The Friedrichs case this week has me thinking a lot about the importance of personal relationships and how those can bear fruit in ways we can't imagine. Very much like our students. We sometimes don't know who we are impacting and why, but we do the work, we plant the seed and it will germinate at some point. We do that as teachers because we have faith in that.
It's the same thing as a union member. For me it was Rene Flores, who with a conversation changed me from agency fee payer to site rep and unknowingly put me on this path of leadership and advocacy. That's why it's so important for our reps, and our regular rank and file members to talk to new teachers in the profession and let them know the importance of being a union member.
Unions have proven to be agents of change, we need to recognize that that is our role, no matter how the Supreme Court rules.
The following piece appeared in the CTA magazine California Educator, in December of 2015, I talk about my journey from fee payer to activist . . .
