Union President #2

The year before I became President of our teachers union I spent two years as Vice President. My President was involved in coaching so a lot of the grievances and little problems were left for me to handle. I remember one case where a teacher from one of our four elementary schools was transferred from the one she taught at for 15 years to another one miles away.  Our contract allowed the Board of Ed. the power to make these decisions because we had no seniority rights. I met with this teacher and she informed me that the other teachers in her building did not like her because she was older and kept to herself. She told me they put pressure on the Principal to transfer her to another school and replace her someone else. She said that she lived next to her school and the transfer was to a building 10 miles away.  After talking to her I arranged a meeting with the Principal who told me that although she was a good teacher she did not blend in well with the other teachers. She did nothing wrong and he considered her a benefit to the district but felt keeping the peace among his staff was important. I met with her and told her we did not have a legal leg to stand on but were scheduled to present our case in public at the next school board meeting. I gathered parental support to speak for her. I advised her to let me do all the talking and keep her cool.

During the public meeting I felt that our side was making enough points to get the Principal's decision overturned. I became hopeful when the Principal told the board that the other teachers just did not like her and that was bad for moral. At this point she lost her composure and told the Principal to shove it and handed them her resignation and stormed out. Later she told me she just could not stand being treated in such a manner. I was shocked and really felt bad for a long time. No one else seemed to care much. Soon the incident blew over and things returned to normal. 

During a contract negotiation both sides never try to rewrite or agree on a new master contract.Every two or three years a new contract was put into place. To start from scratch would be too time consuming. Each side would usually make a list of eight to ten issues or points that were important to their side and negotiate on these issues.  We would usually start early in the spring of the contracts last year and finish up during the summer.  Many tears we would vote to accept a new contract on the first day of school.

Needless to say seniority, with bumping rights, was on our list during the next contract. In fact this section of our master contract became the backbone of teacher’s rights for years until the shit hit the fan years later. Stay tuned for the middle of my story. That will come when the mood hits me.