The teachers unions are the voices of classroom teachers in every town, village and city. Teachers unions are one of the only checks against the power of school boards that are more and more influenced by those who want to privatize education. One of the reasons you want a strong union is to protect and empower individual teachers so they can advocate for individual classrooms in schools across the nation. Teachers consistently advocate for smaller class sizes, more resources directed toward classrooms and evaluation and testing that really helps classroom teachers perform better. Do you not see lifelong classroom teachers are the true advocates for strong neighborhood schools? The moneyed interests lined up against us are the Koch Brothers, the Walton Family and the like. Who do you believe is working to better the learning environment of our children? Is it the lifelong classroom teachers who day in and day out work to improve the lives of children or is it the corporate groups who say they want the best for children but work to pay their parents as little as possible. This week we are told by our union leadership we have a week to look over a tentative contract. I encourage everyone to attend the informational meetings starting next Monday. I believe we need more than a week to look at the proposed contract. Every member should be able to listen to discussions regarding the pros and cons of the proposed contract. This one week window really does not serve a democratic membership. A democratic membership deserves to be able to hear from people who have objections to parts of the proposed contract. Please contact the MFT 59 executive board and ask for more time to look at the contract. It is too important not to take the time to make sure members know the details of the contract before a vote is taken.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 05:08:12 +0000
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