(# 2 OF 3) "CAMPAIGN FOR SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC SCHOOLS" - PATRICK WOLFF

 (# 2 OF 3) "CAMPAIGN FOR SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC SCHOOLS" - PATRICK WOLFF

IN PURSUIT OF THE TRUTH - HTTP://CINOPSBEGONEBLOGSPOT.COM - MON. MARCH 8, 2021

 

REF. WALL STREET JOURNAL ARTICLE BY ALEXANDRO LAZO, MON. MARCH 1, 2021

"SAN FRANCISCO SCHOOL BOARD UNDER FIRE"

Dear Patrick Wolff,

    The following letter was mailed to Dear Editor, The Good News, May 1, 1976, Law Day, U.S.A.

 

    S.B. 160 the teacher collective bargaining law is being challenged in the courts on 21 constitutional violations. It has been called the new frontier, the full employment act for lawyers, and the union ball and chain law for for independent-minded professional educators.

 

    The Rodda Act (S.B. 160) repeals the Winton Act as of July 1. 1976. The new law calls for the selection of an exclusive bargaining agent. Under the Winton Act all qualified organizations have a voice in matters relating to working conditions.

 

    Individuals cannot represent themselves directly to the employer under the Rodda Act after an exclusive agent has been recognized. (Art. 4, Sec. 3543). Under the Winton Act teachers retain the right to represent themselves individually.

 

    The Rodda Act includes a clause for "organizational security". Teachers can be required to pay agency shop fees as a condition of continued employment. The Winton Act allowed teachers to choose to join or not to join and did not legalize assessments or penalties.

 

    Final responsibilities for decisions rests with the elected representatives of the people, the Board of Education, under the Winton Act. Under the Rodda Act an arbitration award made as result of impasse procedures if final and binding on the Board of Education. There is also a possibility that tenure can be negotiated  away. Join the union and that could be your tenure. 

 

    Concerning teacher strikes, the law is a maize. One interpretation from School Services of California reads as follows: "... but neither court nor EERB (Educational Employment Relations Board) may hold invalid a negotiated agreement as a result of a strike." (Sec. 3549)

 

    The Rodda Act seems appropriate for a totalitarian state and not for a democracy and republican form of government. What right do the Democratic and Republican Legislators have to force all teachers into the same mold? What right do the legislators have to force a law upon professional teachers which will literally CHANGE the profession to a union teacher job?

 

    Governor Brown must realize that industrial collective bargaining principles were never intended or applicable to public employees least of all teachers. What a cruel hoax to play upon the public, a collective bargaining chess game between teacher unions and administration with the children's education used as pawns?

 

    The teachers and the public need to be informed. S.B. 169 must be repealed. Let the irresponsible legislators be enlightened or replace by the voters this November, 1976.

 

Respectfully yours,

George H. Kubeck, Member Professional Educators Group.

 

P.S. Dan, my yearly dues for 5 years with the N.E.A., C.T.A. and W.T.A. seemed to have been reasonable. Considering that my first year salary was $ 5,280. The union teacher membership fees today are more than one thousand dollars each year. Governor Jerry Brown signed the Rodda Act knowing it would be a source of revenue for his party and destroyed the integrity of the independent-minded  public school teacher.