3rd Saturday

I really found the union rep very interesting. In Iowa there really is only one union the ISEA which is part of the NEA. I had no idea that there were two unions in this state and that one was tied to the labor unions so strongly. I found his talk regarding the endorsements of canidates very interesting as well. Our union in Davenport appears to be at least 80% democratic aligned and I almost did not join the union and become an active member because I am a strong republican and I felt that my views may be in conflict with that of the union. But I soon learned that DEA and ISEA supported the pro-education canidates or the canidates who held educators interests and that it really was not party affiliated. It just happens that the canidates that appear more proactive and supportive of education seem to be democratic. But I have learned that the DEA (my local) has a committee made of 6 reps who interview and choose the alignment for political support. This committee is made up of 3 democrats and 3 republicans, so it would appear to be a fair representation. I hope in the future to serve on this committee.
The negotiation process was very interesting today as we came close to completing the process. This has been an excellent experience for me. Our speaker met with their speeaker and did some if-then statements and most issues were solved or agreed upon prior to the table meeting. One thing I did notice was that when we went for a caucus to discuss a counter-offer, when our spokes person brought it back to the table he forgot one point. That the PD had to be in the teaching area. When he spoke and gave the counter, I wanted to interupt and add this, but I felt that it was important to keep true to the process and have only one speaker. So this point ended up not being included. In a real negotiation, I am sure that the speaker would have been reminded by one of the table-mates so that this important feature would not be left out. But I felt that I had interupted the dialog and process too often and thought that we could iron that point out in the final draft process. But if the TA was made without that point it would not be right to tack it on at the end. I find the participation in negotiations as the non-talking school board member very hard.