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1) NEA to Revisit Performance Pay. Seven years
have passed since the National Education Association debated a change in
direction on the issue of performance pay, and the results were the exact
opposite of what the leadership had hoped for. Now, NEA President Reg Weaver
has asked the union's Professional Standards and Practices Committee to
reexamine the issue, in an effort to allow the national union to aid its
state affiliates in helping design and implement such plans.
As the union's current policy stands, NEA is forbidden
to provide assistance to any state or local affiliate that either wants, or
wants to negotiate provisions of, a performance pay plan. NEA Resolution F-9
reads, in part:
"The Association opposes providing additional
compensation to attract and/or retain education employees in hard-to-recruit
positions.
"The Association also believes that local affiliates
can best promote the economic welfare of all education employees, regardless
of source of funding, by following the salary standards developed at the
state and national levels.
"The Association further believes that performance pay
schedules, such as merit pay or any other system of compensation based on an
evaluation of an education employee's performance, are inappropriate."
When former NEA President Bob Chase attempted to alter
the performance pay language at the union's 2000 representative assembly,
the delegates
delivered a stinging rebuke, and actually strengthened the protections
of the single-salary schedule.
Weaver's assignment of the task to the Professional
Standards and Practices Committee appears to be an attempt to work out a
consensus in advance that would not place the national union in favor
of performance pay, but would remove NEA from an awkward hands-off position
when the issue arises. Unfortunately for Weaver, there is no evidence that
the sentiment among those who crafted the current language at the 2000
convention has changed in any way. Weaver, however, is term-limited out in
2008 and may be willing to face that opposition if it comes.
2) Staff Stalls Change to NEA Pension Plan. I
don't pretend to be an expert in pension plans, but NEA's decision to
consider moving staff from a single-employer plan to a multiemployer plan
caused something of an uproar among the organizations that represent the
union's current and retired employees.
If I
understand my government bureaucrats correctly, most industries, like
NEA currently, use a single-employer defined benefit plan, which is
non-transferable if you switch jobs, but is underwritten by the Pension
Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). Multiemployer plans allow workers in
the same industry (in this case, union staffers) to move from participating
employer to another participating employer and continue to accumulate years
of service. However, the PBGC underwrites a much smaller portion of
multiemployer plans, putting the pensions at greater risk.
NEA's staff organizations are lobbying the union's
executive committee to either abandon the idea or – to quote one staff
official – to "fully fund the plan." Retired staffers are concerned NEA is
seeking creative ways to reduce pension costs.
3) More Than Meets the Eye in Colorado Springs
Scandal. Last week, EIA reported on the resignation of Colorado Springs
Education Association President Irma Valerio amid allegations of forgery and
improper reimbursement of teacher training funds (see
Item #4 here). Now new allegations have arisen, though the source cannot
be immediately verified.
The web site
FacetheState.com has posted a memo sent by someone claiming to be a
Colorado Springs Education Association member. The memo claims that at a May
11 meeting the union's board of directors asked Valerio to resign, revoked
her credit card privileges, and cancelled her supplemental pay. The decision
was made due to overspending issues unrelated to the misuse of school
district funds.
Between the hyperventilation and the damage control
there are precious few documented facts to draw on, but clearly there is a
concerted effort to keep it all as quiet as possible.
4) Canadian Staff Union Strike Shuts Down Airline
Reservations. When last we left our friends north of the border at the
British Columbia Teachers Federation, they had
locked out their employees, who had been on strike but had agreed to
return to work, but only under work-to-rule conditions. The staff's
picketing had caused the cancellation of the union's annual conference.
The BCTF employees, represented by CEP Local 464,
apparently couldn't stand the largely sympathetic press they were receiving
in the contract dispute, and so proceeded to
chain and padlock the front doors of the BCTF headquarters building in
Vancouver, and moved a dumpster and vehicles to block the back door.
Unfortunately for all involved, BCTF is not the only tenant in the building,
which also houses the North American reservations system for Cathay Pacific
Airways.
After a strange three-way negotiation between BCTF, the
staffers and lawyers representing Cathay Pacific, the blockade was cleared
and workers were allowed to freely enter and exit the building. The two
unions then went back to sniping at each other, with the BCTF president
accusing the staff of "nuisance picketing," while the staff union president
suggested BCTF "could well use an irony consultant."
All in all, these events are
typical of this kind of dispute.
5) Hawaii Faculty Union to Divert Dues to PAC.
The NEA-affiliated University of Hawaii Professional Assembly (UHPA) will
begin to transfer $5 per member in dues revenue from its general fund to its
political action committee starting in September.
The transfer will take place as a "negative check-off"
process, meaning members will have to object in writing to having that
portion of their dues diverted to the PAC. Though the process will begin in
September, members won't be notified of the appropriation or the objection
procedure until August.
6) NEA Names Pelosi 2007 Friend of Education.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will receive the National Education
Association's 2007 Friend of Education award at the union's representative
assembly in Philadelphia in July.
Pelosi is the first politician to receive the honor
since the late Paul Wellstone in 2003. She has a nearly flawless voting
record in support of NEA positions, as long as you don't figure in that vote
in support of the No Child Left Behind Act in December 2001.
7) Last Week's Intercepts.
EIA's blog,
Intercepts, covered these topics from May 21-29:
* Do
No Harm and
Caps Are Good for You! Really! The president of the Michigan Education
Association needs some serious PR help.
* Support
Hawaii Reporter. Dead trees do not a news outlet make.
* Comma
Ona My House. Cross your t's, dot your i's and place your commas.
8) Quote of the Week.
"The New Covenant Charter
School's abrupt decision to close is a troubling end to the school's
troubled seven-year existence…. Maybe this will be the straw that breaks the
camel's back with respect to seriously looking to see whether we are moving
too quickly with charter schools." – New York State United Teachers
President Richard Iannuzzi. (May 23
Albany Times-Union)
Left unsaid
by Iannuzzi and the press coverage: New Covenant was one of the few
unionized charter schools in the state. It was
organized by NYSUT through card check in 2002. |
