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1) Upholding Union Principles in
Oregon. The Oregon Education Association staff
strike is now more than two weeks old, though bargaining is to resume
tomorrow. The staff union and many local affiliate officers accuse OEA of
abandoning union principles by employing tactics that it would never
tolerate from school districts. On this they are correct, and it's difficult
to sympathize with OEA when its Frankenstein monster begins to destroy the
lab.
But we should recognize that the staff
union's definition of "union principles" seems to encompass a rather broad
range of activities. The OEA staff recently issued some "reflections" on the
1987 teacher strike in Eugene. We can
assume that at least a handful of OEA members, officers and
staff were around at the time:
"In 1987, the
Eugene EA went on strike against the school district, battling contract
rollbacks. The strike lasted 22 days.
During the strike, Eugene EA teachers:
- Placed harassing phone calls to scab (replacement) teachers late into
the evening
- Picketed
the homes of school board members
-
Sabotaged buses at the Lane County Fairgrounds that transported scab
teachers to district schools
-
Barricaded these buses at the Fairgrounds before they could leave
- Blocked
entries to schools, at first not allowing scab teacher buses to enter, then
slowly circling the buses to impede their progress
- Formed gauntlets at the bus doors, tapping their picket signs on the
sidewalks while chanting 'Scab! Scab!'
- Got into a scuffle with scab teachers, to the point where the Eugene
Police in riot gear were called to one high school, and patrolled for
several days afterward."
I agree. This
list is certainly worthy of reflection.
2) California Teachers Association
to Spend $5 Million on Ballot Initiatives. The
California Teachers Association will spend up to $5 million on five of the
12 initiatives on the November state ballot.
The union will financially support
Proposition 3, the Children's Hospital Bond Act, and oppose Propositions 4,
6, 8 and 9.
Proposition 4 requires parental
notification before an abortion can be performed on an unemancipated minor.
Proposition 6 requires a minimum of $965
million from the state general fund to be spent on local law enforcement,
corrections and juvenile programs.
Proposition 8 would specify in the state
constitution that same-sex marriages are invalid in California.
Proposition 9 would institute various
measures to allow victim notification and participation in parole hearings,
restrict early release of inmates, and allow the parole board to increase
the time period between hearings.
As a California teacher, you may applaud
these stances and expenditures or not. Regardless, if you are a member of
the California Teachers Association, you are contributing more than $15 to
them.
3) NEA Drops Big Bucks to Oppose
Hawaii ConCon. Coming on the heels
of news that
NEA sent $325,000 to Hawaii to oppose a proposed constitutional convention
is information that the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, NEA's
higher education affiliate in the state, will also spend up to $45,000 on
efforts to shoot down the idea.
It's still unclear exactly what NEA is
worried about in the event of a ConCon.
4) Indiana Teachers Sue Union's
Investment Program. Several
teachers filed a suit against the Indiana State Teachers Association and
MetLife, claiming the organizations
used misrepresentation to sell securities to ISTA members. According to
the plaintiffs, "MetLife and UniServ directors are accused of selling
teachers the MetLife plan by allowing them to believe that the cost of
investing in MetLife was less than the cost associated with some other plans."
Such actions have become more frequent
in recent years, beginning with the
NYSUT/ING settlement, and the plans of some trial lawyers to
pursue the issue further.
Even so, the
ISTA Financial Services Corp. has evidently drawn special attention.
If the date on this post is accurate, the union program has been
targeted before.
5) Grades Are Half Off in Pittsburgh.
If you wonder how judging schools, teachers and students on "a single
fill-in-the-bubble test" gets any support at all, you need go no further
than Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where district policy is
never to award a student a grade lower than 50%.
"We want to create situations where
students can recover and not give up," said district spokeswoman Ebony Pugh.
My favorite bit in the story is the
anecdote about the teacher who "worries about how awkward it will look when
a student correctly answers three of 10 questions on a math quiz – and gets
a 50 percent."
I have only one thought to add. If the
district recognizes no difference between 50% and zero, how does it justify
recognizing any difference between 50% and 100%?
6) Last Week's Intercepts.
EIA's blog,
Intercepts, covered these topics from September 22-29:
*
CTA Hates State Budget, Holds Emergency Board Meeting. Does this mean
another
windfall for Fred Kimball?
*
My Hero. The young teacher union investigative reporter who came out of
the closet.
*
Stop the Presses! Big headline for 2008, and 2006, and 2004… and 1984.
*
Just Stop the Presses Already. Today's bottom stories.
7) Quote of the Week.
"This idea of having the same wage increase for every bargaining unit is not
collective bargaining." – Leonard Smith, organizing director of Teamsters
Local 117 in Washington State, upset that the government offered all state
worker unions the same wage increases. Apparently giving all workers within
a union the same increase is good, but giving all unions the same increase
is bad. (September 23
Seattle Times) |
