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Council Decides: October 2011
Visit the new CTA.org State Council page for reports, speeches and highlights. You’ll also find the CTA Organizational
Handbook. The online version will be
updated after every State Council meeting.
CTA Will Lead the Way in
Initiative Battles Ahead
In his first speech to State
Council as CTA president, Dean E. Vogel vowed that the 325,000-member union
will lead the way when it comes to defeating a deceptive paycheck
initiative about to qualify for the November 2012 ballot, and in passing a
school funding measure that’s still in the works. CTA is part of a broad
coalition seeking a public funding initiative that supports education and
all essential public services.
Council members voted to oppose
the paycheck scam, called the “Stop Special Interest Money Now Act.” They
also approved CTA spending up to $8 million next year to oppose or support
ballot measures. Vogel reminded delegates that whatever coalition funding
initiative is settled on in the next few months, Council policies say it
must be based on the union’s principles of tax fairness and it must be based on
progressive taxation. Also, it should generate at least $8 billion to help
heal years of unprecedented cuts.
Noting that U.S. corporations
already outspend unions by about 15 to 1, Vogel vowed that CTA will work
with a strong labor alliance to defeat the paycheck deception scam next year for a
third time since 1998. By banning all California unions from using
payroll-deducted funds for political purposes, the initiative would
unfairly silence the political voices of the middle class, while letting
wealthy corporate interests spend as much as they want. They are picking
this fight here because “California is one of the last union strongholds,”
Vogel warned. Learn more about the paycheck deception
initiative.
On another front, CTA’s recent support of the Occupy Wall
Street movement, Vogel said, has everything to do with public education.
“Public education is central to rebuilding our country and to shrinking the
growing chasm between the haves and the have-nots.”
Attacks on Unions Are Nationwide
Coordinated attacks on collective
bargaining and basic union rights are mounting across the country, CTA
Executive Director Carolyn Doggett said in her speech, and the battle is on
“for the very heart and soul of the America we believe in.”
“It’s a battle for an organized
democracy that values economic opportunity, equality and social justice for
every American. And it’s a battle for the belief in every child — not just
a select few,” Doggett said.
This year alone, 11 states passed
anti-collective-bargaining and dues reduction bills, and educators and
public employees in six states lost full bargaining rights. There are
threats to collective bargaining rights in 20 other states. In addition,
“38 states introduced legislation this year to impede voters at every step
of the electoral process,” Doggett said. Six states now require voters to
show a government-issued ID before they can cast ballots.
Attacks on public education
continue, but Doggett reminded delegates that those attacks come from a
small segment of the population. Polls show the public strongly trusts
teachers. A recent CTA poll showed that 70 percent of California voters
“had a favorable opinion of teachers and CTA’s ratings were at an all-time
high,” she said.
Invoking labor expert Dr. Elaine Bernard, who
directs the Harvard Trade Union Program, Doggett said building community
coalitions and showing union solidarity are critical as we move ahead. “Our
future really is up to all of us, and the best way to predict the future is
to create it!”
We Are the 99 Percent:
Delegates Join ‘Occupy LAUSD’
Protest
In an emotional show of
solidarity, scores of Council delegates — educators from across California
— joined CTA President Dean E. Vogel in a march on Oct. 22 from the Council
hotel in downtown Los Angeles to join United Teachers Los Angeles President
Warren Fletcher and UTLA members at their “Occupy LAUSD” protest at the
headquarters of the nation’s second-largest school district. The ongoing UTLA protest there is about keeping public
schools public. It’s to stop the influence of billionaires like Bill Gates
and Eli Broad in the district and to demand the richest 1 percent pay their
fair share of taxes at a time of teacher layoffs and overcrowded
classrooms.
Vogel joined the chants of “We
are — we teach — the 99 percent!” More chants of “We are one! We are one!”
greeted his remarks at the protest rally as Vogel detailed Council’s
willingness to answer a call to action from UTLA delegates during its
meeting as a sure sign that CTA members believe “an injury to one of us is
an injury to all of us.” Watch a short CTA video of Vogel’s
remarks, and his television news interview
from the picket line.
CFA Call to Action:
Nov. 8-9 Picketing, Nov. 17
Two-Campus Action
To protest the ongoing
privatization of CSU campuses and lavish executive salaries, California
Faculty Association leaders asked Council delegates to join them
on informational picket lines on all 23 CSU
campuses on Nov. 8-9. A one-day Nov. 17 concerted action at CSU East Bay in
Hayward and CSU Dominguez Hills in Carson is about unpaid wages in the
previous CFA contract.
A CFA flier to Council delegates
warned: “For 12 years, California State University Chancellor Charles Reed
has attempted to turn the People’s University into a for-profit corporation
with highly paid executives. We don’t want to become a degree mill that
rips off working people and saddles them with enormous student debt. Enough
is enough.”
The showdown also concerns
bargaining proposal take-backs and massive student fee hikes. The Nov. 8-9
picketing locations vary by date. Find the date of the CSU campus picket
line nearest you by downloading a document here.
Co-Producer of ‘American Teacher’
Speaks at Council
Delegates were inspired by former
teacher and CTA member Ninive Calegari
of San Francisco, the co-producer of the new documentary American
Teacher. She described making her dream come true of telling the
real story of challenges facing public school educators, and was the
keynote speaker at the Oct. 21 dinner to kick off the weekend, with many
educators gathering to watch a CTA screening of the film the following
evening.
Narrated by actor and public
education advocate Matt Damon, the film follows the paths of four educators
who talk about the power of teaching and its many rewards and challenges.
It shows why teachers need to be supported and valued. Watch the film’s trailer. Read more about the film’s themes in the CTA
California Educator magazine, or enjoy a Q & A with Calegari.
·
CALL FOR QUESTIONS: Did you attend the screening on Saturday
and have a question you’d like Ninive Calegari, the co-producer, to answer? E-mail it to jgoldman@cta.org
by November 9, and it could be printed with her response in an upcoming Educator
magazine.
Other Actions:
Board Member Elected, Candidates
Supported
In other significant actions,
Council delegates elected Kendall Vaught to the CTA Board of Directors for
District M and Laura Finco to the CTA/ABC
Committee, District C.
Council also:
·
Approved endorsement of state Senate, Assembly and
congressional candidates for 2012 races on a tiered basis, ranking levels
of support from 1 to 5, strong to weak. The rankings are in the full State
Council report book on pages A-12 to A-18.
·
Affirmed its support for allowing the Legislature to approve
the state budget and revenue increases based on majority rule, rather than
a two-thirds vote. Council approved a motion to have the Political Involvement
Committee evaluate any legislation or legitimate ballot measures regarding
simple-majority vote efforts and to allow local chapters and members to
support and encourage legitimate efforts toward this goal.
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