|
| Organizing
for change
With
the Supreme Court decision reclaiming public employees’
right to bargain collectively, local associations
will benefit from greater opportunities to affect
change for all public school employees. Foremost
in the strategy is the need to become the bargaining
representative for school district employees.
But that cannot happen without support from the
school board.
“Electing school board members
who understand and support the collective bargaining
process must be a part of the strategy to become
a local’s bargaining representative,”
says MNEA Political Director Leila Medley.
Following
are some questions and answers to consider as
you move forward in your local’s efforts
to organize for power and positive change.
In
the absence of a law determining a collective
bargaining process for teachers, who decides how
to proceed in making progress toward exercising
collective bargaining rights?
“Missouri’s Public
Sector Labor Law provides a mechanism whereby
support staff may select an exclusive bargaining
representative,” explains MNEA Director
of Legal Services Jacquie Shipma. “This
law, however, specifically excludes teachers from
its coverage. The Missouri Supreme Court, in the
Independence decision, stated that until a law
is passed that covers teachers, the framework
for choosing an exclusive bargaining representative
could be established locally by the district together
with its teacher representative groups.”
What
tips can you offer to local associations trying
to run successful school board campaigns?
“Plan early,” Medley
advises. “Cost out activities and request
local PAC dollars to pay vendors. Know how many
votes it will take to win and find them. All campaign
activities should be geared around getting-out-the-vote.”
How
does a local start the process?
Missouri NEA offers a booklet
detailing how to run school board elections. The
booklet explains everything from why a local should
get involved in school board elections to suggested
campaign activities to help pro-education candidates
win. Find the booklet at www.mnea.org at the Members
Only site under “Tools You Can Use.”
If you can’t download the booklet, call
Judy Glover for a copy. For additional campaign
or PAC information, call Leila Medley at (800)
392–0236.
How
can a local get recognition as the exclusive representative
for its school district?
“The bottom line is that
the bargaining representative should legitimately
represent the employees in the bargaining unit,”
says MNEA Director of Field Services and Organizing
Patrick Harvey. “That means the basic strategy
in every local is ‘organize, organize, organize!’
Above all, organizing means building a local’s
power. In the absence of enabling legislation,
school districts and their employees are empowered
to work out on their own how the recognition process.
That means we can win recognition by persuading
our local school boards, administrators and higher
education institutions to work out a democratic
process for selecting the bargaining representative.
“Building power to win recognition
means building the power to approach administrators
as equal partners in crafting a process. It means
building power by communicating clearly and effectively
with our members to keep them up to speed on bargaining
issues and learning from the members what issues
are important to them. And it means building power
in local school board elections. If we succeed
in organizing to build power in our locals, we
will then be able to move forward in partnership
with employers to craft a process that ensures
that educators are genuinely selecting ‘representatives
of their own choosing’ for the bargaining
process. In some cases, the result will be voluntary
recognition of an MNEA local by its local school
board. Most often, however, this will mean convincing
the local board or institution to hold a representation
election.
“MNEA
stands by with all the assistance local leaders
will need to succeed in meeting the challenge.
Local leaders can begin accessing that assistance
with a simple telephone call to their UniServ
director or a visit to the MNEA Web site. MNEA
has established a Bargaining Assessment Team.
The BAT will visit with local leaders to assess
the local’s readiness for bargaining and
to recommend the first steps in the process of
organizing for bargaining power.”
Some
school districts are set up with “umbrella”
education associations including members from
MNEA and MSTA. How does this organizational structure
help or hurt local bargaining efforts?
“It’s really very
simple,” Harvey says. “Bargaining
through a so-called ‘umbrella’ group
is not real collective bargaining—period.
The word ‘collective’ in ‘collective
bargaining’ means just that, bargaining
together with a unified, single voice. Umbrella
groups are all about the opposite, an open invitation
to divide and conquer. An umbrella group brings
a true collective bargaining voice like MNEA to
the table, but then seeks to undercut that voice
by mixing in splinter groups that represent fringe
positions and, above all, groups like MSTA that
have historically been bitterly opposed to the
entire collective bargaining process. Collective
bargaining is not fragmented bargaining. Umbrella
groups are all about fragmenting the employee
voice.”
|
|
Campaigning for high stakes
Reed’s Spring local works school
board election to keep veteran teacher Mike Collins in the
classroom.
