TOW #14- Why Teachers Are Aggrieved

An article written by Mark Mix, the president of the National Right to Work Committee, was published in the Washington Times this past week.  On Monday, the Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association case will be heard by the Supreme Court.  The case involves policies that force teachers to pay mandatory dues to a union that they do not support.  Mix's article proves the unconstitutionality of these policies across the country through the use of rhetorical questions and references to quotes of the opposing side.  To prove that the policies are not just, Mix uses rhetorical questions at the beginning of his article.  He asks the readers, "If you belonged to a club that benefited other members at your expense, would you consider leaving?  Would you resent it if the club collected dues from all members but only provided benefits to a select few?" (par. 1) In order to get his readers to understand the unconstitutionality of the policies that require teachers to pay dues to unions they don't belong to, Mix first has to get the audience, which is any working American who pays mandatory dues, to understand why the policy is unjust.  When he asks these questions, the reader can clearly understand that the mandatory dues that don't benefit the people paying them does not make any sense.  In order to further prove the unconstitutionality of the argument that the policy should stay in place, Mix references an attorney general supporting the California Teachers Association, Kamala Harris.  He proves that many teachers are not benefited from paying these mandatory dues when he tells his audience that Harris, "actually admitted that union bargaining disadvantages many teachers in a brief filed in support of the California Teachers Association."(par. 4)  Once he proves that even the opposition was in agreement that the unions don't give advantages to all of the teachers, he slices through the CTA's argument.  The strength of Mix's argument comes mostly from his appeal to logos because his article is used to invalidate the California Teachers Association's case.  While proving his point, he gets his audience to think about the unfair dues that they possibly have to pay to their unions, in hopes of helping working Americans make a change in their own states.  This article gives encouragement to those who work and are victims of the mandatory dues that do not benefit every employee fairly.  Mark Mix's article successfully accomplishes this through rhetorical questions and evidence from the opposition in the case, and on Monday we will find out whether or not this argument will be supported in court.