Keep Politics Out of Our Courts -- Vote NO on Amendment 3, Tues. Nov. 6

Thanks go to Missouri Jobs with Justice for reminding us not to forget about the issues on the ballot when we vote.  

 Missouri Judicial Appointment Amendment, Amendment 3 - Currently Missouri is a national model for keeping politics out of the judicial selection process. Amendment 3 would give the Governor a majority control over the body that recommends Missouri’s Supreme Court justices, thereby giving him effective power to appoint individuals to the Supreme Court. 

Jobs with Justice believes politics should stay out of the judiciary and supports the current non-partisan process. We encourage you to vote no on Amendment 3.

Lastly, what do Missouri Governors think about it? Both Democratic incumbent Jay Nixon and Republican challenger Dave Spence have come out against Amendment 3. Even the politicians who would benefit from this Amendment passing know better. For more information check out: http://mofaircourts.com/

Amendment 3

Official Ballot Title:
        Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to change the current nonpartisan selection of supreme court and court of appeals judges to a process that gives the governor increased authority to:


 appoint a majority of the commission that selects these court nominees; and

appoint all lawyers to the commission by removing the requirement that the governor's appointees be nonlawyers?


For the Full Text of Amendment 3, visit this page on the Secretary of State's website. For the Fair Ballot Language, visit this page on the Secretary of State's website. To see the full list of MO JwJ's recommendations on this election's Propositions and Amendments, click here http://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4023/content_item/ballotissuesnov6.

Columbia Teachers Vote for Collective Bargaining

The young student reporter doesn't understand that the vote was:

Yes, CMNEA is the exclusive collective bargaining representative for all teachers

No,  Continue the current system of two groups "acknowledged" by the board, but no collective bargaining.

Let's give him a break given that the MSTA and the school district don't understand collective bargaining either.

http://www.komu.com/player/?video_id=12584 

Teachers approve CMNEA representation

Jenese Silvey does a good job of explaining CMNEA's victory in historical context.  This is a great victory for Columbia teachers and the students they teach.


http://www.columbiatribune.com/photos/2012/oct/12/47297/
Columbia Public Schools teachers and supporters cheer Thursday at a watch party at Coley’s American Bistro as they learn the majority of teachers voted to allow the Columbia Missouri National Education Association to be the exclusive representative to bargain on behalf of all school district teachers.


Columbia Tribune
By JANESE SILVEY
Published October 11, 2012 at 7:42 p.m.
Updated October 12, 2012 at 2 p.m.

Columbia Public Schools teachers yesterday elected the Columbia Missouri National Education Association as the exclusive representative to bargain on behalf of all teachers, a decision that caps a debate that has spanned more than five years.

"I'm very pleased," a teary Laurie Spate-Smith, former president of the Columbia Missouri National Education Association, or CMNEA, said after finding out the results. "We're proud to represent all teachers and to do what's best for kids."

She joined about 25 other members gathered at Coley's American Bistro on Sixth Street to await word of the results. The group erupted into cheers when CMNEA President Susan McClintic delivered the message.

Of 1,311 eligible voters, 933 cast ballots at 27 polling sites across the district. Of those, 520 voted to endorse CMNEA, representing 55.7 percent of the vote, Superintendent Chris Belcher announced after members of the League of Women Voters counted the ballots.

Had the vote gone the other way, the district would have kept its informal "meet-and-confer" system that lets CMNEA and the Columbia Missouri State Teachers Association share representation.

"I'd hoped for a different result," said Kari Schuster, CMSTA president. "We'll move forward and continue to serve our members and those unaffiliated."

About 700 of the 1,311 teachers eligible to vote are CMNEA members, McClintic said. Schuster declined to say how many members CMSTA has.

McClintic said the next step is to survey all teachers about how to proceed.

The vote means the Columbia Board of Education and school district must formally work with CMNEA on all decisions regarding compensation and working conditions. The school board can reject, modify or accept anything CMNEA recommends, Belcher said.

It also makes CMNEA the district's teacher representative indefinitely, although teachers could call for another election in the future.

The board has been haggling over how to hold an election for a year and in January approved policies that paved the way for yesterday's vote.

