I received this email today:
Colleagues:
Please remember that I write this as a friend, supporter, and IEA advocate.I think it is foolhardy to blindly accept IEA’s negotiating leadership or prowess. The recent IEA notice that I have seen (and recognizing that I am not on the IEA mailing list at all so there may be other communications) is nice but far from adequate. I would suggest that given IEA’s impotence and incapacity to anticipate political positions nor adequately represent teachers’ interests over the past decade warrants a more active and advocacy voice by local leadership. Voices such as Todd’s and others who may bring voices to the IEA table that IEA does not want to hear but need to hear should be more directly involved in the issues at hand in my opinion.1. The IEA research team needs to be informing members and other interested parties like IEARetired and IRTA on specific ideas that are being talked about. Reading about them in the newspaper or hearing about them on the radio is unacceptable.2. The IEA research team needs to be providing factual information about topics such as 1) the impact of moving the target of 90% funding to 80% funding of the “unfunded liability”, 2) the impact of local districts picking up a part or all of the annual ongoing retirement costs (exactly how much would that be), 3) the financial impact of reducing the annual 3% increase of pension benefits for retirees, 4) and any other scenarios that are being talked about that we may not be aware of.3) Regional chairs and local presidents need to be receiving daily communications from the IEA that provide both factual and strategic information so that local members can have factual information to communicate to each other.4) To suggest that “getting behind the IEA” is going to have an impact in and of itself with legislators right now is far off target. The legislators expect that and I think it will not have much of an impact unless active teaches and retired teachers have facts and reasoned positions that can be communicated and articulated in a persuading way.The IEA has a recent history of falling far short of getting the job done to protect teachers’ rights and promoting educational practices that are in the best interest of our students. SB7 speaks for itself. The incessant focus on testing that has gone unchallenged by IEA speaks for itself. The lack of teachers’ voices in decision making by the Illinois State Board of Education and allocation of resources there speaks for itself. The IEA has a long track record of late of falling far short of doing what needs to be done.Therefore, it is imperative that loud voices of advocacy for teachers be heard and that a physical presence of those voices be seen by legislators. There is power in numbers. There is power in physical presence.Does this mean that local leadership and membership will have to make some short-term sacrifices in terms of allocation of their time and resources? Yes.Does this mean that we will all have to set aside already strained family time to focus on critical professional issues? Yes.Does this mean that rank and file will need to step up, be present, and make their voice heard? Yes.Does this mean that IEA should be trusted nor asked to do all this for us? No.NOW IS THE TIME FOR SOLIDARITY, SACRIFICE, AND ACTION BY EVERY MEMBER FROM EVERY LOCAL.THE IEA NEEDS TO DEMONSTRATE A MORE SINCERE AND COMPELLING INTEREST IN HEARING FROM LOCALS, INFORMING THE RANK AND FILE, AND MOBILIZING THE RANK AND FILE.-Roger
Fred Klonsky 