Instant Karma's Gonna Get You

As I recently reported, the Washington "Education" Association has prohibited teachers from purchasing school supplies for needy students at Wal-Mart. The WEA cites the way Wal-Mart treats and pays its workers as the reason.

Chuck Millham, a distinguished retired WSU professor, took the WEA to task over this stance in a column in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News a couple of weeks ago, stating that the WEA needs to clean up its own house with regards to educating children first.

Then, I saw this today in the Education Intelligence Agency Communiqué for the Week of September 12, 2005:

Washington NEA Affiliate Has Staff Labor Troubles Again. Some NEA state affiliates never seem to be able to achieve that elusive "labor peace" with their own staff unions. The Washington Education Association's difficulties with its unionized employees go back a long way (at least this far , and here, too ). Now WEA is in federal mediation in its contract talks with its professional staff, and the staffers are complaining about poor salary offers, circumvention of seniority rules, and a disrespectful attitude by management.

If you want to know more, a source tells EIA that WEA employees, and some friends from other states, are planning an informational picket this Friday at the union's headquarters building in Federal Way (though EIA was unable to confirm this by press time). I'm sure they would appreciate your expressions of solidarity as they battle against their oppressive employers.

How richly ironic! Maybe it's time for a boycott of our own.

UPDATE 09/18/2005: The Seattle Times story about the informational picket can be found here.