MEA Board of Directors on safe return to school
EAST LANSING — At an emergency meeting Tuesday evening, the MEA Board of Directors adopted the following motion regarding the association’s stance on a safe return to learning for students and educators this fall amidst the COVID-19 pandemic:
MEA stands with all educators, who must be a part of creating and implementing return to school plans as well as bargaining the health and safety measures for our students and educators.
If needed, MEA calls on locals to file a demand to bargain about their employer’s COVID-19 Preparedness and Response plan to ensure the health and safety of our students and educators.
Facial coverings, social distancing, adequate cleaning, and equitable access to technology for all staff and students must be implemented when in MI Safe Start Plan, Phase 4.
MEA stands with school employees against the outsourcing of any public school employee’s work due to the effects of COVID-19.
MEA supports any local associations who choose to take collective action in order to protect the health and safety of their students and staff.
Previously, the MEA Board had adopted “Five Standards That Must Be Met for a Safe Return to School,” emphasizing the importance of employee voices in local decision making, collective bargaining, employer-provided protective equipment, equitable access to education, fighting outsourcing of school employee work, adoption of strong safety measures, and the need for adequate funding to prevent cuts and pay for increased COVID-19 costs.
MEA’s Board of Directors is comprised of active school employees from across Michigan, as democratically elected by members of MEA’s 17 regions. MEA is the state’s largest school employee union, representing approximately 120,000 teachers, education support professionals, higher education faculty and staff, school retirees and aspiring educators.
I’m a strong union supporter. I serve on my exec board and have done so off and on my entire 22 year career. I feel honored to work hard for equitable working situations and have felt that the MEA was there supporting us in this endeavor. However, the ‘we support you as you figure out how to make safe foray back into the classroom’ lacks actual support. Asking the locals to take on administration with only moral support when we need the heavy lifting — disappointing to say the least. As admin begins to use emergency permits for non-teachers and anyone can now “teach” online, we’re left to fight for ourselves whilst being told “we support you”. When class sizes remain high and social distancing ignored, the locals are left on an island, or in a crowded school as the case may be. This is the moment when we really need to see our MEA dues at work.