Rightwing anti-union blogger may get more ammo to attack Howell teachers

Livingston County Circuit Court Judge Stanley Latreille ruled that an estimated 5,500 e-mails written by Howell Education Association (HEA), the union representing the teachers, on school computers are public record and can be released at the discretion of Howell Public Schools administrators, according to the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus.

You may recall that rightwing Republican blogger and anti-union activist Chetly Zarko filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to get copies of the emails written by union leaders on school computers. The district released the emails he was not supposed to receive without regard to student confidentially or attorney-client privilege. The HEA filed suit to stop the illegal release of the emails in May 2007.

Zarko used the information to claim the union was using school property illegally and other baseless attacks, but that was quickly debunked because the distinct has a “recognized right” to use the computers.

Zarko has come up with a new charge, and according to the P & A:

“Zarko said he expects to find communications about a small percentage of teachers who wanted to accept an additional 1 percent pay increase on top of what was offered instead of the union-affiliated health benefits, which was a sticking point during negotiations and resulted in HEA protests at school board meetings. This is a matter facing many school districts in Michigan, he said.”

Who cares? There is nothing more democratic in the workplace than a labor union. The union leaders who negotiate the contract are elected by the union membership and the actual contract must be ratified by a vote of the membership. What does it really matter what a “small percentage of teachers” said or think; other than to other HEA members?

What is even funnier is how the newspaper describes Zarko. It calls him “an Oakland County researcher.” His two main goals are to get ink and to bust unions. When he does get mainstream media coverage, they all fail to mention his anti-union ties and his ties to the racist “Michigan Civil Rights Initiative.” He runs a Facebook group pushing the union busting so-called “right to work” law.

Join the fight against union busting petition drive and join new Facebook group

People who truly care about workers and their rights, progressives and friends of labor are fighting back against the Republicans all-out war against unions and working people with their so-called “right to work” campaign.

After recent news that a rightwing, anti-union operative has set up a Facebook group to launch a preemptive petition drive to put the question on the ballot if current legislation in the state House and Senate fails, progressives and liberals have set up a counter Facebook group called “Michigan Union Supporters.”

This is a small step toward trying to stop the trend that has seen the gap between the rich and the working class widen like it never has before, the decline of the middle class and the workplace again becoming a dangerous place again, but it’s a start toward that goal.

Unions have raised the standard of living for all workers, both non-union and union, and it has improved work and safety conditions for all workers so that the workplace is no longer a death trap. We can expect to see massive amounts of disinformation as the war on workers movers forward, and this group will be just one resource in countering that common tactic of the right.

This effort from the Republicans is an assault on worker wages, and a more descriptive name for this law should be the right to work for less law or the right to work and risk your life and health law. This is also an assault on wages and just one part of the appalling race to the bottom that we cannot win, and the average worker in a so-called “right to work” state makes about $5,333 a year less than workers in other states. It will be an assault on sane rules and regulations that protect the life and limbs of workers but cut into the stakeholder profits, and according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, the rate of workplace deaths is 51 percent higher in states with so-called “right to work” laws.

Join the fight today.

Rightwing extremist launches anti-union Facebook group

The Republicans all out assault on unions and the middle class with the deceptive name of so-called “right to work laws” has a new front with the establishment of a Facbook group created by an Oakland County rightwing extremist connected with racist and extreme causes and well-known to liberal bloggers is pushing a petition drive to place it on the ballot.

The site was created by Chet Zarko, who was the communications director for the California group headed by Ward Connerly that came to the state to push the racist Michigan Civil Rights Initiative on the November 2006 ballot that did away with affirmative action. The group illegally lied to people and misrepresented themselves to get signatures, and because this is Zarko’s MO, coupled with the other people who are involved with the Facebook group, we can expect the same tactics this time around.

Zarko said the purpose of “this board is to be able tell investors that there are hundreds of motivated folks out there ready to work for the right to work.” Investors seems like a good choice of words because the result of this union-busting proposition is to maximize profits for management at the cost of employees. This bill will force unions to give the protections and benefits they won with hard work and determination to those workers who do not contribute to the union via union dues, enjoy the benefits won by collective bargaining by union leaders and receive the same physical protections won by the hard work and sacrifice of union members.

This petition drive seems really premature. Sen. Nancy Cassis, R-Novi, Rep. Jack Hookendyk, R-Kalamazoo, and Rep. Kevin Elsenheimer, R-Bellaire, have introduced so-called “right to work bills, and Senate Majority “Leader” Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, has included passage of the bills among his list of hostage demands before he will release the hostage, state government. No ballot question committee has been formed that will allow them to actually raise the money Zarko apparently is already illegally soliciting. It would seem logical to let the legislation run its course before a petition drive is launched.

This is not the first anti-union endeavor Zarko has been involved in, and here in Howell we felt the first salvo. In May he submitted a massive Freedom of Information (FOIA) request to get emails from the Howell Public Schools teachers union, Howell Education Association. After getting the emails, he alleged the HEA leaders have "conducted a large amount of union business on public time, including trying to “retain MEA (Michigan Education Association) affiliated MESSA health-insurance, and using parent-teacher conferences to recruit parents (to) their side of a collective-bargaining debate.” He based his ridiculous claims on union leaders' e-mails that he received through the FOIA.

After school district officials admitted union leaders have a "recognized right" to use the district e-mail server for union business, Zarko clung to the ridiculous claim that they may have used a district copier to copy union material. Zarko also has ties to the anti-gay hate group known as the LOVE” PAC (Livingston Organization for Values in Education) that embarrassed the community and tried to ban books by Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning authors from Howell High School classrooms.

Despite describing himself as a “metro-Detroit, Michigan-based, political and marketing research consultant, focusing on conservative and “moderate” candidates and other clients,” Zarko has steadfastly refused to say who is paying him and who is financing this witch-hunt against public school teachers and teacher’s unions.