NAMPA, Idaho – Most teacher unions have the same basic motto:  If you’re not doing it the union way, you’re doing it the wrong way.

And apparently this motto pertains to their own members, whether they like it or not.

With the Nampa school district facing budget shortfalls, many teachers generously volunteered to take a number of unpaid furlough days during the 2012-13 school year, according to the NewsTimes.

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But the local teachers union, the Nampa Education Association, took exception to the fact that the district bypassed the union and came to the agreement directly with the teachers.

The NEA filed a lawsuit against the district, arguing the union is the legal negotiating agent between educators and the district, and the teachers have no power to make decisions on their own, according to the news story.

A district judge ruled in favor of the NEA, which voided the furlough agreements.

Union attorneys argued that the agreement could compromise the entire collective bargaining process between the district and the union.

As if that would be a bad thing for Nampa or any other school district.

“We’re appreciative that the rule of law has been upheld in this case, and that the collective bargaining process has been defended and validated,” union attorney Paul Stark said. “The ruling is going to ensure that deviations from the law like this will not happen again in Nampa, and hopefully not in other parts of the state.”

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This ruling has probably left many teachers in the Nampa district questioning the purpose of their union.

If the union is supposedly there to protect the best interest of the teachers, and the teachers voluntarily agreed to the furlough days, then why did the union take issue with it?

At a time when the district was facing a financial crisis, teachers stepped up with the best interest of everyone in mind. It’s too bad their union had to throw a wet towel on such a decent and necessary gesture.

“Our sole intent last December was to find a way to accommodate those individual teachers who came forward wanting to volunteer for furlough days to help with the district’s financial crisis,” a district spokesperson said.

As a result of the ruling, the union could ask the district to pay the teachers for the furlough days they accepted, according to the report.