By Steve Gunn
EAGnews.org

NORWALK, Conn. – What’s wrong with an employer sending a crucial message to employees regarding finances and layoffs?

Everything, according to the teachers union in Norwalk, Connecticut.

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The Norwalk Federation of Teachers has filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the Norwalk Board of Education because a school board member sent two letters directly to teachers, informing them of their union’s rejection of pay freeze proposal for the 2012-13 school year.

The union claims the letters represented “improper contact with the city’s teachers,” according to a story published by TheHour.com.

There they go again, pretending that teachers are somehow the property of the union, rather than employees of the taxpayers who fund the school district.

Sue Haynie, the school board member who chairs the Personnel committee, allegedly used the district’s email system to send an open letter to teachers, with an attached letter from Haynie to the union president, urging compliance with the request for a pay freeze.

“We have received a number of questions as to the board’s efforts to reduce the need for reductions in teacher positions,” Haynie wrote in her letter to teachers. “We have asked the Federation to reconsider its position that it will not accept a salary freeze for the coming year. Such a freeze would save as many as 25 teacher jobs.”

So teachers have been asking the board about reducing the number of layoffs. Haynie responded to those questions by telling teachers how layoffs could be avoided. We fail to see any wrongdoing here.

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In it’s complaint, the union protests the fact that the school board is trying to convince teachers to pressure their union leaders to accept the pay freeze. So what? Don’t teachers have a right to share their opinions with their elected union leaders if they choose?

The real crime occurs when union leaders fail to inform their members about requests for concessions, and reject school board proposals on their own. The letters from Haynie simply guaranteed that union members are fully informed about the layoff and pay freeze issue, so they can form their own opinions and respond any way they choose.

Union leaders are obviously mad because they weren’t allowed to keep their members in the dark regarding this issue. If the state labor board eventually determines that the school board was guilty of an unfair labor practice, then the definition of unfair labor practice desperately needs to be revisited and revised.