Union Scandal

I almost forgot to update the status of our potential teacher strike - yes, apparently the teachers' union is still considering it. "Considering it" is tricky language however, because the union reps have realized that our disorganization has put us now in a place where we probably won't win anything from striking. The only amount of money we would win back would be the amount of money we would be losing by not coming in to work... at least that's how our rep explained it to us. The whole voting system is totally messed up, because we already voted to go on strike if the district did not meet our demands, and last week we had another union vote.

The slimy thing though, was that the vote was more or less weighted in one direction simply by the language on the ballot. Our reps presented the terms of our most recent contract, and we were to vote "yes, we accept those terms" or "no, we want to strike." On purpose, the union leaders did not include a choice saying, "no, we do not accept those terms" because they knew that the union members were afraid of doing a premature, disorganized strike. The word around Richmond High anyway is that they have given up and do not want to strike, so they are trying to legitimize the decision by making everyone vote to not strike and accept the offer. Confusing, I know. The situation would be funny if it weren't for the fact that the agreement says that teachers with families will still have to pay $500/mo on healthcare for their dependents starting January (among other things: class sizes, etc).

On top of that, word is that our union president is facing impeachment... or whatever you call it in a union. She definitely wants to go on strike, and school district gossip says that during the vote count (the initial count was in favor of not striking by only nine votes) she took them all to her room to do a "private recount" and found that the recount was in favor of striking. Scandalous, ridiculous, and totally disorganized. Welcome to West Contra Costa Unified School District.