|
1061 Tierra del Rey
Chula Vista, CA 91915
619-427-1370
|
www.seacta.org |
| Union Code of Conduct
I will not criticize any union colleague except to the individual directly. If any union colleague is being criticized in my presence, I will confront the criticism and ask that it stop. I will not participate in any conversations with management that criticize, or negativity speculate about any union colleague. I will settle my differences with colleagues within the union. I will engage in debate, offer others every opportunity for debate and respect the minority viewpoints, but I will observe and support the majority mandate of the union.
|
Do you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for The Advocate?
Email us!
|
|
|
 |
SEA Board & Bargaining Team to Visit Sites
The SEA is preparing for the next full round of bargaining which begins in February 2016 (we are currently bargaining over just salary and benefits). In order to understand members values and concerns, the SEA Board of Directors, as well as members of the bargaining team and organizing committee, will be engaging in a listening tour at all sites.  In the coming weeks, each site's assigned board member
will visit and conduct a group meeting. The board member will ask a series of open ended questions designed to solicit feedback that will help the SEA leadership and bargaining team determine our collective values and goals for bargaining. The questions will be:
1. What do you like best about your job?
2. What is making your job difficult?
3. What would make your job easier, or more satisfying?
These site visits are expected to conclude by the last week in October. During November, the SEA Board of Directors, bargaining team, and organizing committee will participate in a discernment, reviewing feedback from the site visits. The information gleaned will be shared at the November Rep Council. Reps will be expected to share the discernment results with rank and file members for additional feedback prior to the December Rep Council.
This process is designed to ensure that members have a greater voice in bargaining, and will hopefully provide the bargaining team with greater insight into specific areas of focus that may not traditionally have been considered. Of course, the bargaining team will also conduct open hearings and surveys.
Below is a chart detailing which board member will be responsible for visiting your site. SEA asks that you pay attention to any email communications from your reps or board member so that you can attend the group meeting. This is our contract. Our voice. Our union.
| Board Member |
Sites Assigned |
|
Gretel Rodriguez
|
SYH, SOM, SOH, Alta Vista
|
|
James Love
|
CVH, CVM, Alt Ed
|
| Gene Chavira |
MOM, MOH, MVA, MVH |
| Ola Hadi |
OHS, ELH, ELM, Eat Hills |
| Julie Walker |
RDR, BVM, TOSAS |
| Cesar Fernandez |
OTR, BVH, OSS/Portal |
| Jasper Daleo |
NCM, GJR, SUHI |
| Sandy Finkelberg |
HTH, HTM, CPH, CPM |
| Helen Farias |
PAH, CVA, MOA, SYA, NCA |
|
|
Your union at work for you!
As a SEA/CTA/NEA member, you are entitled to certain services and benefits. One of the most important services your union provides you is representation in the event of disciplinary action or a change in working conditions. Do you know your Weingarten Rights? These provide the following:
"If an employee has a reasonable belief that discipline or other adverse consequences may result from what he or she says, the employee has the right to request union representation. When the employee makes the request for a union representative to be present management has three options:
(1) it can stop questioning until the representation arrives.
(2) it can call off the interview or,
(3) it can tell the employee that it will call off the interview unless the employee voluntarily gives up his/her rights to union representation (an option the employee should always refuse)."
It is important that you exercise your Weingarten Rights when called into a potential disciplinary meeting or a meeting that may result in a change in your working conditions. We never recommend option 3. Always have a representative present before you answer any questions or make any statement.
You may wish to print the statement below and keep it on hand. A meeting with the principal can be intimidating, and it is helpful to know exactly what to say.
|
America Works Together Coalition Launched to Protect Rights in Landmark Case Before the U.S. Supreme Court
[This week], a wide array of groups launched America Works Together, a new coalition to protect the rights of public service workers to negotiate together. These longstanding rights are under renewed attack from wealthy special interests in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, a marquee case that will be heard this term by the U.S. Supreme Court. This case, which deals with the rights of people who work in public service like teachers, firefighters, nurses, and social workers, threatens to make it even harder for people to come together, speak up, and get ahead.
