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posted by: Cindy Omlin
| February 10, 2015, 05:22 PM
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Northwest Professional Educators (NWPE) recently put out a call to our Washington state members to testify in support of a Washington state Religious Objection Process Rights bill designed to make it easier for those objecting to mandatory union dues because of personal religious beliefs to send their representation fees to the charity of their choice.
 Currently, teachers in Washington state (among others) are required to pay $900 or more to the teachers union as a condition of teaching in the public schools. In school districts that bargain forced fees (called agency fees) into their collective bargaining agreements, teachers must pay union dues or else the teacher can be fired or risk getting sued by the union. The union can use the dues for whatever it pleases including lobbying for causes, such as same sex marriage or publicly funded abortion, that many teachers find morally objectionable and counter to their religious beliefs. The bill is being advanced because some educators experience difficulty getting their religious accommodation granted or selecting the charity of their choice as allowed by law.
Teachers testified that union officials make it difficult for teachers to exercise their religious objector rights by refusing to honor the charity of the teacher's choice and instead demand that the teacher choose a charity that the union approves. Furthermore, religious objectors are sometimes forced to contribute to a charity more than what a nonunion agency fee objector must pay, which is typically $200-$300 less than full union dues. For these reasons, and because the current procedures require that the Public Employment Relations Commission arbitrate disagreements about how religious objectors donate their dues (which causes unnecessary state entanglement the state in a teacher's religious rights and which is a poor use of taxpayer dollars), this bill has been sponsored by Senators Padden, Baumgartner, Braun, Honeyford, and Angel.
NWPE members Gordon Kenny and Ted Nutting responded to the call and testified at the February 2nd Commerce and Labor Committee hearing. Teachers Jeff Kreifels and Bob Hansler also testified on the bill. If passed, the bill will implement protections for employees whose religious beliefs are in conflict with the support of labor unions. It will:
- Clearly protect personal religious beliefs of teachers, not just those whose church's doctrine forbids union membership, e.g., Seventh Day Adventists, i.e., accommodate religious beliefs that clear all conflicts with conscience;
- Allow employees to utilize any charity listed on the Combined Fund Drive which will simplify charitable choice (if a teacher's charity is not currently listed, there is a process to add the charity to the CFD list);
- Bring the accommodation provisions of State law into harmony with federal civil right protections; and,
- Avoid excessive entanglement between church and state.
  We thank Gordon, Ted, Dan, and Jeff for standing up for the religious rights of teachers who are compelled to pay union dues as a condition of employment.
On Feb. 5, the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee passed the bill to the Rules Committee to determine if it will be placed on the floor calendar for a second reading.
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