Neshaminy teachers union lays ground work for strike
At last week’s education conference in Denver, the presidents of the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association promised that the nation’s teacher unions would bring a spirit of “collaboration” to education reform efforts across the country.
Members of the Neshaminy Federation of Teachers (an affiliate of the AFT) apparently didn’t get that memo.
Tonight, the NFT is holding a closed-door meeting at Carl Sandburg Middle School to determine whether or not to authorize a teacher strike. If the union authorizes a strike, Neshaminy would be the latest in a long line of Pennsylvania school districts to have its school year disrupted by a teacher work stoppage. According to the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, there were eight school employee strikes in the state during the 2009-2010 school year. There have been numerous strike threats during the current school year, too.
The union is unhappy over the lack of progress in their contract negotiations with the Neshaminy School District.
Neshaminy officials said the district has offered the union a new one-year contract, but cannot afford to pay the retroactive pay raises and the other expensive provisions the union is demanding.
Apparently, the NFT did not hear AFT President Randi Weingarten’s radio interview from earlier this month, either. In the interview, Weingarten said, “Let’s solve problems for kids rather than making them pawns in an economic austerity budget.”
But that’s exactly what the NFT is planning to do. By using school children as political pawns, the union believes it can pressure the district into handing out retroactive pay raises and nearly cost-free health insurance to union members.
“We’re growing somewhat impatient,” NFT President Louise Boyd said, according to phillyburbs.com. “Somehow, we have to get this thing started.”
Like their union brethren in Wisconsin, the NFT is more than willing to walk out on students, disrupt the learning process and close down schools, all in the name of “getting things started.” Such behavior is truly reprehensible.
Weingarten was to attend tonight’s NFT meeting, but had to cancel due to a “scheduling conflict.”
Neshaminy parents and taxpayers are left to wonder how NFT’s strike plans jive with Weingarten’s Denver appearance in which she touted the need for collaboration among unions, administrators and reformers.
Less than a week after the teacher unions promise collaboration, they are preparing to strike. The unions cannot be trusted. Their actions do not match their promises.
