Size Counts

From the PSE of Washington Spring Newsletter:  

Regardless of what hat you're wearing, 2012 will be a pivotal year for working families, public workers, union members, and taxpayers. PSE continues to build power in many ways, including our COPE voluntary political contribution program. 241 members from 73 PSE chapters currently contribute to COPE.

From an email that WEA president Mary Lindquist sent out at the end of last month:  

I am so excited I wanted to send you a quick note before it reaches you. We have achieved a WEA-PAC milestone this year and in the last few days surpassed 30,000 members! I remember asking WEA members to join WEA-PAC every year because their membership expired every year. Well, those days are behind us (for now) and our success with payroll deduction has been amazing. We've grown by more than 3,400 members this year alone. We've grown because members like you have asked colleagues to join WEA-PAC all across the state. Our success translates into our ability to support pro-public education and pro-union candidates.

The WEA has more classified members who are involved politically than the PSE does.  This is a fact, and not open to debate.  This being how it is, when certain lobbyists step up to the table in Olympia and say that they are The Union representing classified employees in Washington State, my legislative friends need to know that they are full of crap.

Read more here, if any.

One More PAC Comment

The Public School Employees PAC gets most of their money (all but $20 out of more than $180,000) from the Public School Employees of Washington Union. One wonders if that is from members dues.

Read more here, if any.

The New Business Item I Considered, But Chickened Out On

Title: Repealing All Existing No-Raid Agreements

Background: Because of existing no-raid agreements between the WEA and other groups, we have limited our ability to bring new members into the Association.

Cost Implications: None.

WEA Goals and Objectives: Improve the quality of and access to public education for all students. Forge partnerships with parents, business, other unions, and community groups.

Recommendations: That the WEA immediately repeal and hold invalid any so-called "No Raid" agreement between the WEA and other collective representation groups, including but not limited to the PSE; and that any future "No Raid" agreements require the approval of the WEA Representative Assembly to be considered ratified.

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Now, the rest of the story:

Last December I had a one-off post wondering why there are no union raids in education in Washington State. It's not really a surprise that the teacher units don't change hands, given the Washington AFT's focus on colleges, but there are at least 3 different groups (SEIU, PSE, and the WEA; maybe the Teamsters and the AFL-CIO as well?) who could represent paraprofessionals, bus drivers, cooks, and the like.

In my district the PSE represents the support staff, and it's not for the best. The representation they get might be good enough, but when you have two units in the same district represented by different unions, there's a tension, especially in times of budget cuts. If we were all WEA we could work together, but when it's WEA v. PSE and jobs are on the line, it can be war. Administrators thrive on that, in a divide-and-conquer sense, and I've seen it happen far too often where admins stoke the fires to try and divert attention from what they're doing.

So I'd love to poach my local PSE, and in conversations with groups around the state I've heard many staff and other local presidents say the same thing. At a dinner in March I talked with a fairly high-level staffer and asked him, "What do you think about the no-raid agreements?"

"I hate them. We all hate them."

"OK. I've been thinking of dropping a new business item at Rep Assembly to override the no-raid agreements we have now. Would that work?"

"Probably. It'd be career suicide, though."

...

Well then. Career suicide isn't really something I'd like to do, so I thought I'd pull back and think things through some more.

This is a conversation that I'd love to have on a broader basis, though. If you'd like to talk, please drop me an email or hit me up on Facebook.

Read more here, if any.

Terry Bergeson and the WSLC: Big Deal, Little Deal, or No Deal?

An email received today that raised my eyebrows:

Thanks to Seattle Education Association who worked with their colleagues, the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 609, who represent Seattle School District ESP's. Local 609 delivered a rousing speech on the floor of Saturday's endorsement convention of the State Labor Council regarding Terry Bergeson's anti union support of charter schools and convinced the Labor Council, who had endorsed her in previous elections, to deny Terry Bergeson their endorsement this year.

It seems odd to me that an old stance on charter schools, which is a dead-as-a-doornail issue here in Washington State, would have any resonance. I would have expected criticism for underfunding the skills centers, or championing practices that have made it harder for kids to pursue a career in the trades, but charter schools?

A quick check of the Washington State Labor Council's website shows that they didn't endorse anybody for the OSPI race, which is a mild surprise to me when you consider that PSE Executive Director Randy Dorn has declared for the office; I maybe would have expected some inter-union synergy.

The crowd I hang with is decidedly in the "ditch the bitch" camp, so it's not a surprise that I hear a lot of anti-Bergeson buzz; it's just odd to me to see so little positive momentum, either. She's a 12 year incumbent, after all.

Read more here, if any.