Latest news with #teachersunion
CBS News
a day ago
- Business
- CBS News
Chicago Teachers Union threatens lawsuit, says CPS is trying to delay changes in contract
The Chicago Teachers Union is threatening to sue the Chicago Public Schools for what they call a contract violation, and unfair labor practices. In April, the union and the district agreed to a four-year deal that included pay raises, smaller classes, and higher staffing levels. But now, the CTU is accusing the district of trying to delay those changes for class size and staffing levels. CPS responded and said any changes have not yet been officially approved. CPS also stressed that it is facing a $529 million budget.
BBC News
3 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
Teacher workload 'unfair and unhealthy', union says
Scotland's largest teachers' union has described the workload in schools as "unfair, unhealthy and unsustainable".EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said it was set to ballot members over strike action because the Scottish government had failed to reduce the amount of time teachers must spend in the three quarters of those who took part in a union survey said they were rarely or never able to do the work, preparation and correcting they had been asked to do within their working Scottish government said it was continuing to work with unions and local authorities on reducing the amount of class contact time for teachers. The EIS survey was completed by almost 11,000 teachers – about 20% of its membership.A total of 44% of respondents said they usually worked the equivalent of an extra day a week, while a quarter said they worked the equivalent of an extra two days a week to try to get all their work 64% said they could never complete all of the tasks assigned to them in their working 1% of those who completed the survey said they had sufficient time in a typical working week to complete paperwork, liaise with colleagues and external agencies, and attend meetings in relation to supporting pupils with additional support than 10% said they could never access the support needed for children with additional support needs at the point the need was their responses to the survey, one teacher described having a non-verbal autistic child in their class with violent escalating behaviours. They described the challenges of supporting the child while also trying to teach the other 32 children in the spoke of having to choose between teaching a big class and needing to help specific pupils who were "in crisis", and described children who were "crying and screaming all day long". Increasing demands Alison, who has been a primary school teacher for 13 years and is an EIS representative, says she almost burnt out completely at the start of her said she had to work nights and weekends to keep on top of her workload."I've been late back home, late dinners, late beds, you're still thinking about it," she said."You set your Sunday aside and don't make plans with family because you need to sit down in front of a laptop and research and plan and provide lessons for the following week."Alison now tries to protect her weekends to maintain her health, but says the pressures have grown and grown over the said this was because of the increasing demands of children with additional support needs, and the amount of paperwork. Andrea Bradley said the results of the survey painted "a stark picture"."It is a story of persistent, excessive workload demands being placed on teachers at all grades and at all stages of their careers," she said."Having teachers who are overworked and stressed is in no-one's interest, neither teachers themselves or their families, nor the young people learning in our schools."She said the survey provided "compelling evidence" that teacher workload was "unfair, unhealthy and unsustainable"."The Scottish government in its last election manifesto pledged to address this by reducing teachers' class contact time," she added."Four years on from that pledge being made, there has been absolutely no tangible progress towards delivering it, and no proposals as to how it will be delivered."She said that "failure" would lead to the EIS opening a consultative ballot on industrial action at its annual general meeting later this SNP promised to reduce teacher contact time by 1.5 hours a week in its manifesto for the 2021 Scottish election – but that has not party also pledged to recruit an additional 3,500 teachers by 2026. That pledge has been dropped and replaced by a promise to get teacher numbers back to the level they were at in 2023. Plans to improve support The Scottish government said it would continue to work with unions and local authority body Cosla to agree the approach to delivering a reduction in class contact time."We are providing local authorities with an additional £186.5m to restore teacher numbers, alongside an additional £29m to support the recruitment and retention of the ASN workforce," a spokesperson said."This funding has been provided on the clear agreement that meaningful progress is made on reducing teacher class contact time."Local authorities oversee the delivery of education and have a statutory duty to identify, provide and review the support that they provide for pupils with additional support needs in their local community."A Cosla spokesperson said clear action plans had been developed to improve the support available to the workforce and learners."We recognise that this work needs to move at pace to improve outcomes for children and young people, and the experiences of the teachers and school staff working with them."We continue to engage with Scottish government and trade unions on the Scottish government's commitment to reduce class contact time."
