” educator pay and increase their checks. No educator is so dumb to think this, though; those who are in unions know their dues are taken from their checks, just as much as those who are not in unions know that they don’t have money deducted. There are no pay raises, and there is no legislation in any of these states, nor at the federal level, aimed at solving the educational crisis pervading the country.
“This legislation recognizes the importance of teachers’ work by raising their pay and protecting their paychecks,” said Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R) when the bill passed in Tennessee.
These bills are emerging through the Freedom Foundation, who has celebrated and championed them from their first stage in Arkansas to where we are now, with a national proposal on the table. The Freedom Foundation is an anti-union, conservative, “free market” think tank–they’re the libertarians who love to tell you they believe in the rights of everyone who looks, thinks, and has access to the capital that they do. The organization tracks how many people choose to opt out of unions and celebrate it as a win over and over again on their website.
Is it though?
Teachers do not have to join their local unions, but union membership is ultimately a benefit to educators.
There are some organizations where unions are not an option; they’re mandatory. But anyone entering into those workplaces knows this going in. It’s not a surprise when they are at a union shop–at least it shouldn’t be. If personal liberty is the foundational ideal of groups like the Freedom Foundation and the legislators whose pockets they are in, then shouldn’t expecting a person seeking employment to ask about union affiliation be pretty standard?
Unions work, and this is precisely why anti-union sentiment continues to grow and bills like these “paycheck protection” acts will also continue to emerge among red states. Who they impact will be specific and targeted. If your union agrees with the governor, you’re going to be okay.
**
A popular talking point among people in my generation–I’m an elder millennial who relates far more to my Gen X counterparts than the folks born later in my own generation–is that our parents could be single income and own a home, car, and take annual vacations for a week or two every year. One of the reasons? Unions. Unions ensured employees were fairly compensated, had safe work conditions, and earned the benefits which required top brass to see them as humans with needs and not simply further cogs in the machine. Unions were especially vital for working class folks who could expect bonuses and annual raises that didn’t just keep up with inflation but afforded them small life luxuries. The Simpsons illustrates this perfectly. Homer works at the nuclear plant and is in the union (“Dental plan…Lisa needs braces…Dental plan…Lisa needs braces”). Marge is a stay-at-home mom to three kids, and they have not one, but two cars. They live in and own a nice house, and even when the times are tight financially, they do not need to resort to finding videos that teach them how to buy a week of groceries for a family of 5 at the Dollar General for $35. That’s a real TikTok video I watched this week.
My generation didn’t get the opportunity to be in unions because by the time we came of age, the market had crashed and unions had been systematically eliminated thanks to policies that began in the Regan era.
Unions give voice to the workers, and that’s why they’re disliked immensely by right-wing politicians and libertarians.
Matthew Desmond outlines the power of unions beautifully in his recent Poverty, By America, which argues that only in America have we created our own poverty problem and perpetuated it by continuing to drive the power away from the working people and into the hands of a few powerful companies and politicians. He doesn’t put the responsibility solely on right-wingers but heaps it on to so-called good lefties, too. The example he uses is potent. During the early months of COVID-19, there was bipartisan support–frankly unheard of–to ensure that people would not lose their homes due to the way work life had changed so much with the rise of the virus. The bill, however, did not remain after the pandemic “ended.” The reasons for this: 1. right-wing nuts were eager to kill support of any public aid and 2. left-wing folks didn’t actually speak up about their support so the politicians whose votes could have kept this financial support going didn’t think it was popular. Perhaps, again, the left was too busy trying to court the those in the middle middle rather than continuing to advocate for progressive policy (is it really progressive policy if it means people get to have shelter during a worldwide crisis?).
This likely also explains the panic surrounding the potential strike by UPS workers averted last month. A strike of that magnitude would impact every aspect of our lives, from getting the latest new releases at your indie bookstore to your Amazon orders showing up in 2 days at your door to businesses whose entirely industry is shipping goods to other businesses who use those goods. I heard so many express dismay over the demands of the union, angry that they were asking for raises in an era when everyone else wants raises too.
All of the panic led to a deal at the negotiation table, and that….was the entire point. That is the entire purpose of unions: to incite fear in the industry about what could happen if the people at the bottom decide they’re not being given the support they deserve for doing the harm work that those on the top would never themselves do.^^
Several other major unions are currently on strike across the country and for the most part, unless you’re on union TikTok or read those stories specifically in the media, you likely have not even noticed it or thought about the impact on your day to day life, save for SAG-AFTRA. You might not get your new show on Hulu or Disney+ since the writers and talent are striking, but you do (fortunately!) know they want to bilk you for more every month in your subscription plan.
**
Mass teacher strikes, especially in the midst of our contemporary climate, would hit every person in the same way a UPS strike would. And they have, again and again, in the past. Unions, of course, are not only about striking, but that’s the image which immediately comes to mind, and it’s what these right-wing politicians and think tanks like the Freedom Foundation want to plant firmly in your mind.
If your job isn’t paying you enough, you should be mad that educators have access to a system that advocates on their behalf. It is unfair to see they might get better healthcare access or a stronger retirement benefit package when you have been working for 30 years at a job that has ground you down and given you nothing for it. “Paycheck protection” sounds outstanding: you do want the teachers to get more money, but only if it isn’t going to cost you more in taxes, so this is perfect.
Our system works through exploitation. There’s no better exploitation right now than that coordinated by the right-wing politicians to keep every individual grasping for solutions to their own problem on their own so that when they see a system-level possibility for another field, they become angry and outraged that someone whose work they deem less important than their own has found a way.
A way that they pay for, but a way none the less.
The best way to advocate for educators is to understand what is happening to their profession from the top, the bottom, every side and diagonal. We need to stop worrying about what the middle thinks and instead, we need to pay closer attention to the fringe right and respond swiftly to what they’re doing. Responding swiftly won’t be enough, frankly. Educators need advocates for them, demanding better pay, better treatment, fairer hours, stronger retirement benefits, and everything else imaginable. Educators are punching bags in the media and politics, punching bags at the school board meetings and among right-wing crisis actors in their own communities. Educators are also the lynchpins of society. Without them, not only would the entire system collapse, as we could not file into capitalism so neatly with our two income households, our two+ car homes, and so forth, but the next generations would miss out on learning how to be people, learning how to think, and learning how to navigate the systems which already see them as social burdens.
And perhaps that is the fear in and of itself: children will see that better conditions are possible and that those conditions come through fighting, advocating, and refusing to eat what’s being spoon fed.
Notes:
*Florida’s is especially cumbersome.
^ Are we surprised, though, that these “paycheck protection” acts don’t extend to other public employees like police or firefighters? It’s the teachers–primarily women–who need to paternal treatment by the state.
^ UPS workers deserve a salary and benefit plan worth a reported $170,000 a year. Recall this is the entire plan, including retirement and insurance, so the actual salary rings in about $70-80,000. Frankly, this still isn’t enough–you need to make $129,000 a year to feel secure at this point.