I joined a “company union” without realizing it was funded by the Walton Family Foundation — the same people who fund my employer.
I live in northwest Arkansas, home of Walmart and its founders, the Walton family. Around here, the Waltons (especially Alice Walton and the Walton Family Foundation) are known as philanthropic pillars of the artistic and cultural community. They fund the Walton Arts Center and the Walmart AMP. They also sponsor the Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra and the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas — where I used to perform as a violinist — and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which regularly hosted my own performing ensemble, Storybook Strings.
Basically, if you make a living in the artistic community of northwest Arkansas, you are probably just one or two degrees of separation away from Walton money.
This worked fine for me until I started teaching orchestra at Arkansas Arts Academy High School, a public charter school in Rogers, AR. I had a terrible experience that ultimately caused me to resign after only three months. When I started writing about it, some of my readers objected to the way I placed part of the blame on my teacher-colleagues. In an effort to respond to internet criticism, I dove into more detailed research.
Thanks to the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act and good wi-fi, I’ve confirmed what I had originally suspected about the corruption of certain Arkansas orchestra teachers. I’ve also learned about something called a “company union,” which is a much bigger problem. Company unions are illegal*, insidious, and very harmful.
AEA v. ASTA
In Arkansas, teachers wanting to join a professional organization have two choices: The Arkansas Education Association (AEA) often (but not on its website) calls itself a union. The Arkansas State Teachers Association (ASTA) calls itself a professional association. Other than that, these two organizations are fundamentally similar in practice.
Because ASTA recruited me during staff meetings at my school (and I didn’t know that the AEA existed) I joined ASTA with a “professional membership” in September 2017.
Walton Family Roots
What I didn’t realize is that ASTA is funded by the Walton Family Foundation. The Walton Family Foundation also advocates for school deregulation and privatization, so that it can profit from things like interest-bearing loans to charter schools. By establishing ASTA in 2004 as a “non-union” alternative to the AEA, the Waltons effectively pulled members (and power) away from the AEA.
Here’s where I think the Waltons have gone one step further, and are actually breaking federal law: In addition to funding ASTA, the Walton Family Foundation also funds Arkansas Arts Academy — the school where I was employed while I was an ASTA member. That means the Walton Family Foundation has an influence over both my employer and the “professional association” responsible for providing me with legal representation in the event of employment rights violations.
When I contacted ASTA for help paying legal fees, with regard to a federal forced labor lawsuit (and a few other allegations) related to my time as a teacher at Arkansas Arts Academy, their only response was to confirm that I had, indeed, been an ASTA member at the time of my employment. ASTA is not holding up their end of the bargain to provide legal representation or to reimburse me for my own attorney. But why would they? It’s a conflict of interest for ASTA to represent a member teacher against ASTA’s own major financial backer, the Walton Family Foundation.
This is one of the reasons that “company unions” are illegal. It’s also one of the reasons I recommend joining the AEA, rather than ASTA, if you’re a teacher in Arkansas.
- Yes, I realize that schools with a “gross annual volume” of less than one million dollars might be considered exempt from the FLSA prohibition against company unions. However, if I’m reading the Arkansas Arts Academy budget right, their “gross annual volume” greatly exceeds this minimum.