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
UFT President Michael Mulgrew reelected to top NYC teachers union post
NEW YORK — United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew won his reelection bid Saturday, edging out two rival candidates who challenged the longtime incumbent over his handling of retiree health care and dissatisfaction with the status quo. Mulgrew's caucus, known as Unity, secured 54% of the vote this election cycle, compared to 32% and 14% for the opposition slates, A Better Contract ('ABC') and Alliance of Retiree and In-Services Educators ('ARISE'), respectively. More than 58,300 UFT members cast ballots — the highest voter turnout in a teachers union election in recent years. 'I want to thank the tens of thousands of UFT members who put their trust in Unity and in our work on behalf of the union,' Mulgrew said in a statement. The UFT is New York City's second-largest, public-sector union — with nearly 200,000 active and retired teachers, paraprofessionals and other members. With his latest victory, Mulgrew, the UFT president since 2009, has won six consecutive elections, but by increasingly smaller margins. In 2022, Unity won roughly 66% of the vote, while the opposition slate in the race secured 34% of ballots. This year's election results continued that trend. The results cap off a particularly invigorated election cycle, including an unsuccessful legal challenge by A Better Contract over in-person voting. In recent months, Mulgrew campaigned on the passage of the state's 2022 class size law, took a sharply critical stance of Mayor Eric Adams' relationship with the Trump administration, and tried to push through legislation to boost pay for paraprofessionals. ARISE brought together three caucuses, including the progressive Movement of Rank and File Educators ('MORE') and 'Retiree Advocate,' which last year toppled Mulgrew's ally who led the Retired Teacher chapter. The ARISE coalition, led by Olivia Swisher, a middle school art teacher in Brooklyn, hoped to harness the anger against Mulgrew over efforts to move former city workers onto privatized health care, known as Medicare Advantage, which retired teachers said could diminish their care. Acknowledging those headwinds, Mulgrew has since withdrawn the UFT's support for the the plan, which would have provided the city with hundreds of millions of dollars in annual savings. A Better Contract was led by Amy Arundell, a former top borough official at Unity. She left the caucus after she was removed from her position overseeing all union matters in Queens amid controversy over a pro-Israel union resolution. ABC, too, stood against the switch to Medicare Advantage. The insurgent bids seized on a growing anti-incumbent sentiment, which most recently played a part in the ouster of longtime health care labor leader George Gresham of 1199SEIU, who POLITICO reported used member dues to benefit himself, his family and political allies. Driven in part by that feeling, voter turnout increased by 15% since last election, according to the results. Both slates insisted that pay raises in the last contract did not keep pace with the cost of living. Mulgrew's rivals have also accused current leadership of not giving the rank and file enough of a voice in union matters and also of backroom dealings. In particular, some of his critics took issue with the city's new reading curriculum mandates, which were announced alongside the UFT, which they said threaten teacher autonomy and professionalism. The UFT president and other newly elected officers will serve three-year terms, starting on July 1.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Nebraska ed package blows up, as push to infuse religion into public schools fails
State Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha listens to State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil kneeling at her desk. March 12, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner) LINCOLN — An uneasy compromise that became the Education Committee package bill died on the Nebraska statehouse floor Wednesday, in part because the quest to infuse more religion into public schools failed. A cross-section of committee members tried to get a group of loosely related education proposals out of committee and onto the floor for a month. The combined bill was viewed as a bipartisan deal involving several groups, including the conservative chair of the committee and the state's largest teachers union, to marry a proposal that would allow K-12 students to be excused during the school day for off-site religious instruction and coursework to a bill from State Sen. Ashlei Spivey of Omaha that would help schools find more long-term substitutes so teachers could take paid time off around significant life events. Some who backed the deal have said that parents can already sign out their kids for any reason and that they do not see it as a state endorsement of religion. Other lawmakers have expressed that it would open the door for other religious-themed bills. The floor debate was like many of the tense executive sessions on the package. The deal blew up on the floor after State Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha successfully removed Central City's State Sen. Loren Lippincott's Legislative Bill 550, a release time proposal, killing the whole package. While the original deal is dead – lawmakers involved in negotiations let lawmakers skip over the bill. Their aim: to bring back a cleaner version of LB 306 — mainly some clean-up language sought by State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil to address change terms and provisions in state law relating to higher education in the session's final days while giving lawmakers an opportunity to pro attach their proposals to it individually and let the full Legislature vote on each. 