THE NEA ON NATIONAL STRIKE SUPPORT AND PRESIDENTIAL ENDORSEMENTS. NO CHANGE.
Michael Antonucci and I used to meet up at some national meetings of the NEA. Mike would be in the press section – press are barred from being on the convention floor and talking to delegates – so to talk I would have to go over to him.
Mike is a libertarian and my take away is that he thinks union shops are coersive. We don’t agree.
However, Mike is a dogged reporter when it comes to the back room doings of NEA leadership.
One national NEA leader once told me, “I don’t like the guy, but he’s never wrong on his facts.”
When my Evanston teacher friends introduced an NBI at last year’s RA to offer members an opportunity to contribute to a national teacher strike support fund, it passed overwhelmingly.
Mike reports on what happened to that NBI, along with the NEA leadership’s response to the criticism of the presidential endorsement process.
The 2018 delegates approved a new business item that directed NEA to establish a voluntary fund to support statewide work actions to which members could contribute $3 or more.The job was assigned to the union’s Center for Organizing and Center for Innovation and Technology. The implementation report describes the amount of work necessary to meet privacy and regulatory guidelines. The fund was launched Oct. 4, with a web page and an e-mail notification to all state CONTINUE READING: The NEA on national strike support and presidential endorsements. No change. – Fred Klonsky