Aug 2, 2009

California Dreamin' & WTU Contract Talks

I along with approximately 30-40 committed teachers met out in Los Angeles, California at the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) union headquarters last week . We represented over 5 cities. Our goal was to create a national agenda of education reform along with organizing in our local unions along with the community organizing many of us are already engaged in. Amongst are group are some young teachers and their opposition to wanna be' education reformers like Klein/Rhee types is awe inspiring to paraphrase Education Notes on Line blogger.

News Flash
I recently received a call of concern from a reliable source regarding the Washington Teachers Union contract talks. There may be a teachers union contract coming soon for teachers to vote on. This insider source indicated that the WTU and AFT Prez Randi Weingarten crew are selling out to Rhee while figuring out a way to make it look like a great victory for the teachers.
Teachers beware ! Read the fine print. Stay tuned for more.

Posted by The Washington Teacher

13 comments:

Old School DCPS said...

DC teachers are grown ups, smart and competent. If this contract is really crap, teachers will see through it and vote it down. If the majority wants it, it will go through. But Lord God, let us see a contract to vote on and decide for ourselves.

Macy said...

Desperate for money- people do desperate things especially during these economic times. All Candi is providing is some inside information that we obviously don't have. Teachers should be encouraged to read the fine print and this has nothing to do with being grown up, smart or competent.

Too often many teachers only want to know about our cost of living raises. Later they complain about the contract when they get fired unjustly or get excessed after they voted on a contract they knew nothing about. The devil is in the details.

Anonymous said...

Most district teachers will roll over and play dead and sign this contract. WTU and AFT will tell them lie after lie and the teachers will listen to the village idiots and create even worse working conditions. The only people who will suffer is poor children who will have lost their greatest adovcate, their teacher.

Anonymous said...

I disagree I think their are some truly unethical teachers in the District that only do the bidding of whatever prinicpal or authority figure in in charge. Others will not understand the losses of rights that have been hid within this proposal and vote their pocketbook.

Anonymous said...

DC teachers would be wise to have an independent attorney review the contract prior to signing it. The impasse has been long, long, long and DCPS is not being led by an honest person. To further exacerbate things, the city is being led by a jackal. DON'T sign anything unless it is lucrative in the fine print.

Working Summer School said...

I can't wait to read the fine print and even the large print on a contract and then have the opportunity to vote it up or down. This is good news. Thanks Candi for this inside tip. Looking forward to hearing more about it.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Ms. Peterson I do plan to read the fine print. thanks.

I educ8 said...

I agree, Macy. As was the case with the last contract, folk saw dollar signs and voted YES, not considering that the raise was basically negated by the extended school year and extended school day. Yes, the devil is TRULY in the details.

We must remember that we ultimately have the power and can send the contract back to the table if it is not right. There's more to being "right" than a few extra dollars, especially if we won't be around to collect them!

Anonymous said...

Can you post a link to the Education on line blogger/article that your referenced in your opening paragraph?

For a sell-out see the NYC teacher's contract. Ours is probably worst.

Thanks for the heads-up Candi.

meaningful change said...

We need to look at the state of the WTU when talking about this issue. The WTU is in shambles. The leadership is fractured and I would bet money that if a reliable poll was taken, most members would rate George Parker's leadership as very poor. And Nathan Saunders would not fair any better.

Combine this with the fact that there has been virtually no significant mass organizing amongst teachers to protest Rhee's anti-teacher policies and you can see that teachers would vote for a crappy contract because they see no hope in getting anything better. Rhee is smart and she knows this.

I am extremely disappointed with Randi Weingarten's intervention. While she talks tough it seems that in the end she is willing to roll over and let Rhee get much of what she wants. It really shows how weak our local and national unions are. It also reveals how under confident our leaders are since they have decided not to mobilize the teachers and have defined a winning contract in such narrow terms.

I am literally disgusted with it all.

Dee Does DC said...

I just want to see some action.

Anonymous said...

As a memeber of the UFT, the local for which Randi Weingarten is the recent former president, I can only say that you can't trust Randi and that she really doesn't care about teachers, as she was never really a teacher herself and is actually an attorney and a careerist, of the most extreme, who only cares about herself. Thus, the members of the WTU had better be both very afraid and very careful: If you are not, you will end up with a draconian, union and union member-destroying contract like the UFT 2005 contract that we have here in the New York City Public Schools.
Remember, don't believe anything that Randi has to say, and don't be hoodwinked and bamboozled into going for the money and giving away your most important union rights. This is what happened in New York City, and the rank and file of the UFT are paying dearly for this.

The Washington Teacher said...

Anonymous:
Per your request, I posted Education Notes on Line's link. All you have to do is click on the name of Ed Notes and it will take you to his blog. Also on the right hand side of my blog, I have listed blog links. Ed Notes and NYC Educator, who happen to be two of my favorite bloggers are listed there.