Members Rally to Support Medford Teachers

By Dustin Beilke
The Medford Education Association has 170 members, but the number of people marching at the April 28 pro-MEA demonstration in front of the Medford Area School District building exceeded that by at least two dozen.

On the heels of an April 25 WEAC Representative Assembly resolution condemning the Medford School Board for acts of retaliation and discrimination against the MEA and its leadership, members from at least 18 locals showed up to demonstrate before a contract mediation session.

The represented locals included Abbotsford, Antigo, Athens, Berlin, Colby, D.C. Everest, Edgar, Greenwood, Marathon, Marshfield, Merrill, Spencer, Stanley-Boyd, Stratford, Wausau, Wisconsin Rapids, WEAC-Retired and the the Medford Educational Support Personnel Association. WEAC Vice President Terry Meyer, Secretary-Treasurer Mary Bell and Collective Bargaining and Research Director Mike McNett also attended the rally.

WEAC President Stan Johnson was in Washington, D.C., on union business, but appeared at the rally via speaker phone to reiterate his support for the MEA and remind everyone of the importance of Medford’s struggle.

“WEAC is behind you 100%. We will fight for you and your rights as an association and as professionals,” Johnson said. “The children of Medford deserve to attend great schools. You need to fight with every ounce of your strength to deliver that.”

MEA members have been working without a contract since July 1, 2003. The negotiating team is bargaining for retirement health benefits that more closely match those of educators from surrounding school districts, but the Medford School Board refuses to negotiate this issue. Instead, the board and the administration continually employ bullying tactics in an attempt to coerce the MEA into accepting an inadequate settlement.

The school district administration has launched investigations against union members for allegedly conducting union business on school time and using district “communication equipment” to do so. Members have been called to meetings by district leaders, threatened with disciplinary action, and denied union representation during these meetings, said Central Wisconsin UniServ Council Director Larry Holtz.

When the district gave layoff notices to several MEA members this spring, district leaders told the members receiving notices that they were prohibited from communicating with their union representatives on school grounds, even during their duty-free lunch periods and with their own cell phones.

Prior to a scheduled job performance evaluation, Medford High School Principal Steve Russ told MEA President Tim Raymond his job status was “in the air.” Raymond was effectively denied union representation during the evaluation, and was then suspended without pay for three days and threatened with termination, ostensibly for conducting union business during the school day.

On April 28 – the same day as the rally in front of the Medford school district offices – WEAC filed a prohibited practices complaint with the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission against the district. The complaint seeks to have the commission recognize that the district has engaged in prohibited practices and to “cease and desist” in its retaliation and discrimination against targeted MEA members.

Raymond said he and many other MEA members were heartened and emboldened by the show of support from the other locals and the action taken by the WEAC RA, which unanimously censured the Medford School Board for its anti-union activities.

“Some people who were being made to suffer by the district felt like they were alone,” Raymond said. “Now we all know that we are not alone.”

Posted April 30, 2004