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The Saturday Morning Special
Edition #17 November 20th, 2003 Gary Holbrook, Editor
"Hearing the voices of students and teachers"
To receive The Saturday Morning Special or to submit any comments, letters, or writing contributions send an email to gdholbrook@yahoo.com.
Please distribute SMS freely! Our voice as educators must be heard!
Do Something Positive to Help the Teaching Profession
by Christine Chavers
I have read every e-mail TRAC has sent out
with interest and an open mind. I have finally reached the conclusion
that there is no factual basis whatsoever for what TRAC sends to us.
Whoever sends out this
propaganda is doing nothing but lying and twisting the facts for their own
benefit. The
e-mails are never signed by a person but rather as “TRAC,” as if it is some
legitimate organization that many people support. TRAC is subversive and
detrimental to our professionalism as teachers.
I have been a teacher for 31
years and I have seen groups like yours come and go. TRAC does nothing
positive to help the teaching profession. You make no suggestions to
make things better. You criticize, slander, and try to destroy any shred of
trust that is left. You just cause unrest and mistrust. It is sad that you
are so negative and cynical. An organization based negativity will not
survive.
I have been a member of UTD
for 27 years. I have been a union steward for 3 years. I was very unhappy
with what was happening with the union, which is why I became a steward. I
know after being involved with many organizations, both professional and
personal, that you do not change things from the outside. You change things
from the inside.
Many of us have been involved
with changing this union in the last 7 months and we resent you calling us
liars. We have worked very hard to try to restore the integrity of a good
union who had corrupt leadership and an apathetic membership.
Unfortunately, we let Pat Tornillo and Murray Sisselman run our union
without our input. We trusted them and they let us down. Now we have taken
back our union and we are running it with the help of honest, hardworking
professionals who care about kids, our schools, and our profession.
By the way, anyone who told
any bargaining unit member that they could not vote was wrong. Every
teacher, clerical, paraprofessional, and security monitor was invited to
vote. I resent the fact that TRAC intimates that there was some kind of
conspiracy to keep certain people from voting when two people told you
this. Where's the proof?
If anyone thinks it is better
to work in Broward they should go there, work and see what a really weak and
insignificant union does to teachers. In fact, let them work anywhere else
in the state of Florida and see if the conditions, salaries, and School
Board relationships are better. They are not and TRAC should not
incorrectly publish that they are.
I believe in unionism for
teachers, because I know the abuses and slave labor conditions that
teachers, clerical staff, and paraprofessionals endured before there was a
union. I know what those same people endure in other counties in this
state. I have friends in nearly every other school district in the state
and they envy us.
We need our union, UTD, but we
do not need the corruption and theft that took place. That is over. Today
is a new day and we need to embrace it.
Please stop slandering us, the
hardworking union members.
Work with us for the sake of
the profession, not to the detriment of the profession.
Sincerely,
Christine Chavers
Felix
Varela Sr. High School
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