"America's economy has swung out of balance. It's getting harder to get by, let alone get ahead," said Dovard Howard, a certified control systems technician at the Metropolitan Water District Henry J. Mills Treatment Plant in Riverside, California. "Almost no one stands up for average Americans these days, and now this Supreme Court case threatens to make it even worse.
Everyone who works should be able to make ends meet, have a say about their futures, and have the right to negotiate together for better wages and benefits that can sustain their family."
America Works Together consists of a growing list of 30 civil rights, faith, health, labor, legal, progressive, and women's organizations, as well as leading public service unions, including the National Education Association (NEA), American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and California Teachers Association (CTA). A full list of the coalition members can be found at
AmericaWorksTogether.us, which also features more information about what's at stake for our country and millions of families who work and still struggle to live a good life.
"We all benefit when working people are able to negotiate together for better wages and benefits and fight for things like smaller class sizes, better learning environments for our students, quicker emergency response times and better staffing at hospitals. These are benefits that impact everyone in our community. We need to ensure that the rights of working people to come together in a union remain strong so that our nation remains strong," said Peter Grebner, a secondary school teacher in St. Paul, Minnesota.
The Center for Individual Rights and other ideologically-driven groups financed by wealthy special interests and corporate CEOs are asking the Supreme Court to upend nearly four decades of precedent in order to hinder the rights of public service workers to negotiate together. This would represent a radical reinterpretation of our Constitution and the First Amendment.
"I'm proud to be part of this effort to protect the voices of working people and ensure we can continue joining together. I've been a teacher for 21 years and I've seen all we've been able to do together to improve our public schools, our profession and our communities. We are all stronger together," said Lysa Sassman, a second grade teacher in Auburn, California.
A
Gallup poll released last month showed that Americans' support for labor unions continues to climb and stands at 58 percent. A
new study by released last week by researchers at Harvard and Wellesley Universities and the Center for American Progress highlights the benefits that increased union membership confers on communities. This builds on other research underscoring the connection between increased union membership, economic mobility, and a more balanced economy that allows working to sustain their families.
"For 13 years I've woken up every single day focused on keeping children safe. It's disheartening to think the Supreme Court could make it hard for us to advocate for the children we protect and the families we serve. Our work is far too important," said Robert Bullock, a child protection worker in Massachusetts.
Oral arguments in Friedrichs v. CTA have not yet been scheduled, but the case is expected to be argued in December 2015 or January 2016.
|
NEA Presidential Endorsement Controversy
Controversy is brewing within the rank and file membership of the National Education Association over President Lily Eskelsen Garcia's push to endorse Hillary Clinton during the primaries. President Eskelsen Garcia has called for the NEA Board of Directors and members of the NEA Fund Council (NEA's PAC) to conduct a vote during the first week of October to endorse Hillary Clinton in the primary elections. Interestingly, NEA's policy on endorsements allows the Board of Directors and NEA Fund Council members to vote on an endorsement for the primaries without taking the matter to the NEA- Representative Assembly; this move effectively bypasses the approximately 8,000 member voting body of the NEA.
Many delegates who represented their local and state associations at last summer's NEA-RA are outraged as they feel Eskelsen Garcia's move defies the intent of New Business Item (NBI) 79, that was debated and approved at the RA. NBI 79 reads, "
NEA, as an organization, will actively engage in conversation and outreach on the NEA endorsement process with all 2016 Presidential campaigns prior to the consideration of a primary recommendation." 
According to Brannin Dorsey, from Fremont Teachers Association and a delegate to the RA for the past 8 years, the debate surrounding NBI 79 was whether the NEA should endorse any candidate early, as was done for President Obama in 2012. The overwhelming majority agreed that there would be no early endorsements without first engaging with rank and file membership. At no point were the delegates informed that the NEA Board and PAC had the ability to endorse during the primary elections.
