A Message from our President - Marjean Rosen

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Dear Whittier Elementary Teachers’ Association Members,
As the summer break is winding down, I hope that each one of you have been able to get some quality time with your family and friends.  I hope that you have also had time to relax and recharge your batteries.
We have learned that our Association is being directly targeted by the anti-union, anti-public education “Freedom Foundation.” This entity is sending emails encouraging members to opt out of being a union member and paying union dues. This is a direct attack designed to make our union weaker and make it easier to privatize our public schools.
The emails are being sent to members’ District emails from an address that appears as “Opt Out Today.” Opt Out Today is part of the Freedom Foundation. This foundation has been accurately characterized in recent media reports as “door-to-door union-killers.” They are corporate-funded lobbyists who support privatization of public schools. If you received their email, know that it is part of a campaign by a known anti-union group designed to weaken our union. They know we are stronger together.
Just look at what we were able to achieve this year:
  • Salary increase on schedule as of January 1, 2018.
  • Calendar dates for 2018-2019 school year (Keeping three week winter break)
  • Having input on the LCAP plan, money for books to go with “Readers and Writer’s Workshop” and Class Libraries, counselors, Intervention teacher’s, Teacher Collaboration Time.
  • Continued increase of SBAC scores due to collaboration
  • Collaboration with the District Administration putting student success first.
Furthermore, opting out of the portion of union dues that supports political activity will simply make it easier for privatization groups like the “Freedom Foundation” to elect politicians who want to weaken our unions and pave the way for corporate charter expansion. Their campaign is cynical, it is anti-worker, and it is anti-student. We are asking Association members to fight back by:
  • Marking the Opt Out Today email as “spam” or “junk.”
  • Clicking on the “Unsubscribe” link in the email. (If the unsubscribing process is difficult, or if you receive additional messages from Freedom Foundation after unsubscribing, please let us know.)
  • Forwarding the entire e-mail to Verve Mail (the Freedom Foundation's email provider) at support@vervemail.com, with the following text:  The Freedom Foundation is spamming me and my coworkers. Please ask them to cease all spam emails ASAP.
  • Forwarding this email to every local member you know.
  • Posting your own “Norma Rae” Union photo using #WeAreCTA and #Union
Standing strong together,

Sincerely,
Marjean Rosen
President, Whittier Elementary Teachers' Association

New Update:

Next WETA Rep Meeting: Thursday, January 24, 2019 at 3:45pm

Teacher of the Year 2017 - Clay Mark
Mill School and Technology Academy

New Information is available:

WETA is constantly uploading new information on our website to provide you with the most current information.  Please check out the following items:
* Retirement - Tuesday, May 15, 2018 at 3:45 at Double Tree by Hilton Whittier  7320 Greenleaf Ave
* 2018 Salary Information is available - Thank you bargaining team for getting our increase in salary!!!
* California Casualty 2017 Academic Award Application
* 2018 - 2019 Calendar is available (Go to Resources, Calendar)
* Also, join us on Facebook at Whittier Elementary Teachers' Association

CTA Information


As anticipated, the funders and supporters of Janus have wasted no time in trying to use the flawed SCOTUS decision to encourage our members to drop their CTA membership. We’ve had reports from multiple chapters of anti-worker groups using district email addresses to send links to an online printable drop-form. So far, the Minnesota-based, DeVos Family, Koch Bros-funded Mackinac group has been the source of most of these, and they’ve set up a site called mypaymysay.com that will both generate a printable drop form and allow them to collect personal contact information about our members. They’ve also launched paid social media ads that are showing up on some of our members’ feeds.
  • Get sample emails, flyers and see videos to help you set the record straight about these attacks at www.cta.org/UnionStrong.
I want to commend the CTA local leaders who have already responded quickly and acted proactively in the face of these attacks. To help others educate members and get ahead of these attacks, we’ve set up a page of resources, www.cta.org/UnionStrong.
  • Please report any new drop campaign activity to your primary contact staff so we will be quickly alerted to any new efforts or tactics.
  • Work with your school district to flag drop campaign use of district email servers as spam.
  • Make sure you follow the new CTA drop procedures outlined in our Membership Processing Toolkit for any members choosing to opt-out of the union.
  • Remember to have one-on-one conversations with those who are considering dropping and also with former fair-share payers who are now all potential members.
  • If you missed our Janus tele townhall on decision day, you can listen to the recording here. The Q&A begins 19 minutes into the recording. 
Our goal is to maintain and continue to build membership; we are stronger together. While these attacks by anti-union school privatizers are misleading AND annoying, we are determined to make sure they are not successful. We hope the resources we’re providing will be helpful. Please let us know what else you need to help ensure our membership remains strong and engaged.

In solidarity,

California Teachers Association
The preeminent voice for educators and students in California's public schools and colleges.
Learn more at www.cta.org.