MNEA successfully holds levy against anti-public education legislation

Missouri NEA fought throughout the 2008 legislative session for its priorities for children and public education. A key focus was protecting the recently reclaimed collective bargaining rights for all education employees. Many proponents of anti-public education schemes regarded the 2008 legislative session as their last opportunity to implement those harmful provisions before the 2008 elections.

The possible election of Attorney General Jay Nixon as a pro-public education governor and election of more pro-public education legislators to both the House and Senate in November 2008 offer the possibility that 2009 and following years will offer fewer opportunities for those attacks on public education to move forward in the legislature.

In the 2008 session, legislators not supportive of public education launched anti-public education attacks with renewed intensity. In a session where success was primarily measured in the defeat of undesirable bills, the MNEA was successful in stopping nearly all of those harmful proposals. MNEA also sought to build relationships with legislators in support of a consensus to support children, adequately fund public education and respect the rights of education employees. More than 1,000 members supported the Association’s efforts by coming to the MNEA Capitol Action Days, calling legislators or sending e-mails in response to legislative-action alerts. In addition, the daily Legislative Update provided timely information by e-mail to more than 1,000 MNEA members and other education stakeholders.

What’s next?

Public educators must continue their work to squelch extreme attacks on education and the public sector. Association members must step up and lead the effort by getting involved in the 2008 election. To ensure a more promising 2009 legislative session, education employees need to focus their efforts on electing legislators and candidates who are willing to support children, adequately fund public schools and respect education employee rights. By supporting and electing pro-education candidates with time and money, MNEA members can help elect a legislature that will lead Missouri forward to workable solutions for prosperity, access and possibility.

MNEA protects bargaining rights against MSTA anti-bargaining bill

Missouri NEA’s highest legislative priority in 2008 was to protect the newly restored collective bargaining rights for public education employees. In a historic decision in May 2007, the Missouri Supreme Court restored the right of all public employees (including teachers) to bargain collectively with employers. In contrast, MSTA fought against collective bargaining for years and filed a brief last year urging the Missouri Supreme Court to deny teachers a voice in the collective bargaining process.

MSTA would still prefer that school employee bargaining rights go away, and to that end they drafted and supported Senate Bill 1158 (Rob Mayer) and House Bill 2059 (Kevin Wilson). Both bills would have denied all Missouri teachers the opportunity to select a bargaining representative of their choosing through a free and uncoerced election. MNEA leaders, staff and members stepped up and lobbied strenuously to defeat those bills. H.B. 2059 managed to squeak through the House but was stopped in the Senate Education Committee without enough support to gain passage.

H.B. 2059 discriminates against teachers by treating them unfairly, denying them their right to freely elect a bargaining representative and restricting their bargaining rights in ways imposed on no other public or private employees. The bill is also impractical and unworkable and will disrupt successful relationships in many of our largest school districts.

An effective bargaining process must have a unified employee voice. Piecing a bargaining team together from various groups, as both the above bills propose, builds a communications gap into the process and leaves teachers scrambling for a cohesive voice. The bill would force teachers to form an unelected representative council, an extra layer of bureaucracy, which would make reaching agreement difficult if not impossible. Of the 35 states where teachers bargain collectively, no state mandates a process similar to the one proposed in MSTA’s bills.

The bargaining model that has proven effective over time in state after state is the exclusive representation model. MNEA believes that H.B. 2030 (Jenee` Lowe) and S.B. 1115 (Joan Bray) would treat all employees affected by the Court decision fairly. H.B. 2030 and S.B. 1115 were built on consensus among public employee groups, including teachers. MNEA believes every child has the basic right to attend a great public school, and nothing should dilute the voice of teachers in how that is accomplished. The Association needs strong member involvement in the 2008 election cycle to elect more pro-public education legislators who will support adequate funding for public education and respect the constitutional bargaining rights of all public education employees.

by Otto Fajen
MNEA legislative director

sb, summer '08