It is worth noting that the last time the NEA endorsed during the primaries was during Jimmy Carter's 1977 campaign. This was also the first election where the NEA endorsed any presidential candidate.
Not all take issue with the early endorsement of Clinton. NEA Executive Board Member, George Sheridan, took his rationale for support to social media, posting the following on Facebook:
. . . If we should support Mrs. Clinton, when is the best time? Our experience in 2008 suggests that if we wait until after all the primaries, NEA will be irrelevant to her campaign. And NEA will have missed its best opportunity to shape her policy positions.
Our California primary is not until June, but early primaries begin in February. If the Fund Council and NEA Board postpone the decision until their next meeting in February, we will be too late to influence the majority of primaries. . . .
Some have questioned why other candidates were not included on the conference call, or in additional calls. Recognize that while individuals may not have made up their minds about whom to support or what action NEA should take, Lily has. She is making a recommendation. She gave us all an opportunity to hear information and ask questions that would help us vote "yes" or "no" on her recommendation.
I am voting "yes."
Sheridan's logic (read the full FB post here) has done little to appease those in opposition to the endorsement, or to assuage the feeling that President Lily Eskelsen Garcia has sold out her membership for political expediency. As Brannin Dorsey explains:
Lily was the president that was supposed to be different. She was my hope, our hope of transforming NEA in these rough and tumble times. I am beyond disappointed. . . . Maybe it is because I am mad at myself for being "taken in" by Lily and hoping that she was going to be different and maybe I am just hurt. Our union, our voice! Lily coming to a conclusion has nothing to do with us. It's about some backroom deal with Randi [Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers] and Hillary.
NEA members from across the nation are organizing in an effort to squash this primary endorsement. The NEA BATs Caucus has
drafted a letter to NEA leadership requesting no endorsement that has garnered over 80 signatures of rank and file members. Labor for Bernie, and grassroots organizing group composed of various union members nationwide, is
calling on NEA members to urge their state leadership to vote "No" on any early endorsement. Read their sample letter
here.
Many member have taken to expressing their outrage on their blogs. Below are just a few examples:
Editor's Note: Despite scouring the Internet, not a single article or blog praising a NEA endorsement of Clinton could be located.
SEA encourages you to tell your California NEA Board Representatives your opinion. Copy and paste these email addresses:
eheins@cta.org,
dgoldberg@cta.org
tmontano@cta.org
jbtt123@gmail.com,
hopkins_mr_b@yahoo.com
colleen4nea@gmail.com,
l.crow@sbcglobal.net,
t_freeman@cox.net
maruk@cox.net
sschuett@bak.rr.com
sososonia@aol.com,
hdoreen@att.net,
clairemerced@gmail.com,
kristapca@gmail.com,
rvrodriguez81@yahoo.com,
bomtabill@gmail.com,
Barbara.schulman@gmail.com,
tracylee88@verizon.net
r-ellis@juno.com
3puttskenny@gmail.com
ERILYJ@aol.com
MVEAku51@aol.com.
neafund@nea.org
These are the videos that candidates made to show at the NEA-RA.
|
|
| Hillary Clinton's NEA-RA video |
|
|
| Bernie Sanders NEA-RA video |
|
|
| Martin O'Malley NEA-RA video |
What do you think? Should NEA endorse Hillary Clinton in the primaries? Take the SEA poll
here.
|
|
Meetings and Important Dates
September 28 SUHSD Board Meeting, 6 pm
October 5 SEA Adult School Committee @ SCTU 4-5 pm
October 6-7 Site Rep Training @ SCTU, 4-6 pm
October 12 SUHSD Board Meeting, 6 pm
October 13 SEA BOD @ SCTU, 4 pm
October 20 SEA Rep Council @ SCTU, 4 pm
October 23-25 CTA State Council
October 26 SUHSD Board Meeting, 6 pm
November 10 SEA BoD @ SCTU, 4 pm
November 17 SEA Rep Council @ SCTU, 4 pm
December 15 SEA BoD and Rep Council @ SCTU, 4 pm
|
|
| |
| |
|
