from WEA…
The summer newsletter is online and full of details and information.
Please CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE (from the NEA)
some of the items in this NEA release applies directly to those in higher education. Please consider this action.
[from the NEA…]
This week, GOP leaders in Congress are gathering forces to push the PROSPER Act to a floor vote. The PROSPER Act is their version of the Higher Education Act, and it is a very bad bill for our students and our campuses.
Please tell your Representative to oppose it.
The GOP’s PROSPER Act would:
Eliminate Public Service Loan Forgiveness, breaking a promise that was made to teachers, faculty, and other public service workers a decade ago. Without this program, many of our students will not be able to afford to join us in public service someday.
Wipe out regulations around for-profit colleges. This would make it possible for the worst for-profits to prey on our most vulnerable students, leaving them with worthless degrees and mountains of debt. Bad idea!
Limit student loans. Making college less affordable is exactly the wrong direction.
Cut $41 million from teacher preparation programs.
When you tell Congress that our students deserve more than this, they listen. Your emails, your calls, and your visits to their local offices matter. Our voices matter. This is why I am asking you to reach out to your Representative and stop the PROSPER Act.
VOTE NOW TO RECERTIFY OUR UNION!!! NOW!
Vote to RECERTIFY OUR UNION!
We (at GTEA) ask you to please consider voting YES to recertify our bargaining unit. Please let one of us (any of the GTEA Council members) Know that you VOTED.
Please click the LINK ABOVE to go directly to the website and cast your vote!
Alternatively, you may vote by phone by calling (866) 458-9862 (toll-free). You may vote 24/7.
- Do not log off or hang-up until after your vote is confirmed.
- Unlike any other election, if you abstain from voting, you will be counted as a “No” vote.
- Your vote remains confidential: Neither Gateway Technical College nor GTEA are told specifically whether you voted to recertify.
- Recertification maintains a legal relationship between GTC and the faculty and staff represented through our organization, GTEA.
- Recertification maintains employees’ rights to have a collective, protected voice with our employer.
- Voting began April 5 at noon, and ends on April 25 at noon. Please do not delay.
If you have any questions or concerns about this process, please contact Suzanne Sublette (GTEA President), Jay Johnson (GTEA Past President), GTEA Officers, or your Campus Representatives.
Again, here is the link to cast your vote online:
Thank you for your support,
The GTEA Council of Representatives
Vote NO on APRIL 3 to the Treasurer Ballot Initiative…
Vote “NO”–keep the treasurer as an elected statewide position.
WEAC, VP Biden, (and REA and GTEA) endorse Dallet…
Rebecca Dallet as been endorsed for the APRIL 3, 2018 statewide election
Are you listening? AM 1510.
Listen on Radio, Live Stream or Podcast
The ground breaking education radio show Busted Pencils now airs Saturdays at 9:00am, and Sundays at 10:00am on Milwaukee’s Resistance Radio 1510AM.
This week, Busted Pencils’ Tim Slekar interviews:
Ingrid Walker-Henry of the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association on her association’s fight for quality schools.
Carol Burris of the Network for Public Education on resisting corporate education reform and making American public education great again
Alfie Kohn, famed scholar who questions many of the assumptions and methods dominating public education today.
You can listen on the radio at 1510 AM or live stream off the web. If you miss the show, you can also listen on podcast and read the regular blogs.
REGION 7 and OCEA
REGION 7 and OCEA are presenting an informational meeting on FMLA, DISABILITY LAW/INSURANCE, and WORKMAN’S COMP.
Please RSVP at: oceaunited@gmail.com
UPCOMING GTEA MEETINGS
DECEMBER 2017 / JANUARY 2018
please see the meetings page for details:
Dec. 13, 5:00pm, Racine Conference Center
Jan. 5, GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING (everyone!)
Jan. 8– 12, Back to Basics School Supply Giveaway
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
FALL SEMESTER BRINGS NEW ACTIVITY…
Suzanne Sublette,
GTEA President
It’s been a busy fall for GTEA as we continue our advocacy and organizing work, and we have even bigger plans for the winter!
In October, GTEA Council members Jason Gerber, Ann Stotts, Colleen Aird, and I hosted WEAC Vice President Peggy Wirtz-Olsen for a roundtable gathering. After taking a tour of Culinary Arts on the Racine Campus, Olsen met with Council members to discuss issues and concerns. In particular, we advocated for the development of a stronger technical college voice with WEAC.
In November, I attended the NEA’s Historically Black College and University Summit in Washington, D.C. The Summit included a trip to Capitol Hill to meet with and lobby members of the Congressional Black Caucus on issues pertaining to higher education funding, union organizing, and diversity on college campuses.
In January, GTEA will hold our first annual Back to Basics School Supply Give-Away. Spearheaded by Membership Coordinator Robin Rupp, our Back to Basics campaign focuses on helping students attain some of what they need most—the basics! We will be distributing pens, folders, and notebooks to hundreds of students during the first week of the spring semester in January. If you’re interested in helping to assemble or distribute Back to Basics kits, please let your representative know.
Also in January, GTEA will host a General Membership meeting on Friday, January 5, after in-service activities conclude. Please stay tuned for more information.
2 images from the NEA event.
Click image to see the next slide, hover the cursor for an image description
WHY I BECAME A MEMBER: JASON GERBER
Jason has taught math in General Studies for nine years.
Why am I in the union?
Well, first, saying that I did not know anything about unions before coming to Gateway is an understatement for me. I was actively hostile toward unions at one point in my life.
You might be wondering how I went from one extreme to the other. Well, it was all about getting involved. Being from a rural area, I wasn’t exposed to unions much.
It certainly wasn’t a positive topic on local radio.
I didn’t have any choice from the right-wing talk radio that I mistakenly took for news radio.
By attending GTEA meetings, which are open to anyone willing to join us, I learned that the union was really a democratic body looking out for the unit as a whole. They wanted what was best for the unit, not for themselves. And if you were willing, you could be involved or elected to any position that you wanted. No one cared that before being involved I was not union-friendly.
Once I understood that it was a democratic body looking out for everyone, I jumped right in. I have been GTEA treasurer for six years, and have been liaison for the region and the state. All because I got more involved, not that I was special. The more I got involved the more I realized GTEA was the only organization helping the profession.
A union membership can earn you different discounts and other perks, but it is about looking out for each other and our profession. I truly believe that if you get involved and meet more members, you will not be anything but impressed. We truly can make a difference for the college and the state and even the Nation.
