Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/189657
Advocacy Bay Area: Networking is power BY MIKE MYSLINSKI F R O M O R G A N I Z I N G L O C A L communities to beating back school district demands for salary and benefit cuts, Bay Area bargaining coalitions are actively accomplishing union work that touches many classrooms and neighborhoods. Teachers know that networking is power, says Brian Wheatley, president of the Evergreen Teachers Association in San Jose, whose members just ended an 18-month contract fight by ratifying a new contract on Sept. 26 that provides a 3 percent raise and protects a health benefits trust for retirees. Neighboring CTA chapter members helped close the deal by appearing at protest rallies and school board meetings as part of a coalition strategy of the Mount Hamilton Coordinating Council. "Thanks to our coalition council, our school board trustees knew that the South Bay was watching their actions and that educators were concerned about the choices they were making," Wheatley says. "The strategy of solidarity really works." His council meets regularly in Santa Clara County with educators from nine school districts, including Alum Rock, Berryessa, East Side Union High School District, Franklin-McKinley, Milpitas and Mt. Pleasant. As Evergreen's fight escalated, other chapter members brought water and snacks to the Evergreen picket lines, and many attended a key June 13 school board meeting in a show of solidarity. Other coalitions target entire communities. In addition to bargaining issues, the Cordelia Leadership Council tackles community building. The council consists of educators from five school districts in Napa and Solano counties — Vallejo, Fairfield-Suisun, Vacaville, Napa and Travis — that support a group called Common Ground to mobilize local cities around education and social issues, says Christal Watts, president of the Vallejo Education Association, which helped launch the community mobilizing effort. Watts says the other Cordelia Council members are exploring whether to join Common Ground and pay dues for its community organizing staff, as Vallejo teachers do. The Common Ground group sent an organizer to a recent council meeting. In recent years, council members shared furlough cuts strategies for collective bargaining purposes as school districts coped with huge cuts. Evergreen Teachers Association members demonstrate at a joint rally in January to support their neighbors in the Mt. Pleasant Education Association. Discussions about training needs at her council resulted in Vallejo educators planning a free Nov. 14 workshop about professional rights and responsibilities titled "Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll," which is open to all educators in the council's area. Location info is at myvea.org. San Benito County educators find there is wisdom in CTA chapters meeting and sharing. "Coordinated bargaining is a strategy that has proven effective in San Benito County over the past several years," says Joyce Medeiros, president of the Aromas/ San Juan Teachers Association, one of five CTA chapters working together in that area. The others are the San Benito High School Teachers Association, the Hollister Elementary School Teachers Association, the North County Teachers Association, and the Southside Teachers Association. "Given the close proximity of these districts, it made sense for the associations to work together on their bargaining proposals in order to prevent the districts from playing one chapter against the other," Medeiros says. She recalls how this process paid off to stop districts from the unequal compensation of some teachers attending the same workshops offered by the San Benito County Office of Education. "The superintendents had never experienced this type of increased bargaining strength by San Benito County local associations and could not justify to local presidents why some teachers were paid for 7.5 hours and others for 5 hours for attending the same training," she says. "Coordinated bargaining helped the local chapters with improved settlements that would be difficult to achieve if acting alone." OCTOBER 201 3 Educator 10 Oct 2013 v2.1 int.indd 35 www.cta.org 35 10/7/13 9:39 PM