Although the organization doesn't believe in exclusive representation, CMSTA, formerly known as the Columbia Community Teachers Association, enjoyed being the sole voice of Columbia teachers for years. Administrators at the time considered the group the "professional body representing teachers" through the informal meet-and-confer process. CMNEA members grumbled about not having a chance to participate at board meetings but were mostly ignored.

That changed in 2007 when the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the Independence chapter of MNEA had the right to collective bargaining. The 5-2 ruling overturned a 1947 decision that interpreted a constitutional right to collective bargaining as only applying to private-sector employees.

By the end of that year, Spate-Smith was calling for an election in Columbia. Administrators asked for time to let Missouri lawmakers provide guidance on the court ruling, but that never happened.

The next year, CCTA attempted to include CMNEA members in discussions by forming one group, the Columbia Public Schools Employees Organization, that everyone could belong to, and the school board agreed to recognize both CPSEO and CMNEA. By 2010, the two groups still had not been able to see eye to eye philosophically, and CPSEO became Columbia's MSTA.

Before learning the results of yesterday's vote, Schuster said much will depend on "how CMNEA approaches collective bargaining and how receptive the Board of Education is to that approach."

In other districts where NEA chapters have gained control, "the end attempt is to shut out other teachers' groups and exclude them from all-district events," said Charles Brooks, MSTA's manager of Community Teachers Associations organizing.

McClintic said that won't happen.

"We're pleased with the democratic process," she said, adding that teachers "have spoken, and we look forward to representing all of them."
_______________________________________________________________________________
A LONG ROAD

May 2007: A Missouri Supreme Court ruling gives teachers and other public-sector employees the right to collective bargaining.

December 2007: The Columbia chapter of the National Education Association asks for a 2008 election to let teachers decide on professional representation. Administrators ask for time to let the General Assembly provide guidance.

October 2008: The Columbia Community Teachers Association forms the Columbia Public Schools Employees Organization in hopes of allowing both entities to have a seat at the bargaining table. The Columbia Board of Education soon agrees to recognize CPSEO and the Columbia Missouri National Education Association. The groups are supposed to work together.

April 2010: The president of the now-defunct CPSEO tells board members attempts to cooperate were not successful because of differing ideas about collective bargaining. CPSEO is now the Columbia Missouri State Teachers Association.

April 2011: Board members face mounting pressure to develop bargaining policies. The Missouri School Boards’ Association urges adoption of local policies because lawmakers failed to draft guidelines. The Columbia school board spends the rest of the year debating proposed policies.

January: The school board approves two collective-bargaining policies outlining the process and allowing for exclusive representation.

September: The district sets an election date, allowing teachers to vote for CMNEA to exclusively represent them or for the district to continue to use an informal “meet-and-confer” model.

October: Teachers elect CMNEA as the exclusive representative.

Reach Janese Silvey at 573-815-1705 or e-mail jsilvey@columbiatribune.com.

This article was published on page A1 of the Friday, October 12, 2012 edition of The Columbia Daily Tribune with the headline "Teachers vote on union: CMNEA chosen as sole representative."

Columbia teachers vote to approve exclusive union representation

Columbia Missourian
Thursday, October 11, 2012 | 8:40 p.m. CDT
BY SHAINA CAVAZOS

COLUMBIA — Columbia Public School teachers voted Thursday to have the Columbia Missouri National Education Association exclusively represent them in all forthcoming collective bargaining negotiations with the district.

Until now, the district and its teachers operated on a meet and confer basis, an informal process of negotiating salaries, benefits and other conditions of employment. For the first time, teachers will be exclusively represented by a union, Susan McClintic, the association's president and second-grade teacher at Alpha Hart Lewis Elementary School, said.

"It formalizes the process," Superintendent Chris Belcher said. "We had a history here in Columbia of having lots of input, and we will still have lots of input, but when it comes to the formal inputs — about working conditions, compensation — those will become negotiated."

