Contract Grade

Building Steward

As a building steward I attend monthly union meetings and then relay information back to the members within my building. It is a good job for me because I am a very organized person who is good about communicating information back to my staff. I am going on my second year as a building steward. I was originally chosen because at the time my building had three tenured teachers, myself as a second year teacher and three first year teachers. Our more senior teachers did not want to do it and I was volunteered by them to do it. My mom is also the building steward for her school so I new I would get to see her at the meetings so I agreed to do it. At the time I didn^Rt think that it would be any big deal but this fall it turned out to be quit a big deal.

Because I am building steward I had to be very involved with all the strike information and being the main communication link with my staff. I was concerned that being a non tenured teacher and being a building steward during a strike time might not be the best thing for my career. I was concerned that it might be held against me when they make the decision to tenure me or not. I was assured by the union big wigs that this was something that I should not worry about. They did not think I should be the strike captain for my building. As the strike got closer to becoming reality I was being asked more and more questions about what was going to happen. We finally had a meeting in which most of these questions would be shared with the building stewards who would then go back to their buildings and share the information with union members. In my building their are eight nontenured teachers and specialists. They all had a lot of questions and concerns about what would happen when we went on strike. There is also located in my building the Early Childhood Department offices. Many of the non tenured teachers in my building did not want to picket. We were told that we didn^Rt have to picket and other jobs would be given to those who didn^Rt want to. Later it was said that we were expected to picket even if we were not tenured. They need our support. Because of the large number of teachers in the district that aren^Rt tenured if they all decided not to picket it would be difficult for some schools to cover shifts. They also felt that we all were getting the same benefits from the strike and should participate. They also informed us that any teachers who didn^Rt participate in picketing would not receive the health insurance coverage from Educate MN when our district insurance ran out. I did not have a problem participating in the picketing. I felt that they were not going to let go a few hundred non tenured teachers because they participated in a legal strike. Thank goodness it never came down to it. I just recently attended another union meeting in which we were told that negotiations are going to be starting up again soon. We were also told that the legislators put back in the works the rule where if a district hasn^Rt settled by Jan. 1 or 15 (I am not sure the exact date) that the district will lost state funding. I think this will work to our favor. I think the district will want to settle before they start to loose money. We were also told that if we are not settle by the end of fall that we will be making arrangements again to strike. There is a lot of stress involved in the possibility of striking. Lots of things to consider. As a building steward it really makes me upset when people come to me with questions and complaints about what it happening when they choose not to get involved. People don't attend union meetings and they don't participate in activities. It seems as if it is always the same people who get involved. They get the same benefits from doing nothing as those people do from working so hard to better all our careers and then they have the nerve to criticize what has happened. I am also responsible for passing out materials to the union members when information is sent to me. The information is to be passed out before or after school hours. It only takes a few minutes to do. We are sent stuff quite often. I have also been involved with finding out what our contract says about certain things. I usually end up calling down to the union office and asking Frank or Jerry. They are very helpful and get back to you fast. We have also had some other issues in our building with regards to specialist time. Not only the length of time the teachers get them for but also their work day. We have also run into the problem of no sub and what happens then. I am really glad that I have been involved in the process of preparing for a strike because I am one who likes to know what is going on and what my responsibilities are. I also like being involved because there are a lot of really smart, experienced teachers who are building stewards and I can learn a lot from them. I hope to continue on as building steward in the future at my building.

Submitted for Erin Marsman, mjm.2/22/99

-- Anonymous, February 22, 1999