'I think in any normal course of a session, a bill like LB 550 would be seen as a radical piece of legislation,' Hunt said. The vote to remove Lippincott's proposal was bipartisan, 25-9. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle expressed concerns about the logistical challenges of letting students leave, including how often students would miss classes. Some wondered whether it might blur the line between church and state. The Lippincott bill was part of a national lobbying effort by a Christian education organization with ties to the populist right, LifeWise Academy. Lippincott confirmed in previous reporting that his bill is modeled after other states' 'release time' legislation. Jesse Vohwinkel, LifeWise Academy's Vice President of Growth, testified in favor of Lippincott's bill during its public hearing in February. The company was mentioned multiple times during the debate. In recent weeks, some legislative Republicans have privately told the Examiner that Lippincott's bill could go a step too far for them. The vote indicates the climb some social conservatives backing religious bills face. 'I find that it has a high potential of being very discriminatory against other faiths,' State Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston said during the debate. After the Lippincott proposal was removed from the package, state Sen. Dan Lonowski of Hastings attempted to remove Spivey's bill from the package. It failed by a 22-16 vote, needing 25 votes. Then, after the failed motion to remove Spivey's bill, some Republicans on the committee said Democrats had broken the 'deal.' Education Committee Chair State Sen. Murman and other Republicans tanked the package. 'We had an agreement in the Education Committee,' Murman said. 'All of us on the committee had to compromise a little bit … the compromise is no longer in effect.' Democrats on the committee said Murman's approach requiring LB 550 in the package had caused the tension. The final nail came in an 8-29 vote, with the Legislature failing to adopt the committee package as an amendment to the bill, LB 306, killing Spivey's priority bill and other parts of the package. The Spivey bill sought to give teachers up to three weeks of paid leave to deal with significant life events. The bill would have paid for this leave using a new payroll fee on teacher salaries to cover the costs of paying long-term substitutes while the teachers are out. The fee would also help pay for special education teacher recruitment and retention. The Nebraska State Education Association, one of the brokers of the package, saw the deal blow up as Tim Royers, president of the Nebraska State Education Association, was behind the glass watching lawmakers. He said the union was 'disappointed' with the outcome. 'We're disappointed with the vote. Only 8% of educators feel the Legislature takes them into account when they craft education policy,' Royers said. 'Tonight's vote is indicative of why they feel that way. We fully intend to come back next session and get a bill to the Governor's desk.' But the union may not need to wait long if the late compromise between Murman and other lawmakers who want to revive a backup plan comes to fruition. Speaker John Arch said he would bring the base of LB 306 back during the last few days of the session. The impromptu compromise came after Omaha State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh threatened to grind the Legislature to a halt over the package's death. 'This is awful when we can't pass the committee priority package bill because the committee chairman won't even vote for his own committee amendment,' Cavanaugh said. 'This session is an abomination.' Lippincott told the Examiner that he's considering attempting to propose his amended version of LB 550. However, he said he was thinking about it realistically, as a majority of senators have already rejected his proposal. Murman said the remaining proposals that were part of the package would likely get votes as separate amendments. 'Making laws is like making sausage; you hope it sticks together,' Murman said. 'It didn't.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Nebraska ed package blows up, as push to infuse religion into public schools fails
State Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha listens to State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil kneeling at her desk. March 12, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner) LINCOLN — An uneasy compromise that became the Education Committee package bill died on the Nebraska statehouse floor Wednesday, in part because the quest to infuse more religion into public schools failed. A cross-section of committee members tried to get a group of loosely related education proposals out of committee and onto the floor for a month. The combined bill was viewed as a bipartisan deal involving several groups, including the conservative chair of the committee and the state's largest teachers union, to marry a proposal that would allow K-12 students to be excused during the school day for off-site religious instruction and coursework to a bill from State Sen. Ashlei Spivey of Omaha that would help schools find more long-term substitutes so teachers could take paid time off around significant life events. Some who backed the deal have said that parents can already sign out their kids for any reason and that they do not see it as a state endorsement of religion. Other lawmakers have expressed that it would open the door for other religious-themed bills. The floor debate was like many of the tense executive sessions on the package. The deal blew up on the floor after State Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha successfully removed Central City's State Sen. Loren Lippincott's Legislative Bill 550, a release time proposal, killing the whole package. While the original deal is dead – lawmakers involved in negotiations let lawmakers skip over the bill. Their aim: to bring back a cleaner version of LB 306 — mainly some clean-up language sought by State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil to address change terms and provisions in state law relating to higher education in the session's final days while giving lawmakers an opportunity to pro attach their proposals to it individually and let the full Legislature vote on each. 'I think in any normal course of a session, a bill like LB 550 would be seen as a radical piece of legislation,' Hunt said. The vote to remove Lippincott's proposal was bipartisan, 25-9. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle expressed concerns about the logistical challenges of letting students leave, including how often students would miss classes. Some wondered whether it might blur the line between church and state. The Lippincott bill was part of a national lobbying effort by a Christian education organization with ties to the populist right, LifeWise Academy. Lippincott confirmed in previous reporting that his bill is modeled after other states' 'release time' legislation. Jesse Vohwinkel, LifeWise Academy's Vice President of Growth, testified in favor of Lippincott's bill during its public hearing in February. The company was mentioned multiple times during the debate. In recent weeks, some legislative Republicans have privately told the Examiner that Lippincott's bill could go a step too far for them. The vote indicates the climb some social conservatives backing religious bills face. 'I find that it has a high potential of being very discriminatory against other faiths,' State Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston said during the debate. After the Lippincott proposal was removed from the package, state Sen. Dan Lonowski of Hastings attempted to remove Spivey's bill from the package. It failed by a 22-16 vote, needing 25 votes. Then, after the failed motion to remove Spivey's bill, some Republicans on the committee said Democrats had broken the 'deal.' Education Committee Chair State Sen. Murman and other Republicans tanked the package. 'We had an agreement in the Education Committee,' Murman said. 'All of us on the committee had to compromise a little bit … the compromise is no longer in effect.' Democrats on the committee said Murman's approach requiring LB 550 in the package had caused the tension. The final nail came in an 8-29 vote, with the Legislature failing to adopt the committee package as an amendment to the bill, LB 306, killing Spivey's priority bill and other parts of the package. The Spivey bill sought to give teachers up to three weeks of paid leave to deal with significant life events. The bill would have paid for this leave using a new payroll fee on teacher salaries to cover the costs of paying long-term substitutes while the teachers are out. The fee would also help pay for special education teacher recruitment and retention. The Nebraska State Education Association, one of the brokers of the package, saw the deal blow up as Tim Royers, president of the Nebraska State Education Association, was behind the glass watching lawmakers. He said the union was 'disappointed' with the outcome. 'We're disappointed with the vote. Only 8% of educators feel the Legislature takes them into account when they craft education policy,' Royers said. 'Tonight's vote is indicative of why they feel that way. We fully intend to come back next session and get a bill to the Governor's desk.' But the union may not need to wait long if the late compromise between Murman and other lawmakers who want to revive a backup plan comes to fruition. Speaker John Arch said he would bring the base of LB 306 back during the last few days of the session. The impromptu compromise came after Omaha State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh threatened to grind the Legislature to a halt over the package's death. 'This is awful when we can't pass the committee priority package bill because the committee chairman won't even vote for his own committee amendment,' Cavanaugh said. 'This session is an abomination.' Lippincott told the Examiner that he's considering attempting to propose his amended version of LB 550. However, he said he was thinking about it realistically, as a majority of senators have already rejected his proposal. Murman said the remaining proposals that were part of the package would likely get votes as separate amendments. 'Making laws is like making sausage; you hope it sticks together,' Murman said. 'It didn't.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
