Intercepts

Remember Ron Taylor? He's the Las Vegas teacher who bumped heads with the Clark County Education Association and eventually worked unsuccessfully to decertify the union in favor of the Teamsters.

CCEA expelled Taylor for his actions, but he fought it, and this week the Local Government Employees-Management Relations Board reinstated him. It also directed the union to reimburse Taylor's legal expenses, which could reach $10,000.

The union's rationale for booting Taylor is, well, ironic. CCEA Executive Director John Jasonek told the Las Vegas Review-Journal "that the case was not about dissent but about the union's right of self-preservation and the right to kick out hostile members. The union director said Taylor 'was in it to kill it,' by recruiting members for the Teamsters and trying to decertify the Clark County Education Association."

Apparently CCEA's position is that when one union does this to another it is grounds for expulsion. But when a union does it to a private business, it is a constitutionally protected right.