Sixteen-year-old Matthew credits his new direction for the
future to one special teacher whose compassion and guidance
led him to getting his life back on track. Now a junior, he
regrets his mistakes but is moving past them and has his sites
set high for the future.
Reed’s Spring NEA member Mike Collins is the teacher
who turned Matthew and others like him on to school—giving
them the push they need to get in the groove toward a positive
future.
A 28-year teaching veteran, Collins learned last spring that
one unfortunate incident could set his world spinning into
chaos. His teaching career slammed into a concrete wall when
he lost his temper in the classroom and said the “F”
word. A couple of boys were bullying two special-needs students
in Collins’ class. When Collins tried to talk to the
boys about their behavior after the other students had left
class, the boys became disrespectful.
“I lost my temper and used an inappropriate word,”
Collins explains. He met with the boys again the following
day, complimented them on their improved behavior and apologized
for the language he had used the day before. Word got out,
and Collins, an experienced, respected, award-winning teacher
in his community, lost his job.
That was last spring. Now Collins is back in the classroom.
The tale of how this Missouri NEA member’s local MNEA
affiliate and community stood behind him would inspire any
education employee.
Trouble brewing
In January 2007, two students transferred into Collins’
Natural Science class after making the rounds with other teachers
and proving to be more of a discipline problem than anyone
could handle. The administrators and counselor told Collins
that they valued his strong classroom-management skills and
wanted him to work with these students.
Prior to the addition of the two new students, Collins’
class comprised 28 at-risk students, more than half with IEPs.
Collins received no instruction on how to work with the boys,
who had been unsuccessful in other classrooms. He also did
not receive any details on the boys’ specific behavior
problems. He asked that the boys be separated, but his request
was denied. During the month of January, the boys were escorted
in handcuffs by local police officers for an alleged violent
incident. After a week’s absence, they returned to Collins’
class. They bullied the special-needs students in class, in
the hall, in the locker room, in the bathroom, wherever they
could get away with it. Collins asked administrators to help
but was unable to get results due to the lack of surveillance
cameras in the problematic areas. Three days later, Collins
called the boys out after class to discuss the unacceptable
behavior, the incident that quickly spiraled into Collins
losing his job.
An outstanding teacher
Students work to finish their assignments in other
classes so that they can slip away to the science lab. Any
observer can see that Collins has a gift for turning teens
on to science.
Matthew was suspended from school after he was caught with
alcohol on a school bus. His grades were poor, and he needed
guidance. Collins could see Matthew’s potential.
“When I came back to school, Mr. Collins was very reassuring
and motivated me to get back on track to get my grades where
they should be,” Matthew says. “He made sure that
I knew what I did wrong and that I learned from my mistakes.
He made me realize that I cannot just give up because something
bad happened and must keep going. He helped me catch up in
all my classes. I love him as a teacher. He’s a great,
great teacher. I was very emotional about what happened to
him. We wanted him back.”
Matthew’s mistake cost him his opportunity to be in
the A Plus program, which provides post-secondary financial
incentives to students who meet certain academic criteria
in high school. He still, however, has big dreams and is committed
to achieving them.
“Mr. Collins makes the classroom extremely interactive
and fun,” Matthew explains. “He tries to get us
an education. He takes the extra step to make sure it’s
not just another high school classroom. When we come in here,
it’s rigorous and challenging, and it’s relevant
to us and our lives. He takes the extra time to stay after
and listen to my story about how my day went or what I’m
doing in the garage, and he asks me questions that relate
to what we’re doing in class at the time.”
In 2002, President George W. Bush recognized Collins’
school district recycling operation as the top environmental
project in the country. Collins also initiated a state-of-the-art
greenhouse that supplies plants to area businesses, including
Silver Dollar City. Collins uses these real-life projects
to give his science students hand-on learning opportunities
with real consequences. He teaches college-preparatory dual
credit biology, botany, natural science, stream team, and
manages the greenhouse and recycling operation.
Awards, which he credits to his students, adorn Collins’
classroom wall. Among his accolades are more than a dozen
awards for the greenhouse project, the recycling project and
the stream team, in addition to earning recognition as the
Walmart Missouri Teacher of the Year and the Missouri Department
of Natural Resources Water Educator of the Year.
