Jewish Teachers Forced to Pay Dues to Anti-Semitic Labor Union They Don’t Belong To

Freedom of association is a bedrock constitutional principle. But it is trampled by a California law that grants unions exclusive right to represent public school teachers even without their consent–or over their fierce objections, as new litigation makes clear.

Four Jewish teachers who resigned from the Los Angeles teachers union Jewish teachers because of its crass anti-Semitism and Hamas slumming but are still being represented by the union for all job matters are suing to overturn the law on the grounds that it violates their First Amendment rights to free speech, freedom of religion and freedom of association.

The federal lawsuit also says that the state conditioning their employment on being represented by a union that is philosophically at odds with them violates long standing constitutional principles that forbids the government from conditioning or withdrawing benefits based on political beliefs.

The four Los Angeles teachers–with a fifth expected to join the lawsuit next week in an amended complaint–are being represented by the Olympia, Washington-based Freedom Foundation.

Freedom Foundation lawyer Shella Alcabes told the California Globe  that the lawsuit intertwines religious liberty and freedom of association.

 “The most important principle at stake in the lawsuit is religious liberty and freedom of association within that religious liberty lens. Because all [Los Angeles Unified School District] teachers must be represented by [the United Teachers of Los Angeles union] in collective bargaining with their employer (LAUSD), even if they are not union members and even if they do not pay dues, they are forced to be associated and affiliated with an organization that hates them and their religious beliefs (support of Israel),” she emailed.

The California Educational Employment Relations Act “requires that each union have a monopoly on collective bargaining. That means that if you are a teacher, for example, you cannot choose a different union than UTLA, and you cannot represent yourself,” she explained. “Out of one side of its mouth, UTLA spews anti-Semitic and anti-Israel hate. Out of the other side of its mouth, Jewish teachers are supposed to trust UTLA and be connected and tied to UTLA when UTLA bargains their wages, hours and working conditions. That is an absurd and unconstitutional situation to place those teachers in.”

The lawsuit says that California Educational Employment Relations Act violates “the Plaintiffs free association [rights] by forcing them to associate with individuals and with speech that betrays their consciences and deeply held religious beliefs.”

The complaint was filed last month in the United States District Court for the Central District of California Western Division.  The plaintiffs are Jewish teachers Kimberly Krieger, Carli Golbin, Anna Kingston and a woman identified in court papers as just Jane Doe because “she fears retaliation at her workplace for speaking out against the teachers union and in favor of Israel.”

The defendants are Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho and officials of the California Public Employees Relations Board, which under the California Educational Employee Relations Act (EERA), certified United Teachers of Los Angeles as the exclusive representative for all Los Angeles teachers.  The lawsuit says that the California Public Employees Relations Board would “prohibit any attempts by Plaintiffs” to act independent of the union by negotiating “their wages, hours or working conditions directly with LAUSD.”

The defendants’ response to the lawsuit is due on November 29, according to Freedom Foundation lawyer Shella Alcabes.

The lawsuit says the EERA and the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that the union signed leaves the plaintiffs trapped in a union at odds with their political and religious beliefs.

“UTLA inserted requirements into the CBA for adoption of model curricula for the classroom that is openly ant-Semitic, and has provided teacher training opportunities where teachers are taught how to avoid detection for anti-Israel rhetoric. UTLA also supports anti-Semitic and anti-Israel professional development classes–classes that can advance teachers’ careers.”

The end result is that both “the EERA and the CBA compel Plaintiffs to associate with UTLA’s anti-Semitic speech and curriculum despite Plaintiff’s objections based on their sincerely held beliefs. This compelled association also subjects Plaintiff’s to open hostility and disapproval in their communities. Plaintiffs seek freedom from all association with UTLA as is their right under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.”

The lawsuit provides a litany of examples of how UTLA has descended into the fever swamps of anti-Semitism–with both its public posturing and educational endeavors.

For example, at “professional development meeting on April 13, 2023, UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz stated that the Museum of Tolerance, a Holocaust museum is an ‘enemy.’’’

Similarly, “At an April 13, 2021, professional development hosted by UTLA, one of the speakers screamed ‘Fuck Israel.’”

And during an August 2024 UTLA leadership conference “UTLA staff spread anti-Semitic talking points by falsely implying that a Jewish cabal accused an anti-Israel teacher of possessing child pornography “because of this issue” so that the teacher would stop teaching anti-Israel information to his students.”

All this Jew bashing apparently comes from the top down. The lawsuit says that UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz “has spoken disparagingly of Sephardic Jews and Persian Jews.”

Additionally, in November 2023  UTLA’s Political Action Council of Educators (PACE) endorsed school board candidate Khallid Al-Alim who  “has an extensive number of public antisemitic posts on both Twitter/X and Instagram, including blood libel, conspiracy theories and anti-Zionist rhetoric.”

The Political Action Council even donated a whopping  $728,887.44 to his campaign.

That is money presumably coming from membership dues. In fact, the plaintiffs who resigned from the UTLA are nevertheless still being forced to pay membership fees. “While UTLA confirmed that they ended their membership in UTLA, LAUSD continued to make dues deductions from the wages of Plaintiffs Krieger, Kingston and Jane Doe. UTLA stated that the deductions will continue until the anniversary of the date they agreed to become UTLA members.”

Lawyer Shella Alcabes says that this accounting trick explicitly violates a Supreme Court ruling that public unions can not collect from non-members in the workforce they represent.

Los Angeles teacher Barry Blisten, who is joining the lawsuit in an amended complaint expected to be filed next week, told the California Globe he resigned from the union several years ago “because I was upset with their anti-American stuff and anti-Semitism.”

“I believe in union but they have an agenda that is insanity,” he added.

Blisten, a Los Angeles native, said the union should be fighting for better health care benefits instead of constantly inveighing against Israel. He noted the union just endorsed Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ proposed arms embargo of Israel.

Asked how he feels about the union still representing him even though he resigned Blisten said, “I hate it. It’s horrible.”

 UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz did not respond to a request for comment.