What Happens in Vegas… Could Be a Problem for NEA
If you are going to challenge a well-established union for representation rights, you have to be a bit of a maverick – or a screwball – by nature. I’m not sure which of these describes Ron Taylor, but he’s making a splash in Sin City.
Taylor’s entrance into the world of union raiding came courtesy of a controversy surrounding the Clark County Education Association’s (CCEA) administration of a teacher training program (see Quote of the Week here, with accompanying link to newspaper story). Taylor claims CCEA colluded with the school district to silence his criticisms.
CCEA defended its program, but its return salvos against Taylor really crossed the line, including a veiled insinuation that he might be some sort of pervert.
Taylor is certainly a larger-than-life character, and it has helped gain attention for his cause, which is to decertify CCEA and replace it with a teachers’ union affiliated with the Teamsters.
Teamsters Local 14 has made deep inroads among the district’s support employees, and may yet snatch representation rights from the NEA-affiliated Education Support Employees Association (see Item #2 here).
Now the chances of the Teamsters unseating CCEA are so slim as to be hardly worth mentioning (especially with NEA HQ trying to work out a national no-raid agreement with Change to Win), but Taylor’s first mission is to get CCEA members to drop their membership during the two-week window in July. This is the same first step that was taken in the Teamsters’ campaign against ESEA.
Taylor has a web site, support from the Teamsters, TV coverage and the likelihood of more media attention as he stages a rally in front of CCEA’s offices to promote his campaign.
Teachers’ unions are notoriously bad at handling militant protest tactics so this bears watching.