The termination
When Collins found himself on administrative leave
pending an investigation of the Jan. 24 incident, he immediately
contacted his MNEA UniServ director, Sharon Matti. Administrators
told Collins he had been accused of threatening students with
physical violence and using inappropriate language. Matti
and fellow UniServ Director Gerald Bonham worked with Collins
to begin processing a grievance on the premise that he had
not received the bullying-prevention training required by
school district policy.
Immediately after Collins requested a grievance form, the
school district brought charges against him for “threatening
students with physical violence.”
“The MNEA representatives were wonderful,” Collins
says. “They were very professional and put in many hours
on the case.”
On Feb. 21, 2007, about a month after the incident, the
school board met. Due to the number of citizens attending
on Collins’ behalf, the fire martial insisted that the
meeting relocate to the school gymnasium. More than 800 people
attended the meeting. Eight community members signed up to
speak on Collins’ behalf. One community member presented
the board with a petition signed by more than 1,000 people
to put Collins back in the classroom. A former student started
a Web page to put the word out about what was happening and
initiated an online petition. All this activity on Collins’
behalf occurred without Collins’ knowledge or involvement.
Still the board did not sway in its decision and voted to
proceed with the termination.
MNEA legal benefits
After the school board meeting, MNEA appointed Loretta
Haggard, from St. Louis labor law firm Schucat, Cook and Werner,
Collins’ attorney.
“We began to prepare for the public hearing,”
Collins explains. “MNEA paid for all my attorney fees.
Having legal representation is one of the most important benefits
that comes with my NEA membership. I cannot say enough how
pleased I was with my attorney. She was prepared, informed,
ethical and professional in her handling of all aspects of
my case.”
As the hearing date drew near, Collins began to question
whether going through the board hearing would be productive.
Since the board meeting, he had observed that the majority
of the board members had turned a deaf ear on the community.
He decided that a public hearing would create a giant uproar
and still not get his job back. He opted to retire.
A new plan of action
In March, community members again attended the school
board meeting and voiced support for Collins. This story wasn’t
finished.
The Reed’s Spring local MNEA leaders had a reason
to get involved in the next school board campaign. They wanted
Collins back in the classroom and a new political climate
in the school district. They knew the best way to achieve
their goals was to change the composition of the school board.
Three of the incumbent board members were up for re-election,
and all three had voted not to reinstate Collins.
“Sometimes you wonder if your community is just not
aware of what is happening in their schools or if they just
don’t care,” Collins says. “After the April
election, I knew my community cared about what was happening
in their district. I learned that when you give your community
the facts, and they appreciate what you do as a teacher for
their children, they will do the right thing.”
One of Collins’ biggest community advocates is 69-year-old
Mary Cox, who has volunteered in Reed’s Spring schools
for the last 13 years.
“I was there fighting for him the whole way,”
says Cox, who expresses gratitude for what Collins did to
help her granddaughter build self esteem and overcome the
effects of bullying. “I spoke at every board meeting,
and I told them that I’ve had phone calls from teachers
and students begging me not to give up on this fight. If it
hadn’t been for Mike Collins, my granddaughter wouldn’t
be where she is today. Bullying doesn’t go well with
me at all. He stands up for kids, and I’m proud of that.”
Victory
Voters turned out in record numbers and voted to
remove the three incumbents and replace them with three new
board members. The new board asked Collins to come back to
the classroom.
The principal and the superintendent left the district, all
staff received MNEA’s bullying-prevention training prior
to the new school year, and Collins received anger-management
counseling.
The Reed’s Spring NEA doubled in membership this past
fall as a result of Collins’ story and MNEA’s
advocacy efforts on his behalf.
“This experience has made our local stronger,”
says Tonya Lewis, Reed’s Spring NEA president. “People
who haven’t been involved for years have come back into
leadership positions. And we’ve seen MSTA members change
their membership to MNEA because they know MNEA will be there
for them if they need help.”
Collins is happy to be back in the classroom with his students,
and they’re happy he’s back.
“The support shown by my community has been overwhelming,”
Collins says. “It’s humbling to know that your
community appreciates what you do. We could not have come
through all of this without the support of the community,
colleagues, friends, family and NEA.”
Story and photos by Debra
Angstead, MNEA communication director
sb,
winter '07 |
