Neenah Teachers Picket Outside School Board Meeting

About 70 Neenah teachers, angry over the lack of progress in contract negotiations, picketed at the start of a school board meeting November 4, carring signs reading “Teachers say no QEO.”

The public demonstration was one of several tactics being employed by Neenah teachers. According to Roger Palek, UniServ director for Winnebagoland Educational Staff Council, they:

• Are dressing in black every Tuesday.
• Are wearing buttons every day that say "Neenah Teachers: Working Together Without a Contract."
• Have resigned from committees and athletic supervision events.
• Have had several walk-ins and walk-outs.
• Have had one general membership meeting in the local labor temple with another scheduled for November 18.
• Have turned out dozens of members at board meetings, with at least 145 members there last week.
• Are preparing a survey of members to identify how much extra time and money they devote to their job.
• Are planning to create a brochure that will discuss negotiations and report on information from the member survey .
• Are planning legal strategies.
• Are publishing a weekly bargaining newsletter.

In another activity planned in the Fox Valley, several locals that belong to the Fox Cities caucus will participate in a mock referendum in favor of repealing the QEO. On November 11, teachers will sign postcards thanking Senator Kevin Shibilski for sponsoring SB 318, which repeals the QEO. The cards will be mailed to the senator.

In New Berlin, meanwhile, teachers have filed a motion with the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission, claiming the district acted in bad faith when it imposed a QEO.

In Janesville, the union and district have deadlocked and will seek a mediator. Teachers have begun activities including walk-ins and are planning a November 19 bonfire rally to “burn the QEO” and demand fair treatment for all union employees.

Posted November 7, 1997