In dramatic fashion, Michigan Education Association President Julius Maddox drove a stake through the heart of the proposed NEA/AFT merger on Friday. Saying affiliation with AFL-CIO should be considered apart from the issue of merger with AFT, Maddox announced his opposition to the Principles of Unity, which will be voted on at the NEA Representative Assembly in New Orleans in July.

Addressing his union's own Representative Assembly, Maddox noted that MEA's recent growth in membership was due to the desire of many union members not to be affiliated with AFL-CIO. He expressed his fear that these members would seek representation elsewhere if the merged national union were affiliated with AFL-CIO. He called on NEA and AFT to revisit the issue. In a voice vote on Saturday, the MEA assembly overwhelmingly supported Maddox's position.

MEA is the 3rd largest NEA state affiliate, representing over 142,000 members. Its delegates to the NEA Representative Assembly constitute approximately 6.3% of the total number. Despite recent press reports of substantial progress, pro-merger forces are clearly losing the numbers game. Here is an update of the state affiliates who have taken a vote on the merger as proposed. The figure in parentheses is the state affiliate's NEA delegate representation, expressed as a percentage of the total Representative Assembly. Remember, merger needs a 2/3rds majority to pass.

• Pro-merger — Wisconsin (3.6%), Minnesota (2.3%), New York (1.8%), Missouri (1.2%), Nebraska (1.1%), Montana (0.5%), New Mexico (0.3%), Wyoming (0.3%). TOTAL = 11.1%
• Anti-merger — Michigan (6.3%), Illinois (4.2%), Virginia (2.5%), Iowa (1.7%), New Hampshire (0.5%). TOTAL = 15.2%
• Neutral — Kentucky (1.7%) and Utah (0.9%). TOTAL = 2.6%

The California Teachers Association, by far the largest NEA affiliate with 10.6% of the total number of delegates, is expected to support the merger. But CTA's State Council has yet to address the issue and, according to one CTA official, "there is no enthusiasm for it."

Delegates will vote in secret and so it is impossible to predict the outcome with absolute certainty. However, NEA President Bob Chase is faced with two equally formidable options: 1) He must win virtually unanimous support in
California, Pennsylvania, Ohio and other large affiliates, plus win victories in virtually ALL the undecided states, or 2) He must siphon off significant blocs of delegates in New Jersey, Michigan and Illinois. It doesn't look good. His margins of victory have been smaller than his margins of defeat.

You won't see much news like the above in your local newspapers, because the press is relying on NEA and AFT headquarters for merger information. So, while Maddox was making his speech and the MEA assembly was taking its vote, the Associated Press was running a story headlined "Teachers Unions Merger Moves Ahead." The story closely followed the text of NEA's press release of the vote of its Board of Directors. "In a historic vote," the release read, "the Board of Directors of the National Education Association (NEA) voted overwhelmingly to recommend that the NEA Representative Assembly approve guidelines for uniting with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) to form a new national organization." 

While the vote was overwhelming by majority vote standards, neither NEA nor the Associated Press, nor any of the media outlets that picked up the AP story, noted that the vote (106-53) was exactly 2-1. Will NEA be able to duplicate that margin among the rank-and-file delegates, voting in secret?

A dissident group of delegates to the Wisconsin Education Association Council's assembly met to consider splitting from the parent union. The dissidents, which included delegates from Madison, Fond du Lac and Racine, were upset with the WEAC assembly's rejection of their resolution calling for statewide protests and possible work stoppages over school funding equity. They walked out of the assembly in protest after the vote. WEAC President Terry Craney downplayed the dispute. "I think this is going to work itself out," he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "I certainly hope it does."

An arbitrator in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, ruled in favor of the local unions' pay package — a 4.19 percent raise in salary and benefits. But he also approved the district's plan to eliminate 11 additional teacher jobs to pay for the raise. "I trust the teachers association will assist in the process of staff reductions by explaining to teachers and parents why they were willing to sacrifice teacher positions for higher salaries," said Associate Superintendent Greg Reed.

Circuit Judge Riki May Amano ruled that substitute public school teachers in Hawaii are entitled to collect unemployment benefits during summer vacation. The state Department of Education sued to end the 20-year practice when it took over the task of paying unemployment compensation to teachers last year from the Labor Department. The Labor Department had paid the compensation because substitutes aren't given "reasonable assurance" that they will be employed once classes resume.

Quote of the Week: "Our challenge is to come out of these campaigns with more activists, and to win at the ballot box as well. If we just emphasize television advertising, we won't be any stronger afterwards than we are today. And if we concentrate just on activists on the ground, we won't reach out far enough, and we'll fail at the polls. We have to do both. If we win 75% of our own members, and 45% of everybody else, then we'll win." — Kenneth Burt, political director of the California Federation of Teachers, describing union strategy to defeat Proposition 226, the paycheck protection initiative.