There are three teacher associations in Missouri. Two of them are unions, and one is an association. They all sell cheap liability insurance. Unions represent employee groups with the aim of creating a written Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which determines compensation and working conditions for employees.
Last time I checked, teachers in metro districts of St. Louis and Kansas City belong to the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). AFT has a national presence and an active, outspoken leader in Randi Weingarten. When you hear about teachers striking in Chicago and elsewhere, it's usually AFT.
To the overall detriment of teacher representation in the state, Missouri State Teachers Association (MSTA) and Missouri National Education Association (MNEA) actively compete for memberships outside of the two major metro districts.
What's the difference between MSTA and MNEA?
This is where it's hard to be objective as a former MNEA member. A lot of people don't realize MSTA was a charter member of NEA way back in the 1850's, when teacher groups from all over came together in Philadelphia to form what became the NEA, to promote public education nationwide.
Sometime in the early 1970s, a large faction of MSTA objected to sending dues to their national association, the NEA, and divorce proceedings between MSTA and a newly formed MNEA ensued. The split was settled in 1973. MSTA kept the name, the nice home in Columbia, the getaway resort on Jack's Fork river, while the MNEA retained the affiliation to NEA. (I don't know who negotiated this deal, but MNEA should get its money back.)
From 1973, MNEA began to rapidly grow with charter locals popping up in St. Louis and Kansas City suburban districts, as well as Springfield and Columbia. From the beginning, The new MNEA tended to be the more activist organization than the old MSTA.
Politically, the two associations differ a great deal, though they do come together when the state legislature or Rex Sinquefield or some half-ass GOP functionary comes up with an ingenious plan to end teacher tenure, privatize schools or maybe even endanger the health of students and teachers during a pandemic. Too much to hope for? Probably.
MSTA is the more "conservative" organization and is dominant in rural Missouri. For example, when NEA members voted to support Roe vs Wade, MSTA used that as a membership campaign. One example of how they differ is that regional universities like Evangel, Southwest Baptist or College of the Ozarks promote MSTA membership to their education majors. NEA is not allowed on these campuses, as far as I know. Here's another example of how they differ:
In the early 2000s, a new superintendent in the Independence school district threw out the teachers' written employment agreement, which functioned as a CBA. The district argued that teachers had no right to bargain collectively, so the agreement was meaningless. MNEA attorneys filed a lawsuit against the school district of Independence, claiming that the state constitution provided collective bargaining rights to all employees. MSTA disagreed and filed an amicus brief, siding with the Independence district.
In 2007, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that Missouri teachers did indeed have a constitutional right to bargain collectively through a representative of their own choosing. MNEA won. MSTA lost. MSTA later issued statements that they had somehow endorsed bargaining rights for teachers all along. To this date, MSTA has never bargained a teacher contract in any Missouri district.
Even with the Supreme Court win, the state still had no law providing guidance for teachers to select a bargaining representative. The Missouri State Board of Mediation covered such elections for all other employee groups but didn't cover teachers. Besides, the Republican governor (Roy Blunt's son) had gutted the board of mediation, so it couldn't do much anyway. So, Springfield NEA (SNEA) presented a petition to the school board in 2008, signed by 1,100 teachers, to hold a representation election anyway.
The school board and administration were none too keen with this situation and advised that the teachers should wait until the GOP-led legislature provided a new law regarding teacher representation and collective bargaining. Fourteen years later there still is no such law.
The Missouri School Board Association, with obvious input from MSTA attorneys, came up with a couple of new school board policies that would "sort of" follow National Labor Relations Board and Missouri Board of Mediation practices but with a twist that would allow for joint representation between MSTA and SNEA via a confusing two-part election process. Springfield teachers shot this notion down in election #1 in late 2008, and elected SNEA as their representative in election #2. SNEA has been bargaining contracts for teachers since 2009.
To this day MSTA is more anti-NEA than they are pro-teacher, as far as I can tell. MNEA has its own problems trying to be an advocate for teacher rights while tiptoeing around certain issues for fear of pushing "conservative" members toward MSTA, which is all too eager to raid their membership. So, when people ask why teacher unions in Missouri seem so meek and invisible, it's because there is a lack of unity, and a resulting lack of power. It's a microcosm of the political malaise that surrounds us, and it's a damn shame for public school teachers.
No comments:
Post a Comment