Noah includes himself as one of those liberals “who spent too much time beating up unions,” as he told me recently. (He and I are both members of the informal Washington Monthly alumni society.) His thinking began to change in the early 1990s when he read “Which Side Are You On?” It is a powerful meditation on the difficulties unions face, written by Thomas Geoghegan, a Chicago labor lawyer. Researching “The Great Divergence” reinforced Noah’s growing view that when liberals turned their backs on unions — when they put, in his words, “identity politics over economic justice” — they made a terrible mistake. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/05/opinion/nocera-turning-our-backs-on-unions.html?src=me&ref=general

Members from Chapter 41 at University of North Dakota and Chapter 42 at North Dakota State University have competed for two months to see which group could recruit the most members in that time. At stake was $500 and the "NDPEA I-29 Traveling Coffee Mug Trophy."
Click here to find out who won, and what you can do to build on their success.

Additional Resources

Stand with Jefferson Teachers is on Facebook: www.facebook.com/StandWithJeffersonTeachers 

Like us to get the most up-to-date news about what is going on with public education in Jefferson Parish.

Welcome to summer break! I want to take a brief moment to share some of the frustrations our certificated, and to a lesser extent, the classified negotiating teams have faced at the bargaining table this year. To summarize the situation, the District wants to take furlough days even though our District has a large ending balance and the governor is promising an increased baseline budget for K-12 in his May revise. On top of all that, the District wants to take furlough days even if the tax measure passes in fall.

North Dakota Public Employees Association staff and members are teaming up with American Federation of Teachers volunteers from across the country to go door-to-door on the week of June 3-9, spreading the word on why we should VOTE NO on Measure 2. Click here for more information.

Margaret Rodrigues' guest column for the Morgan Hill Times offers words of wisdom from Dr. Seuss for our new graduates.  It also challenges the new graduates to seek out a mentor who helped them in their education and to give back to their community.  Lastly, this article encourages non-graduating seniors to keep working to reach their goals.

On Tuesday, May 29, 2012 at the meeting of the HCRC, John Ripley was named the new chair of the committee.  The committee serves as the bargaining agent for Baltimore County employees' healthcare benefits under each of the MOU for the six bargaining unions and SMC (supervisory, managerial & Confidential group).  This is the first time since the committee has been formed that the president of the Fire union hasn't been the chair.  It is John's committment to the employees of Baltimore County that has lead to this opportunity. John fortitude will be tested immediately since the county has presented changes to the committee already and tied them to the ratification of new MOU's.

Challenger Kirsten Perales was voted in as NBEA co-president at our general membership meeting held May 30, 2012.  Welcome to Kirsten and a heart-felt thank you goes out to our outgoing co-president David Gryte for his leadership and member focus over the past two years. 

NBEA executive board and membership extend a big thank you to our negotiations team of Dan Schindler, Andrea Grote and Muffy Henjy for all their hard work this year to come to a settlement with the North Branch School Board.  It was a stressful and tense situation that brought a contract of less than preferred status, but likely the best that could be done given the situation and lack of school board support for the educators in our district. 

Thank you negotiators!!!