Teacher's Union wants members to harass citizens
According to School District 11 Human Resource Director David Schenkel (and confirmed by D11 attorney Richard Nagl), the National Education Association has issued a directive to its local affiliates to encourage them to harass any citizens who might be part of contract negotiating teams. The minutes from the November 8, 2006 D11 school board meeting where this information was presented to the Board are found below:
Human Resources Executive Director Dave Schenkel expressed concern that community involvement might make the negotiation process political and time consuming. The District's attorney advised the Board from a legal point of view.
Mr. Nagl: Commented on his experience with the negotiation process since 1991...and advised the Board from a legal point of view...There is a manual that CSEA puts out on what the union should do to enhance its position at the negotiating table, item # 5 was get community people on the negotiating committee, because they are susceptible to pressure in ways they aren’t getting paid for; i.e., picketing, boycotts of a business, those sorts of things can come up. Trade off is not worth it. Anything the Board wants to do, I am willing to try, but this year would be a difficult year to start something new.
Director Christen asked for clarification on his statement regarding getting community involvement.
Mr. Nagl said that the union’s view is if you get community members, they will eventually cave to pressure like boycotting business, picketing at their homes, and they will give in to union demands; therefore, the union encourages their people to try to force school boards to put community members on negotiating teams, especially as the issues grow. He said nobody likes the union, but everybody likes their teacher.
The Colorado Springs Education Association is the labor union representing D11 teachers. The employer of the teachers is the D11 public. The Board of Education is supposed to represent the public during contract negotiations. The labor union board is supposed to represent the teachers against the public. Unfortunately, the labor union has always purchased board seats with its massive political campaign funding machine. The result is that school board members usually forget about the public and take their marching orders from union leaders. After all, board meetings are attended by militant union leaders who sit and taunt board members during meetings. That pressure tends to easily affect people like John Gudvangen, Tami Hasling, and Sandra Mann (and their predecessors, of course).
The CSEA does not want to have union negotiations open to the tax payers. They do not want the public to see that union negotiations have nothing to do with how to better serve kids. Why, then, would the local labor union NOT want citizens on the negotiating team of the district if that is what their orders tell them to encourage? There is a simple answer. D11 boards have always been populated with majorities of union selected board members. The public is never represented in contract negotiations because the boards have not and do not appoint negotiators who have the interests of the public in mind. The boards have always appointed Dave Schenkel as the lead negotiator. His definition of success is that negotiations are completed quickly. Schenkel never answers the question, "What did you negotiate that will improve the academic environment?" The local union does not need "weak" citizens on the negotiating team for the District because they already have weak administrators on the team.
Let there be no doubt: if citizens of Colorado Springs were ever appointed to the D11 negotiating team during contract negotiations, those citizens would find pickets outside of their homes and businesses. Those pickets would include members of the AFL-CIO and the Steelworkers, just as members of the Pueblo D60 Board discovered.
Attorney Rich Nagl does not encourage citizen involvement in negotiations involving millions of their own tax dollars because of a looming threat from union leadership. These are the same union leaders who have supported the D11 recall effort because of issues of "civility." It is interesting to note that one of the issues that the union leaders have against Eric Christen is that he believes that schools would perform better without government involvement. In a public school district, of course, you the people ARE the government. The labor union leadership does not want you involved (unless it is to target you for harassment to get the upper hand in labor negotiations).
Since neither of the recall candidates supported by the union (Charlie Bobbitt & Jan Tanner)have enlightened the public as to what they will do to improve D11, it is safe to conclude that they will continue the tradition of placing the interests of the public well below the interests of the labor union leadership.
For the record, the interests of the D11 public and their local school teachers are much more closely aligned with each other than are the interests of the NEA and the local teachers. Once Board members have been co-opted by the union money, they lose sight of that critical fact.
Human Resources Executive Director Dave Schenkel expressed concern that community involvement might make the negotiation process political and time consuming. The District's attorney advised the Board from a legal point of view.
Mr. Nagl: Commented on his experience with the negotiation process since 1991...and advised the Board from a legal point of view...There is a manual that CSEA puts out on what the union should do to enhance its position at the negotiating table, item # 5 was get community people on the negotiating committee, because they are susceptible to pressure in ways they aren’t getting paid for; i.e., picketing, boycotts of a business, those sorts of things can come up. Trade off is not worth it. Anything the Board wants to do, I am willing to try, but this year would be a difficult year to start something new.
Director Christen asked for clarification on his statement regarding getting community involvement.
Mr. Nagl said that the union’s view is if you get community members, they will eventually cave to pressure like boycotting business, picketing at their homes, and they will give in to union demands; therefore, the union encourages their people to try to force school boards to put community members on negotiating teams, especially as the issues grow. He said nobody likes the union, but everybody likes their teacher.
The Colorado Springs Education Association is the labor union representing D11 teachers. The employer of the teachers is the D11 public. The Board of Education is supposed to represent the public during contract negotiations. The labor union board is supposed to represent the teachers against the public. Unfortunately, the labor union has always purchased board seats with its massive political campaign funding machine. The result is that school board members usually forget about the public and take their marching orders from union leaders. After all, board meetings are attended by militant union leaders who sit and taunt board members during meetings. That pressure tends to easily affect people like John Gudvangen, Tami Hasling, and Sandra Mann (and their predecessors, of course).
The CSEA does not want to have union negotiations open to the tax payers. They do not want the public to see that union negotiations have nothing to do with how to better serve kids. Why, then, would the local labor union NOT want citizens on the negotiating team of the district if that is what their orders tell them to encourage? There is a simple answer. D11 boards have always been populated with majorities of union selected board members. The public is never represented in contract negotiations because the boards have not and do not appoint negotiators who have the interests of the public in mind. The boards have always appointed Dave Schenkel as the lead negotiator. His definition of success is that negotiations are completed quickly. Schenkel never answers the question, "What did you negotiate that will improve the academic environment?" The local union does not need "weak" citizens on the negotiating team for the District because they already have weak administrators on the team.
Let there be no doubt: if citizens of Colorado Springs were ever appointed to the D11 negotiating team during contract negotiations, those citizens would find pickets outside of their homes and businesses. Those pickets would include members of the AFL-CIO and the Steelworkers, just as members of the Pueblo D60 Board discovered.
Attorney Rich Nagl does not encourage citizen involvement in negotiations involving millions of their own tax dollars because of a looming threat from union leadership. These are the same union leaders who have supported the D11 recall effort because of issues of "civility." It is interesting to note that one of the issues that the union leaders have against Eric Christen is that he believes that schools would perform better without government involvement. In a public school district, of course, you the people ARE the government. The labor union leadership does not want you involved (unless it is to target you for harassment to get the upper hand in labor negotiations).
Since neither of the recall candidates supported by the union (Charlie Bobbitt & Jan Tanner)have enlightened the public as to what they will do to improve D11, it is safe to conclude that they will continue the tradition of placing the interests of the public well below the interests of the labor union leadership.
For the record, the interests of the D11 public and their local school teachers are much more closely aligned with each other than are the interests of the NEA and the local teachers. Once Board members have been co-opted by the union money, they lose sight of that critical fact.
posted by Craig Cox | 7:51 AM
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