Elise Stefanik

09/09/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/09/2025 11:03

ICYMI: Stefanik Questions Legal Experts on Unions Discriminating Against Pro-Jewish Educators

WASHINGTON, D.C. -In case you missed it, House Republican Leadership Chairwoman Elise Stefanik asked legal experts about discrimination among unions against pro-Jewish educators during today's House Committee on Education & Workforce subcommittee hearing.

Watch Her Full Line of Questioning Here
Read the full transcripts of her remarks below:

Elise Stefanik: Last week, a group of Jewish educators rallied outside their union headquarters in New York City. The members of the UFT, an affiliate of the NYSUT, the AFT and the NEA were rightfuly upset that the union called an emergency meeting to vote to endorse candidate Zohran Mamdani correctly. They felt Mr. Mamdani's support of term "globalize the intifada" is antisemitic and anti-Zionist. While the educators were at the rally, AFT President Randi Weingarten was at a rally right down the street with Mr. Mamdani.

Considering the union members' opposition and the recent rise of national antisemitism, are unions required to make political endorsements?

Kyle Koeppel Man: No, unions are not required to make political endorsements, and it's inappropriate for them to do so.

Stefanik: And Mr. Glenn Taubman, I wanted to ask your response to that.

Glenn Taubman: No, they're not required to, and in the current world that we live in, it's divisive and hateful to support Hamas and communist antisemites like Mr. Mandani.

Stefanik:Is there any mechanism today for Jewish teachers to opt out of paying dues to unions that support anti-Israel or antisemitic causes? If not, how is that remotely constitutional?

Taubman:For public sector employees, like the New York City teachers, they're covered by the Janus ruling, which says you have a right as a matter of free speech and association to not pay the union. But for private sector employees, if they're not in a right-to-work state, they can be forced to pay or be fired. And it would be nice to apply Janus to the private sector, where private people's constitutional rights could also be protected.

Stefanik: Do you believe unions like the NEA and AFT are functioning as ideological enforcement arms, rather than neutral labor advocates, especially in their treatment of pro-Israel educators?

Taubman: I've been at this for 43 years. When I started, I used to say, 'unions were representatives who did politics on the side.' Now there are political powerhouse parties that do a little collective bargaining on this side, and that's what the NEA and the AFT and unions like that are all about. It's all about power and money to them, and the collective bargaining is a secondary thing to their political power and their money.

Stefanik: Thank you. I yield back.

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