I used to be a member of LA academics union — I do know what it’s turn into

I used to pay dues to the teachers union. I believed in it — fair pay, having someone in your corner, all of it.

I was a member of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) — which represents teachers in the LA Unified School District (LAUSD) — for years.

The union I left barely resembles the one I joined.

At some point, UTLA stopped being about teachers. It became something else — a political movement, an activist organization that has made hatred of Jewish people and Israel a core part of what it does and who it is.

I don’t say that to be dramatic. I say it because I watched it happen, and because my grandparents — who survived what happens when that kind of hatred goes unchecked — spent their lives warning me about exactly this.

The early signs are always the ones that people wave away. That’s the whole point.

After the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Janus v. AFSCME, public employees like me finally had the legal right to opt out of union membership without penalty.

But here’s the thing California doesn’t tell you. Leaving the union doesn’t actually get you out from under it.

Under state law, UTLA is still my “exclusive representative” at work. It still speaks for me, negotiates for me, represents me, whether I want that or not.

I have no say in it. The union that spent three-quarters of a million dollars promoting an antisemite is, legally speaking, my voice in the workplace.

Six other Jewish teachers and I sued over that, and the Freedom Foundation supported us.

Here are a few of the many things UTLA has done, as presented in our lawsuit.

The union spent $700,000 supporting a school board candidate who pushed antisemitic conspiracy theories — including those publicized by the notorious Louis Farrakhan. (The union withdrew its endorsement under public scrutiny. The candidate has since apologized for his posts about Farrakhan.)

It endorsed a curriculum called “Teach Palestine” that distorts Jewish history. Its Human Rights Committee has funded members to attend anti-Jewish rallies.

Jewish and Zionist members have been kicked out of the union’s own Facebook group.

And UTLA has formally aligned itself with organizations that call for the destruction of Israel. Not criticism of Israeli policy — destruction of the state.

Our argument isn’t complicated: The First Amendment protects your right to associate with whomever you choose, which means it also protects you from being forced to associate with people you haven’t chosen — especially an organization with a documented record of hostility toward you and your community.

The U.S. District Court dismissed the case. I wasn’t surprised, but I was disappointed.

And I’ll tell you what I told people at the time: I’d be nervous if I were still a UTLA member.

This union keeps escalating. Its leaders just announced an April 14 strike that would leave nearly 400,000 kids without school.

There’s no end in sight, which is why we’re appealing to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and why I think it matters beyond just me and my six colleagues.

There are Jewish public employees all over this country in the same trap. Unions that have made anti-Jewish politics part of their institutional identity are still legally designated as the exclusive representatives of Jewish workers who want nothing to do with them.

The courts have been reluctant, thus far, to say that’s a problem. We’re asking the Ninth Circuit to look at this more carefully — because if forced association with an organization that openly promotes hatred of your people doesn’t trigger First Amendment protection, it’s hard to know what would.

I just want to teach. But here we are. And I’d rather fight it than look back some day and wish I had. My grandparents didn’t have that choice. I do.

Barry Blisten is a former UTLA member and one of seven Jewish teachers who has sued the union over allegations of forced representation.