Is Signing of new SEA Contract Near?
In the comments section at the Times about an education op-ed, there was this recent comment:
Just in from "the bargain." SEA Prez Knapp guarantees they will get what they came to the table for - 1% across the board. All that other stuff is just confusinggggg. Membership will vote on the 500 page package in two hours at a place to be named later. SEA recommends passage as the best contract the district would offer.
A bit hard to decipher. They will get a raise but everything else is up in the air? Is a raise all teachers want (hard to believe given their rising workload).
We'll keep you up-to-date as news comes in.
Just in from "the bargain." SEA Prez Knapp guarantees they will get what they came to the table for - 1% across the board. All that other stuff is just confusinggggg. Membership will vote on the 500 page package in two hours at a place to be named later. SEA recommends passage as the best contract the district would offer.
A bit hard to decipher. They will get a raise but everything else is up in the air? Is a raise all teachers want (hard to believe given their rising workload).
We'll keep you up-to-date as news comes in.
Comments
IF you're 1 of the minions, or 1 of the clueless, and you do NOT think the internet could be and should be used to keep due$ paying members informed, updated and in the loop, THEN you would label someone like me as a malcontent troublemaker, AND you will line up with no notice and rubber stamp whatever the Jonathan Mary Lindquist sell outs push at you.
The other 85% of us - 88% of whom are so turned off they won't even vote - are in the dark, and are so fed up lots will rubber stamp anything just to get out of another interminable SEA meeting.
There was an attempt to require a 48 hour review of a new contract before a vote, however it was successfully killed in Jonathan's Potemkin democracy.
While the Time's comment might have as much of a grasp on hyperbole and reality as my comment here - the lower your expectations, the more likely you are to not be disappointed.
KillJoy
KillJoyToo
CT
The Union That's Afraid to Fight
I have decided to name his piece "The Union That's Afraid to Fight". I will be spending some time talking about the Seattle Education Association. Since I believe in truth in advertising, I want to make it clear that I am not anti-union. I am am anti-poor leadership. I think that the current leadership of John Knapp and Olga Addae have a lack of leadership for the union they have been elected to represent.
I say this because Knapp and Addae have rolled over on every issue, from Teach For America to adequate staffing for schools. They have become way too cozy with the current superintendent. They gush all over her, as if she can do no wrong. I have been saying for some time that this is the only union leadership that could be hijacked though the U.S. Mail. They could receive a ransom note in the mail asking to hand over everything and they would give it all away.
We saw lack of leadership when a parent of a student, Joy Anderson, brought a lawsuit to stop the Teach For America. John Knapp and Olga Addae were nowhere to be found. Ms. Anderson tried to contact the union for help and support to file the lawsuit, and did not even receive a return phone call. They ran for the hills and did not support or argue for the rights of the union or their members. They were elected to help out the members of the union, yet they sit on their asses and things get worse.
The other point is that the union leadership puts zero political capitol out on the line. They don't rally or fight for any rights of anyone. I confronted John Knapp about his Buddy the superintendent and why he didn't organize a better opposition against Teach For America and the ED Reform Movement? John said he did when he did at the floor meeting in Chicago. But I laughed and said what does Chicago have to do with Seattle?
John Knapp and Olga Addae need to fight here at the local level. Why is nothing happening here in Seattle? Why is the local leadership rolling over and playing dead?
I am also astounded at the disconnect between members and union officials. I constantly hear and talk to people about how there is lack of support for the members of the union. Only 25% of the members even bothered to vote in the last election. Clearly there is some malaise and disgust in the rank and file.
I also asked John Knapp whey the Seattle Association will join the American Labor Movement? He said they have been part of it for a long time. According to the labor movement I grew up with they fight for rights, they work with the teachers and staff to get things done. But there have been no fights for rights at all. They only time I see John Knapp and Olga Addae fight is when they are asking for dues.
This is my direct appeal for Knapp and Addae. Step aside and allow someone whom can advocate for the rights of it's members and against the ED Reform Movement. Let someone be in charge whom will get things done and not waste time or money.
I think Jesse Hagopian, a history teacher at Garfield, could be an outstanding union representative. He know how to make a solid argument and fight for the rights of the community and the labor force.
If you are paying dues and getting no help from your current leadership you have to turn around and sue. You should not give away your dues if you are not getting anything in return. Likewise it is not right for them to take the money without helping when help is needed.
I do know that Olga Addae goes to union protests, but once there she likes to talk up a storm with no action behind it. No planned pushback.
Even the vampires do more during daylight hours then John Knapp and Olga Addae do in a whole day combined.
In closing, please, please, please resign from the union and let some fresh young, willing person take over. Someone whom wants to do things for the union members. The Seattle School union can't afford another year of being ran into the ground.
-sped parent
-parent
has any SEA teacher out there had more than 1 weekly update on the bargain? I'm a building RA, as is a friend, and we'be both only had 1 weekly update. Maybe our school is on the list: keep-those-uncooperative-complainers-in-the-dark ????????
Maybe someday I'll grow up and learn that solidarity and unity is shutting the frack up and doing what the leaders have told us peons to do because, according to the leaders, that is what
ThePeonsWant
Hogwash