How Dues are Spent

Mukilteo drama teacher Melissa McGlothlen can't say exactly how much she pays in union dues each year, but that's OK.

"To me, how much I pay in dues doesn't matter," says McGlothlen, a fourth-year teacher. "I know I get good stuff."

Mukilteo, like local education associations across the state, works with WEA and their regional UniServ Councils to negotiate higher wages, smaller class sizes, manageable workloads and a host of other contract details.

"I can't bargain my own contract," McGlothlen says. "That's what I tell members who are frustrated by their dues: 'Do you want to bargain by yourself at the table?'"

Bellingham Education Association leader Stan Kreft recounted how WEA sent in a squad of staff people to help when BEA members came within two days of a strike one year. With bargaining, legal, research and communications assistance from WEA, BEA members won significant increases in health care funding from the district. School started on time.

"We as a union bring a lot of strength to the bargaining table," Kreft explains. "Your dues are paying for the resources that help us. There's a whole army supporting us. That's what you pay for -- that army. As an individual, you never could afford to do the things that you can afford as a group."

Pete Pratz is one of the 80 educators who are the Royal Education Association. By his own description, Royal is "a small, conservative town" and not a hotbed of union activism. But Pratz appreciates how his dues help pay for WEA's lobbying efforts in Olympia. Fighting to protect and restore funding for Initiatives 732 and 728, which passed with substantial donations from WEA coffers, are top priorities for WEA during the legislative session.

"When you have a group like WEA, you have a voice at the state level," Pratz says.

In addition to contract gains and legislative victories, McGlothlen and others say their dues are a reasonable price to pay for the security and support they get in return.

"If hot water ever comes down on my head, I have union representation," McGlothlen says. "If you get accused, you have to have someone to back you up."

Anja Felton, a mid-career teacher in Ridgefield, agrees.

"I feel secure. I know that if I ever need any backing or if I have a problem with my administrators, I'm not alone," she says.

Lovey Farler, a leader for North Thurston Educational Assistants, says the training opportunities offered through Chinook UniServ Council and WEA are invaluable.

"Our bargaining conferences are a big thing. We try to send as many people to conferences and leadership training as we can," Farler says.

When certificated colleagues question the roughly $700 in dues they pay each year to their local, their council, WEA and the National Education Association, McGlothlen reminds them that they, as association members, decide how the budget is spent.

"You're in a representative democracy," McGlothlen says. "That's how we run our union."

Strengthening Washington's Public Schools

How Dues are Spent