Letter I found in my mailbox the day before Thanksgiving:
Cynthia,
Something I recall from all the years I have lived through negotiations:
The board’s lawyer is just doing his job, which happens to be to break the union. His one goal is to get the teachers to fight amongst ourselves, to separate us – divide and conquer so to speak. If he succeeds in that goal, then he and the Board have won. And, it does not matter on what issue they divide us; any issue will suffice.
Unfortunately, it is a win/lose proposition at this point. Their negotiation style clearly demonstrates that their one goal is as mentioned above. If they succeed, we will lose everything the union has successfully negotiated for us in the past. They will nitpick over every little item, because they have the time and personnel to do so, until our union is a group in name only.
They will argue over the calendar, which I believe they see as really a minor issue, and then when we are exhausted over that issue, they will give in, give us what we want and then subsequently turn around and ask for something in return. That something will be something big: our insurance and pay raises. It is our families’ health, safety and security for which we are fighting. We are in a state of guerrilla warfare.
Their lawyer will earn an important title in the state of Michigan if he succeeds in breaking our union: union buster; all this in addition to the huge sums of money he is earning/taking from our students during our negotiation process. He will be in demand by boards of education to negotiate other teacher contracts. He will win. He will have good health insurance, and safety and security for his family. He will continue to live an upper middle class life style while we, and our families, continue to sink deeper into the lower socio-economic level. Their lawyer does not care about us; he will leave us – with a smile on his face if we allow him to do so. We will be just another notch on his belt, to paraphrase an old western concept.
Just my thoughts...
HCEA Member
Something I recall from all the years I have lived through negotiations:
The board’s lawyer is just doing his job, which happens to be to break the union. His one goal is to get the teachers to fight amongst ourselves, to separate us – divide and conquer so to speak. If he succeeds in that goal, then he and the Board have won. And, it does not matter on what issue they divide us; any issue will suffice.
Unfortunately, it is a win/lose proposition at this point. Their negotiation style clearly demonstrates that their one goal is as mentioned above. If they succeed, we will lose everything the union has successfully negotiated for us in the past. They will nitpick over every little item, because they have the time and personnel to do so, until our union is a group in name only.
They will argue over the calendar, which I believe they see as really a minor issue, and then when we are exhausted over that issue, they will give in, give us what we want and then subsequently turn around and ask for something in return. That something will be something big: our insurance and pay raises. It is our families’ health, safety and security for which we are fighting. We are in a state of guerrilla warfare.
Their lawyer will earn an important title in the state of Michigan if he succeeds in breaking our union: union buster; all this in addition to the huge sums of money he is earning/taking from our students during our negotiation process. He will be in demand by boards of education to negotiate other teacher contracts. He will win. He will have good health insurance, and safety and security for his family. He will continue to live an upper middle class life style while we, and our families, continue to sink deeper into the lower socio-economic level. Their lawyer does not care about us; he will leave us – with a smile on his face if we allow him to do so. We will be just another notch on his belt, to paraphrase an old western concept.
Just my thoughts...
HCEA Member
