January 2014

A Second Opinion
Rank-and-File voice of UTLA Newsletter of PEAC: Progressive Educators for Action

What We Want From Our Union

What type of union are we trying to build? We want a union with a proactive leadership that is willing and able to organize its membership. Our contract has been expired for over 2 years. We want a union that can wage a strong campaign around class size, pay, reconstitutions, co-locations, teacher evaluations, Breakfast in the Classroom: the pressing issues that matter to us and our school communities. One negotiator cannot win a good contract around these demandsbut an engaged membership working with organized parents can. How can we get there? Right now there is a disconnect between most members and our union. We need an organizing strategy that starts with each school site and responds to membership needs and demands. We need to develop leadership among ourselvesafter all, we have over 30,000 members! We also want union resources dedicated to organizing parents, whose solidarity will be crucial in order to take the escalating actions we will need to win. Our knowledge of curriculum and pedagogy, and our vision for the schools LA students deserve, need to ring loud and clear in our communities and to the public at large through a smart PR campaign. This type of unionism focused on building social movements and organizing members, has been won the greatest successes historically. Its time to elect a leadership that understands and values the power of its members. Its not too late to fight for fair teacher evaluations and against privatization schemes, but the time to act is now! - Jess Kochick and Gillian Claycomb

We Cant Get it With the Current President!

We want a lot from our union. We cant get it with our current president who is running for reelection. Warren Fletcher is an obstructionist who insists on his way, regardless of the will of the membership, much less their interests. The Schools LA Students Deserve initiative continues to be functionally ignored; the Areas mandates are ignored, the Board of Directors are circumvented, and most members are left with little information or ways to get involved. Fletcher insists on a piecemeal strategy that is losing across the country and losing right here at home. Fighting one issue at a time like around evaluations, school reform and pay, isnt going to win and we can see that, in fact, it loses. The only way forward is a comprehensive strategy that builds with members and parentsthat Fletcher rejects. Fletcher blocks members initiative and activity. Only calling one rally a year, ranting when area leadership takes initiative to do actions or discuss problems with the district, blocking motions from being implemented, it is clear Fletcher has no interest in a democratic unionor a powerful one. Fletcher is a fan of classic top-down business unionism, where the smart guys at the top do everything and the membership is kept passive. It doesn't work -- the District has no reason to listen if member power isnt organized behind our demands. Its time for a change for the schools our students deserve and the union we deserve! -PEAC Editorial Committee

Where is the Accountability? Transforming UTLA into the Union We Want. Thursday, February 6 4:15-6:15PM
UTLA, 3303 Wilshire Blvd, room 812/814

Progressive Educators for Action (PEAC) is an organization of UTLA activists. Join us promote activism, organize around social justice issues together with parents and others. www.progressiveeducatorsforaction.com. Friend us on Facebook @ Peac LA

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