Public Education Research, Analysis and Investigations

July 27, 2009

Indiana AFT Affiliate to End No-Raid Agreement with ISTA. Sources within both teachers' unions inform EIA that the Indiana Federation of Teachers (IFT is a branch of the AFT American Federation of Teachers) will opt out of the no-raid agreement it currently has with the NEA-affiliated Indiana State Teachers Association. The decision removes impediments to persuading current ISTA members and locals to switch unions and join IFT. ISTA has a host of financial problems and is under an NEA trusteeship. (read all state monies go to the national's coffers) IFT is only about one-tenth the size of ISTA, but could make a significant dent in the wake of the larger union's $40 dues increase coupled with staff layoffs and consolidation of regional offices. (CTA is about to do the same to us) Under normal circumstances, any battle would be strictly a Hoosier State affair. NEA and AFT have a national no-raid agreement, preventing either from lending assistance to the combatants. However, with an NEA trustee handling all of ISTA's finances, it's hard to see how the national unions can avoid knocking heads over the issue. A further complicating factor is the presence of the long-established Indiana Professional Educators, a non-union teachers' association. Outside of the NEA board of directors rubber-stamping the trusteeship during its meeting in San Diego prior to the opening of the representative assembly, the Indiana situation was not discussed on the convention floor, nor was it discussed in the state caucuses, if the delegates I spoke to are any indication. In the coming year, they may wish they had been let in on the secret. NEA and Private School Educators. At the 2008 NEA Representative Assembly, delegates approved New Business Item 79, which directed the union to "study the potential impact of opening Active membership to private school educators." A special committee examined the issue and presented its findings to the 2009 RA delegates.The report deals mostly with internal issues and contains no recommendations for a policy change, but it does have a couple of interesting paragraphs worth passing along: * "Although the size of the K-12 private school employee workforce is at the present time relatively small, that may not be the case in the future. Because of advances in technology, alternative financing arrangements, and other innovations, the way in which the nation's children are being educated is changing, and the line between the public sector and the private sector is becoming increasingly blurred. The emergence of 'virtual' elementary/secondary schools in some states, and the nationwide push for more charter schools (which the United State Department of Labor has asserted – incorrectly, we believe – are private sector entities for purposes of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act), are illustrative. Allowing K-12 private school employees to become NEA Active members would provide the flexibility necessary for NEA to deal with the foregoing situations and other situations that cannot now be fully anticipated." * "A desire to avoid LMRDA coverage is at least one of the reasons why some forty state affiliates do not at the present time seek to organize and represent any private sector education employees – even those who currently are eligible for NEA Active membership." * A Dose of Reality. Chances are you won't be seeing a list like this in the future.

Labor exec in Portland to address union dispute

by Bill Graves, The Oregonian

Monday July 20, 2009, 6:23 PM

Randi Weingarten, one of the nation's top labor leaders as head of the 1.4 million-strong American Federation of Teachers, was in Portland on Monday to help settle a conflict with one of the union's Oregon affiliates.

The AFT on July 7 removed three senior officers and the 17-member local executive board of the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals Local 5017 and seized the local's finances through a "protective order."

The AFT has charged that local leaders violated union bylaws by meeting in July and improperly using dues money to promote a move to sever from the teachers union. The action marks the fourth time in AFT's 93-year history that it has placed a local union under a temporary administratorship.

A three-member committee composed of three of AFT's 36 national vice presidents will conduct a hearing in about a week to decide whether the temporary takeover is warranted and to determine how local leadership should be restored. Weingarten appointed Mark Richard, a Florida labor lawyer, as trustee of the local.

AFT locals have the right to break away, but they must follow proper procedures in doing so, said Weingarten in an interview with The Oregonian.

"The goal here is to make sure members have a right to make a decision," said Weingarten, who just completed her first year as AFT president. "It is not about the leaders. It is about the members' democratic rights and their economic rights."

Kathy Geroux, who was removed as president of Local 5017, declined to comment. But she and union leaders released a statement defending their actions, saying the bylaws allow special meetings.

"We believe that everyone on the executive board will be vindicated of all the charges made," Geroux wrote.

The local represents about 3,000 registered nurses and health care workers at Kaiser Permanente in Oregon and Washington and another 125 at Providence Milwaukie Hospital. Weingarten says she wants to swiftly settle the internal union dispute so the local can focus on upcoming labor negotiations with hospitals in 2010.

Most of AFT's members are public school teachers. The union also represents some university professors, and it has an AFT Healthcare division that represents 70,000 workers nationwide.

The national union has become heavily involved in health care reform efforts underway in Congress, Weingarten said, noting that she and other labor leaders met with President Obama last week. AFT members also lobbied 50 congressional offices representing 25 states last week, she said.

The union is pushing for a health reform plan that includes a public health insurance option, a controversial proposal opposed by health insurers and many members of Congress. The AFT also knows "the hidden costs of cost cutting" in health care can mean overworked nurses, Weingarten said.

"We push very hard for safe staffing levels and push against mandatory overtime," she said, "because we know what that does in terms of deleterious effects on patient care."

The important fact not mentioned in this particular article was the Oregon local's Executive Board was acting against the expressed wishes of it's constituents. Further, I have to believe this could happen in California. Maybe to a near by district. CFT has a better reputation amongst the people I've talked to and after finding out that Sanchez came to our board meeting and did little more than beg his position (see below.) I am embarrassed by that. He made no aggressive speeches didn't talk about confrontational out comes. He came, was politely ignored and the DO and board will do what they want they no there will be no repercussions. The CTA exists in support of itself for the its own benefit at the expense of the locals and the members. No wonder the AFT feels the need to break their "no raiding" agreements.

I would lead that parade!