The End of the School Year is Just the Beginning

By Brenda Shields, Chief Steward, MCS Chapter

Even though the school year is ending, our work as a union continues. In some ways, it’s getting even busier – especially when it comes to politics. Yes, that dirty word… politics. It puts a lot of people off and makes them tune out. You might even be wondering: “what does politics have to do with my job”. In a word: everything. Our paychecks are paid for by taxpayers. The policies that we work under are decided by the Memphis City School Board. The budgets that the schools work under are proposed and voted on by the Mayor and the City Council. And that’s just at the local level. The state government allocates money and so does the federal government. In other words, politics matters.

And that’s why your SEIU leadership recently attended the May 15 city council meeting downtown at City Hall. Candace Smothers, Barbara Hill, Patricia Byers, Barbara McGee, and myself attended in our purple SEIU shirts as the board discussed the 2008-2009 budget. Some of the bigger issues that were talked about were the possibility that the council is threatening to withhold some $93 million from the school system. If the council follows through on their threat, we could have some big problems here in the schools. The other big news is that there will be four new charter schools opening next year. It is unclear whether these charter schools will fall under the same MOU as the rest of the system and that is something that SEIU is paying very close attention to.
Closer to home, some of the issues we deal with every day like building safety, truancy, and the drop-out rate were put off until a later date.

So as a lot of us look to enjoy the dog days of summer, remember that the struggles we face are going to continue and that’s why we need to stay involved with the Union. Stay tuned for more information about a picnic SEIU will be hosting later this summer where we can have fun and get to know the candidates running for local office. It’s important that they know that we will be holding them accountable and that we expect them to support MCS and pro-labor policies.

Enjoy your summer, brothers and sisters!