Employees of the National Education Association launched a strike against the teachers labor union that resulted in the cancellation of its policy meeting earlier in July, at which resolutions accusing Israel of genocide were to be debated.
PHILADELPHIA – The Kansas affiliate of the National Education Assoc-ation still isn’t talking about the Philadelphia meeting that was set to debate the embrace of anti-Israel policy earlier this month in Philadelphia. It turns out when union employees strike the union they work for, not much work gets done.
NEA’s annual Representative Assembly the weekend after July 4 was to have been the stage for the debate and adoption of a range of operating policies coming into the final months before the presidential election, including 10 proposals from pro-Palenstian factions within NEA to make formal allegations that Israel was conducting genocide in Gaza and other measures opposing the Jewish State.
Newly-lame duck President Joe Biden was to have given an address at the assembly, but canceled after NEA staffers refused to work and the remainder of the conference was called off. Pro-Palestinian protestors – most of them wearing masks – staged a march against Israel outside the convention center in Philadelphia on the convention’s first day, and were met by pro-Israel activists.
NEA locked out about 300 employees after the 3-day strike ended. The union had had no employment agreement since May 31, and the strike was the second to take place this summer while employee/employer terms were in limbo. NEA locked its staff out of its offices July 8 – the day the conference was to have ended. The non-profit news organization covering education issues “The 74” said contract negotiations focus primarily on wages, such as an annual 4% raise, a return to annual salary step increases after a 12-year freeze and limits on when the NEA can contract out bargaining unit work. The move has brought criticism that NEA is pro-labor, but anti-worker.
KNEA President Sherri Schwanz and other state officials did not respond to the Informer’s inquiries as to the direction Kansas delegates planned to vote on those measures, nor what relation anti-Israel measures had to student achievement. KNEA also did not respond to follow up to requests for comment after the conference was canceled due to the strike.
Union officials and employees were said to be at the bargaining table this week, but KNEA officials did not address whether Kansas had delegates at those bargaining rounds.
Dane Hicks is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Quantico, VA. He is the author of novels "The Skinning Tree" and "A Whisper For Help." As publisher of the Anderson County Review in Garnett, KS., he is a recipient of the Kansas Press Association's Boyd Community Service Award as well as more than 60 awards for excellence in news, editorial and photography.
