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Advocate Online
Speaking Out
‘Why Should I Join a Union?’
Right before the winter holidays in Florida’s
state capital, Tallahassee, 65 employees of the State Department of Education
were told to get up and leave their desks.
Attorneys and security guards appeared
at offices and told employees they must leave immediately; their personal
belongings would be sorted and sent to them at a later date. The employees
were given a choice of resigning, being fired, or in some cases, retiring.
The employees who signed resignation forms
made themselves ineligible for unemployment benefits. Of course they could
later claim they were pressured to resign. A number of those treated in
this manner were 23-, 25-, or 28-year employees of the department. Some
were on a deferred retirement program and some were due to retire later
this academic year.
This inhumane and frankly immoral, people-are-as-disposable-as-Kleenex
attitude is an example of what we often face here in Florida and across
the United States these days. People are the very last consideration.
Of course, these employees did not belong to a union, and some were in
managerial positions.
I write of these events for two reasons:
First, to demonstrate the mentality and value system of those in authority
with whom the Florida Education Association and many of our education
associations and unions must deal, and second, to give you information
for those non-members who ask, “Why should I join a union? I do
a good job. I don’t need protection.”
Well. We saw a good example of how not
to treat employees, right here in Florida, just before Christmas. It happened
here, but it could have been anywhere where employees have no legal representative,
no association, no union.
It makes me very glad I was elected to
represent employees who believe in values like due process and who place
people above things or power. I am proud to represent an organization
that puts in writing that being a caring employer is a Florida Education
Association goal. We sometimes forget what we are all about in this business
of being a union. In December here in Florida, we saw, clearly, exactly
why we exist.
 Maureen
Dinnen, president of the Florida Education Association (FEA), a joint
NEA-AFT affiliate, is on the faculty of Broward Community College and
a member of the United Faculty of Florida.
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I'd like to say!
Encouraging students to
take the Graduation Pledge (October
Advocate) would seem to be a praiseworthy
project, but its latent hypocrisy is suspect.
How many students signing this pledge are aware
of academe’s unethical treatment of non-tenured
faculty at their own schools? Do these students
realize they are already part of a system that
profits from the shabby pay and benefits of many
of their instructors? What are they willing to
do about this workplace injustice?
If tenured faculty members
wear the green ribbons, does it mean they will
teach students about labor exploitation on their
own campuses?
—Kathleen
Collins Beyer
Framingham (MA) State College
I find it disappointing
that neither writer
in October’s Dialogue
on mandated computer training for senior faculty
bothers to question whether senior faculty’s
committing time to the development of computer
skills is necessarily a good thing.
Academic instructors
managed for many years to “handle correspondence,
create classroom projects, work on faculty committees,
and maintain class grades and attendance”
without computers. Plato’s Academy achieved
immortality, I am told, without the use of a single
microprocessor.
—Troy
Jollimore
California State University, Chico
Share your opinion
Write to us at: Clehane@nea.org
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