Grundy County Education Association president Judy Fults, center, debates a bill proposing to do away with teachers’ collective bargaining rights with Kyle Mallory, right, a Stewart County teacher and tea party member, before a Senate Education Committee hearing in Nashville, Tenn., on Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2011. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)NASHVILLE – Tea Party activists hope to apply “mighty pressure” on a dozen House Republican lawmakers that activists say are waffling on legislation that would strip the Tennessee Education Association of its collective bargaining powers.
“We need to ‘wear them out’ now!” says an emergency legislative alert sent today by the Tennessee Tea Party, urging members to contact lawmakers. “We have got to focus attention on the House side of this issue. We have the votes in the Senate.”
The group says it included House Speaker Beth Harwell, R-Nashville, on “this list for good measure. We are also being told that Governor [Bill] Haslam is exceedingly [sic] weak. … We need to apply pressure to him.”
Conservative Republicans are pushing the measure which has the support of Senate Republican leaders, whose party controls the chamber. The Senate version has passed the Education Committee but has yet to be scheduled for Senate floor debate.
The bill has not yet moved in the House, where Republicans also have a majority. Haslam, a Republican, has refused to say where he is on board with the legislation. Harwell has said the bill remains under review, with leaders working to get it “to the point where we all feel comfortable with it.”