"We Asked for a Sign." We Got Five Thousand, from the TVTA.
One week before the last budget vote, rumors began to pour into our email box. They suggested that the Three Village Teachers Association [TVTA] was making an effort to suppress their own memberships' voting on May 16th. The point? To send a message to the Board of Education and District Superintendent that, "You'll never get a budget passed... without our help."
Rumors being but rumors, we wrote not a line about it but chose instead
to wait and see. When the voting was over, we began to suspect that
something was awry when little more than 1600 voted in favor of the
budget. That was a peculiarly low number and the first clear
indication, to us anyway, that there was something afoot.
Local newspapers suggested that many parents, traditionally in favor of
still more spending, had also become disenchanted when seeing the 12
1/2% increase proposed and joined the many defeating the budget. Still,
the idea of only sixteen hundred supportive votes was troubling.
Our readers joined in the speculative foray and suggested the
possibility that retired and/or NOT locally employed resident teachers
— unable to receive the god-send-salaries available here — were also
turning against the spiraling costs of education. That would have been
nice but, like everything else said about the matter, it remained
speculation.
The Three Village Teachers Association [ TVTA ] has been around for a
long time. It has battled numerous district administrations. It is
entitled to use every legal means at its disposal to gain its
objectives. It has an obligation to its membership to ensure and
enhance the financial advantages and working conditions accumulated
over the years, by all means necessary and appropriate.
It is presently involved in contract negotiations with the school
district in an effort to equal or surpass their last success, which
produced a 23% average increase in tenured teachers salaries over three
years. Their contract expires in less than two weeks, on July 1st.
But, enough of the flattery and understanding, you must never forget that:
* THE INTERESTS OF THE TEACHERS' UNION AND THOSE OF THE GENERAL PUBLIC DO NOT OVERLAP!!!
* THE UNION'S OBLIGATIONS DO NOT EXTEND TO CHILDREN OR TAXPAYERS BUT ARE LIMITED TO ITS MEMBERSHIP!!!
* EVERYTHING SAID OR DONE BY THE UNION HAS, AT IT ROOT, THE INTERESTS OF ITS MEMBERSHIP!!!
* YOU AND YOURS WILL ALWAYS COME LAST!!!!!!!
So, there we were, seeing the voting numbers and reading the
speculations of both the local media and our own readers, with nothing
more supportive available. We prayed for a "sign" and we got it, from
none other than the TVTA itself. Corrections: Not just A "sign" but
thousands of them.
The
Three Village Teachers Association [ TVTA ] is using its cash,
membership and clout to both impress and warn the school district's
administration and Board of Education that it has always provided the
swing votes in this district and if not "getting everything it wants,"
in the pending contract and beyond, the TVTA will use the democratic
process to bring all of us to our knees.
The
union and its membership remained silent at the time of the last
election, which we now believe was the reason for the low numbers in
support of the earlier and failing proposal. The "new and revised"
budget and tax levy increases are still too high, at a near 10% and 6%
respectively.
So,
what changed? Nothing, really. The union simply waited and only now
supports the budget to make a point. Its actions are in keeping with a
policy of winning favor and influence with and over the District at a
cost to be borne only by you. They are counting on a lower voter
turnout than in the first election. Don't let that happen!!!
The
TVTA has never been and never will be the friend of education or the
residents of this community. They remain greedy and filled with a
measure of hubris so great they cannot see they may have dug their own
grave, built their own coffin and taken a course to seal the doom of
their community influence. But, to bring them down, you MUST vote!
ON JUNE 20TH, VOTE "NO"
THINK OF IT AS A VOTE AGAINST THE TYRANNY OF UNION INFLUENCE
THINK OF IT AS A VOTE FOR CHANGE AND HOPE. A NEW BEGINNING
BUT VOTE!!!
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