Union thugs demand dues for nothing

| June 10, 2010

Major Stephen Godin, a retired Marine JROTC instructor in Massachusetts is being mugged by union thugs (Boston Herald link);

A retired U.S. Marine who runs a high school ROTC program in Worcester says he faces the boot for refusing to pay local union dues, leaving the 58-year-old father of two crying foul and school administrators bewildered.

“It just seems crazy that they’re gonna fire me over $500,” said Maj. Stephen L. Godin, senior naval science instructor at the Naval Junior ROTC Unit of North High School. “Everyone’s talking about finding good teachers – I haven’t missed a day in 14 years.”

Indeed, North High School Principal Matthew Morse praised Godin yesterday as an “excellent” instructor who has turned his program into a top junior ROTC academy.

Godin claims that he receives no benefit from the union, since he gets retired military medical care and does his own mediation with the school system. Of course that won’t the unions from extracting money from an individual’s pocket for nothing. Massachusetts Republicans are trying to protect Godin with legislation while union leadership is making excuses.

Union president Cheryl DelSignore, under withering fire from ranking state pols, claims retired USMC Maj. Stephen Godin sent his requests to an inactive e-mail account, but she’ll address them now that the matter’s been brought to her attention.

In a statement released by the Massachusetts Teachers Association yesterday, DelSignore said, “I am reviewing those e-mails and will reach out to Major Godin (today) to determine how to resolve this dispute swiftly.”

Yeah, I’ll bet it was an inactive email account – the complaint department. It was Major Godin’s fault that he sent the email to an inactive email account. I’m sure he didn’t pull the address out of thin air.

Category: Military issues

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Old Tanker

I was a teacher in a previous life…you’s don’t mess wit da union see, it could get you’s kneecapped real unpleasant-like and den we’ll sends da goons afta ya…

Jerry920

Ha! Semper Fi! Where is The Gunny when you really need him? You filthy union maggots are not fit to eat from my toilet seat! Drop and give me a hundred!

Anonymous

Protection racket… that would be terrible if something unfortunate were to happen to your job if youse didn’t pay-up!

B Woodman

The only way to stop the union cockroaches (and other leftist libtard authortarian socialists — but I repeat myself) is to shine the bright spotlight of righteous publicity on their shadow activities and make them scurry back under their collective rocks.

Topgoz

Huh, go figure… Massachusetts isn’t a right-to-work state. Who knew?

HM2(FMF/SW)Ret.

I wonder if he knew it was a union shop when he went to work there. Secondly, just because he is a blue falcon and undermining his fellow teachers by negotiating direct does not mean that he gets nothing from the union. The union still lobbies on his behalf and would provide him counsel were he to need to it. If he doesn’t like it, he can find employment elsewhere.

In any event, he should stop crying about it.

Nucsnipe

There is a Blue Falcon about, he is #6 in the comments. *%&# the Marine, go union thugs. I take it that FMF/SW stands for Fracking Moron Force/ Severly Whacked.

Ray

Blue Falcon? Well Doc, I guess you would be able to spot one Doc if you go by the “takes one to know one” rule. The only “council” the Union seems to be providing is “Pay Up for nothing”.

NHSparky

Doc, as we’ve seen time and again, unions are becoming less and less about representing and caring for the rank-and-file as a nearly endless source of revenue for Democratic political candidates. While I am in a state which is not a “right to work” state (neither is MA, big surprise) and have to either be a member of the union or have an amount equan to union dues deducted as condition of my employment, I consider myself fortunate that 1–my dues are minimal, 2–I’m not pushed to vote for certain (D) candidates (as I was when I was a member of IBEW with a previous employer), for starters. The NEA has NEVER been about providing for a better education–EVER. In fact, I dare say that if the NEA and tenure went away, the quality of public education in this country would improve significantly. Would you not also agree?

Old Tanker

I was a member of the NEA and, here in Michigan, the MEA. Nothing but political rackets, neither has anything to do with contract negotiations….the local does ALL negotiations. Both the state and national do nothing but give money to Dems. Period. Mind you, they are unions. They are NOT in the business of looking out for students, just teachers. As with any union it’s to get the most pay and benefits for the least amount of work, that is all they do…

Dennis N

The National antiEducation Association should be banned and its members prohibited employment in education. They have done more to destroy the US education system than any other factor.

But that will never happen, because the Union Thugs have the State by the short hairs. I almost said by the ball,s but the State hasn’t any.

MAJ Godin should sue the Union. He won’t win, but he can cost them money. Anything you do to harm the Enemy, is a good thing.

Topgoz

As a JROTC Instructor, Maj Godin negotiates his own contract with the school district. Those are the rules of the JROTC program. If one wishes, one can learn more here: http://www.mcjrotc.org/instructors/

NHSparky

You just said it right there, topgoz–the DISTRICT, not the union.

Jacobite

I love Arizona. 🙂 🙂

HM2(FMF/SW)Ret.

Thanks TopGoz, you’re right having read the link you privided he was following protocol. My appologies to the major. However, this highlights part of the problem. If district has voted to become a union shop, he should have been required to negotiate with the school board through the union.

I still want to know if he knew that he was working in a union shop where union dues were expected regardless of membership. If so, then he signed a contract. End of story. If not, he has a point and the contracts should be looked into further.

UpNorth

So, is he a “teacher”, with full rights of tenure, and the same pay scale? Or, is he considered a “non-teacher”, or support staff? If he isn’t tenured, the teacher’s union could care less about him, except for their pound of flesh.
I worked in a public school system, here in the Socialist Republic of Michigan, and though it was a “union shop”, I didn’t have to join, and didn’t. We were considered non-union employees, matter of fact, we were the only non-union employees in the district, aside from the administration.

NHSparky

Good news, folks–the DISTRICT has pulled its head out of its ass…

http://telegram.com/article/20100612/NEWS/6120347/1101/local

For those who don’t want to click on the link, he will not be fired, and the district is working with the union to remove the other six JROTC instructors from the bargaining unit.