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Emails show teachers plotted illegal strike using district resources
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Emails finally released to the public show that leaders of a teachers’ union in Michigan used a taxpayer funded email account to plan an illegal strike and bargaining strategy.
The communications also show that the primary goal of the Wayne-Westland teachers' strike last October was to protect union owned health care insurance that costs $15,772.92 per family.
The union had tried to convince the public that they were striking partly due to class size.
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However, the emails show that the class size argument was a strategy to gain the sympathy of parents so that the school board would budge on health insurance.
The documents also portray that teachers who dared to disagree with the strike strategy were treated poorly by their colleagues and union leadership.
One teacher was removed from the curriculum council after she apparently crossed the picket line.
She wrote union President Nancy Strachan asking “Is this retaliation for my refusal to strike and my unwillingness to break the law?”
Another teacher emailed Strachan, stressing her long-time service. However, she couldn’t afford to risk losing her job by participating in an illegal strike.
“Some members have been outright intimidating to those they feel do not give 100 percent support,” the teacher wrote.
“It is terrible to see a teacher confronting another for their supposed lack of support. This is not unity.”
Thomas Donnelly and Mary Ernat, two of the teachers who authored several of the emails planning the strike, are a part of the current effort to recall the school board president and vice president.
Obtaining the documents was a hard won battle for the citizen advocacy Education Action Group.
First, the group was told of the illegal activity by several teachers in the district. They then put in a request for the documents under the Freedom of Information Act.
The district administration was willing to release the documents, but the teachers’ union fought to protect them.
The group ended up suing for the documents, but finally had to drop the lawsuit due to lack of funds.
Recently they modified their request and renewed their efforts. They were rewarded today with hundreds of pages of documents.
To see the press release and link to the many pages of documents, see "EAG secures union e-mails in FOIA battle."
For previous history about this case, see Citizens’ Group Renews Battle With Teachers’ Union and Lawsuit Dropped Over Emailed Plotting Teacher Strike.”
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