Of the 1,311 district employees who were eligible to vote in Thursday's election, 933 cast ballots, Belcher said. About 56 percent voted in favor of exclusive representation. The election was conducted by the League of Women Voters at 27 polling places across Columbia. Employees could vote to either be represented by the association or to continue with the meet and confer system, according to an email sent by district spokeswoman Michelle Baumstark.

McClintic said she was pleased with the democratic process and the opportunity for members of the bargaining unit to vote for how they want to be represented and negotiate.

"The members of the unit have spoken, and we look forward to representing all of them," she said.

To be eligible to vote as part of the bargaining unit, employees had to hold full-time positions that required them to have teaching certificates. This includes classroom teachers, career center teachers, counselors, speech and language pathologists, media specialists and clinical associates, according to the district's election notice.

Employees who hold teaching certificates but do not need those certificates to do their jobs were not able to vote, including all administrators, part-time employees and Parents As Teachers educators.

The district chose the specifications dictating which employees could participate in the bargaining unit, McClintic said. She was careful to add that members of the bargaining unit do not have to be members of the association to be able to negotiate their contracts.

Kari Schuster, president of the Columbia Missouri State Teachers Association, said she and her organization had hoped to retain the meet and confer system.

"We will move forward and continue to serve our members and others who are unaffiliated in the district," Schuster said.

The association has been trying to get the board to consider exclusive representation since 2007, McClintic said. In January 2012, the board passed Policy HH, which proposed a vote on exclusive representation.

The policy was formed in response to a 2007 Missouri Supreme Court decision that made collective bargaining legal for teachers and other public employees., according to a previous Missourian article. Old labor standards made in the 1940s did not require teachers to be included in collective bargaining.

The association will proceed by informing its members of the outcome of the vote and, within the month, electronically surveying the rest of the bargaining unit to begin the negotiating process, McClintic said. She said the district will be made even better by "bringing the experts to the table."

The union has to start providing the information it collects to the district by December, McClintic said. Because the process is new, McClintic said she is unsure when the first negotiations with the new representation will begin.

Supervising editor is Elizabeth Brixey.

Appeals Court OKs Union Election for 10,000 American Airlines Workers

It's good to know that labor can still get some justice in the courts.  Now Delta employees need an election.

 

Working In These Times

Thursday Oct 4, 2012 11:20 am

By Mike Elk

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals brought American Airlines back to Earth yesterday by validating the authority of the National Mediation Board.   (Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

In June, a federal judge blocked a planned union representation election for American Airlines' 10,000 customer-service agents. The judge ruled that the Communications Workers of America (CWA) needed to redo its petition for the union representation election since a part of the new FAA reauthorization had changed the threshold of workers needed to file for an election. At the time, CWA blasted the decision, claiming that the law should not be applied retroactively since the union had filed for election months before the reauthorization bill had been passed.
On Wednesday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that judge's initial decision, ordering the National Mediation Board (NMB) to schedule an election for American Airlines' customer-service agents. The Fifth Circuit Court ruling claimed that the George H.W. Bush-appointed federal judge, Terry N. Means, should not have overturned the National Mediation Board's previous ruling to go forward with the election.
The Appeals Court instructed Means to dismiss the case because he did not have proper jurisdiction to rule on it in the first place. The ruling states that judicial reviews of NMB decisions to hold elections “are only appropriate where there is a ‘plain violation’ of an unambiguous and mandatory provision of the statute, or in other words, where the NMB has committed ‘egregious error.’ ” The decision also stated that judicial review “is not applicable on the facts of this case and therefore the district court erred in exercising jurisdiction. As a result, we do not need to reach the other issues presented on this appeal.”
American Airlines did not immediately respond to request for comment, although they wrote a letter to their employees, suggesting they were not finished fighting the election.  CWA, however, applauded the decision.
“Now, the National Mediation Board can go forward with the election process that had been wrongly denied to American Airlines passenger service agents since they filed for union representation in December 2011," said a statement released by the CWA. "Those employees will finally have the opportunity to exercise their legal right to vote on union representation."
It’s not clear when the NMB will schedule an election, though the CWA hopes it happens soon. As American Airlines goes through bankruptcy proceedings and layoffs become more and more likely, the CWA feels that the workers will need a union to represent their interests.