San Diego Education Association Elections

Yet ANOTHER Election Scam?

Word is now coming in, from more than one source, (messages listed below) concerning the possibility that another union election scam, involving yet another California Teachers Association (CTA) and National Education Association (NEA) affiliate . If you have information regarding this, PLEASE post your story under "Tell Us." ASEE is particularly interested in obtaining documentation regarding this election; if you have relevant material, please forward it to: teach4kids@edethics.org. There is also the possibility that SDEA members may be able to join in with another case regarding mishandling of elections and/or representation if an election has been mishandled. That case is currently making its way through the California Public Employment Relations Board, the state agency that handles such issues.

If this story is indeed true, then ASEE STRONGLY ENCOURAGES SDEA members to file against your "bargaining unit" with the California Public Employee Relations Board. It is imperative that a complaint be filed as soon as possible as PERBs has a very short statue of limitations for which such complaints must be filed (six months).

SDEA members may also be interested in the following items already posted on the ASEE site:

	Election Blunders regarding CTA's High Desert Service Center in which just 12 out of 36 districts were permitted to vote (prior to the election being contested!)
	Jail Time for the Elections Chairperson of the Victor Elementary Teachers Association
	A case is currently making its way through the PERBs system regarding a CTA State Council Election held by the Capistrano Unified Education Association - additional materials will be posted on this site when that information is available to the public.
	Also, be sure you visit ASEE's pages on NEA and CTA. Lot's of horrifying information here!

San Diego City Schools Union Election Scam?

> Name: ***********
> email: ***********
> Anonymous: Yes
> Post: Yes
> State: California
> County: San Diego
> District: San Diego City Schools

> Story:
>
> Post: Those that are union members... help me with this, PLEASE!
>
> Posted on 10/01/00
>
> How would your union go about ratifying a new contract with
> your district?
>
> Our large local (9K members?) recently renegotiated our
> present contract, adding a 2 year extension. The flyer which
> announced the ratification procedure had no dates for doing
> so, though it did contain a phone # to call for further
> questions. The flyers were placed in teachers' boxes, though
> they apparently did not go to the relatively few members who
> were off-track or substitutes.
>
> Since the previous contract did not expire until 6/30/01, at
> least some of us thought the voting window was open. Now we
> learn that it was but a 2 day window. I was told that about
> 95% voted in favor of the new agreement. However, later I
> was totally appalled to learn that only something like 200
> members had voted!
>
> Could something like this happen with your district and
> union? What legal recourse, if any, do we have to keep
> something like this from happening again?
>
> BTW, as of this posting, our local's web site still declares
> a 6/30/01, rather than 6/30/03, expiration date for the
> contract.

WOW! Was Al Gore Involved in THIS One?

> Name: ***********
> email: ***********
> Anonymous: No
> Post: Yes
> State: California
> County: San Diego
> District: San Diego Unified School District
> Story:
>
> The San Diego Education Association (SDEA) ratification election
> of the tentative contract proposal was a sham, for the following reasons:
>
> 1. Visiting (substitute) teachers, who are part of the
> bargaining unit, were not informed that there would be a vote,
> until after it occurred, and the few votes cast by contract
> teachers, were already counted.
>
> 2. Contract teachers received a flyer in their school mail boxes
> on or about September 18, 2000, stating:
>       1. Only MEMBERS of SDEA are allowed to vote.
>       2.You will receive a copy of the actual
>          agreement and a page of highlights.
>       3. Voting will take place at the SDEA office *10393
>          San Diego Mission Road, Ste. 100 (see map
>          below)
> 4. In order to vote, you MUST have a picture ID.
> 5. Please vote and encourage your colleagues to vote! If you have any
> questions, please call SDEA @ (619) 283-4411.
>
> 3. The flyer does not state what day or days are set for voting.
> As it turned out, teachers were only allowed to vote on September
> 19 and 20, 2000, the two days after the flyer was distributed to
> contract teachers. The vote was announced to me and to other SDEA
> Association Representatives attending a Fall Leadership
> Conference in Palm Springs, CA, on Septmber 23, 2000, as 94% in
> favor, out of 100-200 votes cast. The bargaining unit covers
> about 9,000 SDEA members, who are contract teachers, visiting
> teachers, resource teachers, peer coaches, itinerant teachers,
> counselors, nurses, and librarians. There are about 1,500 other
> teachers including visiting teachers (VTs) who have not joined
> SDEA, and thus could not vote, even had they been given notice of
> the vote.
>
> 4. As a visiting teacher who received no notice of the
> ratification election, and as the Association Representative (AR)
> for Visiting Teachers who didn't even receive any notice of the
> election in my role as AR, I feel disenfranchised from the
> election for myself and on behalf of all VTs.
>
> 5. We were told at the Fall Leadership Conference in Palm
> Springs on September 23, 2000, that one of the reasons for the
> "quick vote" was to help out the San Diego Unified School
> District's Superintendent of Schools, Alan Bersin, because he
> doesn't want any labor strife in this presidential election year,
> since he hopes to be named by a President Al Gore to be his new
> Secretary of Education for the United States (Gore and Bersin
> were college roommates at Harvard Law School, before Gore dropped
> out of school). No thanks! Mr. Bersin has repeatedly violated
> teacher rights according to the last two years of written news
> stories and editorials of SDEA union leaders in the Advocate, the
> official SDEA newsletter, and I wouldn't want to inflict Alan
> Bersin on all of the teachers and schoolchildren in the United States.