Special ed teacher describes going to war with teachers’ union in new interview
(Daily Caller News Foundation) – Longtime special education teacher Karin Majewski is the subject of a new feature documentary by Independent Women’s Forum after going to battle with her own…
(Daily Caller News Foundation) – Longtime special education teacher Karin Majewski is the subject of a new feature documentary by Independent Women’s Forum after going to battle with her own teachers union.
Majewski, a Pennsylvania teacher, took on a mission to push back against the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) after they began advocating for COVID-19 vaccine requirements in 2020.
“I found a statement that came out by the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA). They were in favor of having vaccine mandates for all public school educators. And they were speaking on behalf of all 178,000 union members,” Majewski told the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF).
“No one had ever asked what my opinion was, or there was no survey sent out, and they were speaking on behalf of everyone, and it was something that I strongly disagreed with,” Majewski told the Forum.
Majewski realized her monthly membership fee of $150 was supporting these ideas.
“Your money is going there regardless of how you feel about it, and this applies to any school worker … not just teachers, but support staff, nurses, janitors, bus drivers, secretaries, anyone,” Majewski told the Forum.
Majewski contacted Freedom Foundation, a national nonprofit organization, designed to help union members leave their unions, and joined a professional alternative to her union that would help represent her workplace issues.
Motivated after seeing the heavy recruitment efforts of PSEA, Majewski sent an email to her entire school district to allow others to contact her. She immediately received messages of both support and backlash. The following week, she was sent to human resources.
“I basically pitched her a couple of ideas, saying, you know, I would be happy to hang up some flyers, put up some posters that she approved of, if the union is doing these things, why is it that I can’t do those things and let people know what alternatives and options they have,” Majewski told IWF.
The flyers featured QR codes that could be scanned for union alternatives. Despite HR approving the flyers, Majewski learned they were being ripped down.
“It like blew my mind that that was happening, I played by the rules. It really speaks to how much money is involved and how much power is involved, and how fearful they are of people leaving,” Majewski shared with IWF.
“They come up with these ideas that they want to have being pushed into schools…saying, okay, we want to see more of this. We want to see more social justice topics being pushed into classrooms of abortion and we want to give more money to Planned Parenthood. These things don’t really have anything to do with with being a labor union or helping me as an educator,” Majewski told the IWF.
“Legally, you have a right to leave the union if you want to, and there are so many free supports that are out there that can support you and help you through that,” she said.