Rhee lies. Members vote.
Last week, literally moments after the news of a tentative contract agreement in DC, Arne Duncan issued a press release applauding the agreement.
No so fast, I suggested. At least wait until the members ratify.
I’m not a member of the DC teachers union. What the members ultimately decide is for them and them alone to figure out. But I know about contract agreements. I’ve been on our local union’s negotiating team more than a half a dozen times. I’ve learned this: The members get the final say.
I remember one year it was an extremely difficult negotiation. The Board negotiators were more interested in teaching the teachers a lesson than in reaching a settlement. We thought we had the best deal we could get and brought it to our members. By agreement, if we bring a tentative agreement to the members for a vote, we the negotiators, must support ratification. But our body language said more than our words. And the members voted no. Back to the negotiating table we went.
The members know best. We got a better deal than the one we first brought to them. That is one of the reasons collective bargaining works.
Since the DC deal was tentatively agreed to, all hell has broken lose. It now has come out that Michelle Rhee, the DC school’s chancellor, lied about budget deficits and surpluses. She lied about the reason two hundred teachers were fired.
The union leadership, including AFT prez Randi Weingarten, are telling the rank-and-file not to let the news of these lies turn into a no vote on the contract.
But the members know best.
