Organized Opposition to QEO is Building from the Bottom Up
Organized opposition to the Qualified Economic Offer law is building
from the bottom up and developing into a solid statewide movement, local
association negotiators were told Friday night (November 7, 1997).
"Even small activities
get enormous reaction.
School board members
are stunned when we show
this kind of unity. They haven't seen anything
like this for a long time." - Bob West |
"WEAC is not making this happen. You are. It grows up from the
local level," said Bob West, WEAC's director of collective bargaining.
West spoke at the annual WEAC Statewide Bargaining Conference, where
local negotiators from throughout the state gather to discuss bargaining
goals and strategies. This year's conference at the Olympia Spa and
Resort in Oconomowoc comes at a time when 281 contracts are still unsettled
more than four months into the new contract period.
One year ago, West said, local associations got together at this conference
and, working with the State Bargaining Goals Committee, developed firm
goals to challenge the QEO, which is causing teacher salaries to stagnate.
Last February, members in more than 200 local associations voted overwhelmingly
to adopt the goals.
"Our members said: 'This thing has to change,' " West said.
The main element in those goals is to bargain a contract that exceeds
the arbitrary limits of the QEO.
"You agreed you could not fight the QEO if you said it was OK
by agreeing to it at the bargaining table," West said.
In the last few months, members in local associations throughout the
state have been engaging in job actions and public relations strategies
to challenge the QEO and fight for a fair contract.
Madison teachers led the way at the start of the school year when they
staged a one-day work stoppage and took other high-profile actions.
"They said they're not going to take it," West said.
Since then, many local associations in every part of the state have
developed their own strategies for challenging the QEO. Many of those
locals described their strategies at the conference. New Berlin, for
example, has adopted more than 20 strategies, including handing in "resignations"
from voluntary committees. Many locals have held rallies outside school
board meetings, distributed brochures throughout their communities,
put up yard signs, scheduled members and citizens to speak at school
board meetings, worn black to school on pay day or other designated
days, staged walk-ins and walk-outs, and organized communications with
legislators.
Stevens Point teachers are planning to bring their homework to Monday's
school board meeting. Janesville teachers are planning a bonfire rally
in a city park November 19 to "burn the QEO."
"Even small activities get enormous reaction," West said.
"School board members are stunned when we show this kind of unity.
They haven't seen anything like this for a long time.
"We're moving every day to be more unified and stronger."
One of the keys to making this effort successful, West said, is that
many members who normally don't get involved in association activities
are participating.
"We have a lot of people doing a little instead of a few doing
a lot," he said.
John Stocks, WEAC's director of government relations, reminded members
that the Senate Education Committee is holding a hearing Wednesday (November
12) in Madison on a bill to repeal the QEO. He urged everyone who can
to attend the hearing and to contact key legislators to show them how
strongly teachers feel about this issue. (For more information on the
QEO repeal bill, see the Legislative
Alert. You will find direct links to legislators' e-mail addresses
in the At the Capitol
area.)
Mary Bell, chair of the teachers' Statewide Bargaining Goals Committee,
said members have declared it loud and clear: "The regressive actions
of school boards has to stop."
When members adopted the statewide bargaining goals they said they
deserve more than they are getting, Bell said, and they are demonstrating
every day that "we're not going away."
Ray Heideman, chair of the Educational Support Staff Bargaining Goals
Committee, said ESP members should bargain contracts that recognize
the value of employee training. He noted that the ESP
Certificate Program, operated by the WEA Professional Development
Academy, has become enormously popular. Contracts should reward members
who work to improve themselves through that program or other training,
he said.
"Training makes for more valuable employees," he said.
Posted November 8, 1997