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June 10, 2010
Union Apparently Forced to Back Off From Attack on Marine
Posted by Dave Blount at June 10, 2010 9:24 AM
Want a preview of what the workplace will be like if Comrade Obama is successful at ramming through card check? Have a look at our schools, which are firmly under the union thumb. In Taxachusetts, a Marine has been under fire for refusing to pay the union dues that are so instrumental in keeping our Democrat rulers in power.
A retired U.S. Marine who runs a high school ROTC program in Worcester says he faces the boot for refusing to pay local union dues, leaving the 58-year-old father of two crying foul and school administrators bewildered.
"It just seems crazy that they're gonna fire me over $500," said Maj. Stephen L. Godin, senior naval science instructor at the Naval Junior ROTC Unit of North High School. "Everyone's talking about finding good teachers — I haven't missed a day in 14 years."
Indeed, North High School Principal Matthew Morse praised Godin yesterday as an "excellent" instructor who has turned his program into a top junior ROTC academy.
Godin, a 20-year Marine veteran until 1994, who flew F-4 Phantoms and was deployed five times, said he refuses to join the union because he receives all his benefits, including health insurance and half his salary, from the military. Unlike other teachers, he doesn't earn a stipend for after-school activities, such as the hours he spends coaching the high school's regional champion drill team. His salary is dictated by the U.S. Military, not labor negotiators, Godin said.
Fortunately, Republican pols have been making an issue of the case, and it looks like public outrage may force the union to back off:
The head of the Worcester teacher's union claims she never received a Marine JROTC instructor's repeated requests for arbitration over $500 in dues he insists he shouldn't have to pay.
Union president Cheryl DelSignore, under withering fire from ranking state pols, claims retired USMC Maj. Stephen Godin sent his requests to an inactive e-mail account, but she'll address them now that the matter's been brought to her attention.
Sure, Cheryl. Once again we see that sunlight is the only disinfectant for dark and unclean pits of iniquity like the unions that Democrats want to dominate every workplace in America.
Marines like Godin will stand up to anyone: even unions.
On a tip from Son of Taz. Hat tip: Stop the ACLU.
