Guam teachers’ union to help NMI set up one

The CNMI may be the only place in America where teachers do not have collective bargaining rights, according to Teacher Rep. Ambrose Bennett, but all that is about to change.

Bennett said he has obtained the help of the Guam Federation of Teachers in setting up a teachers’ union in the Commonwealth and the first phase of the plan is a meeting with public school teachers tomorrow at the Kagman III Community Center.

Bennett, who broke the plan to the Board of Education during its monthly meeting held yesterday at the Aqua Resort Club, said that now is just about the right time to form the union in CNMI.

The meeting for the CNMI Teachers Union, to be held on Saturday, from 9am to 12pm at the Kagman III Community Center, will be attended by Guam Federation of Teachers president Matt Rector, vice president Tim Fedenko and coordinator Tob Baum.

The agenda will include the benefits that teachers will accrue from being members of the CNMI Teachers’ Union, signing up for membership and to answers questions that teachers may have about the union.

“Teachers in the CNMI do not find themselves protected whenever their contract expires or they suddenly find out they are being retrenched from the school system, because there is no union of teachers that would protect them,” said Bennett. “The meeting at Kagman aims to start signing up CNMI teachers for the union.”

Once formed, he said the CNMI Teachers’ Union will be a subsidiary of the Guam Federation of Teachers, with the CNMI having its own union and collective bargaining rights. GFT will exist just for accounting purposes, legal support and others. GFT is under the American Federation of Teachers, which is an international organization that covers most of the teachers in America.

Bennett said that only 50 percent signatures plus one out of the 593 public school teachers in the CNMI are needed for the creation of the teachers’ union; however, only 30 percent of the teachers in the CNMI are required for membership.

Bennett said he is confident that he would enlist enough teacher signatures. “I don’t think it would be a problem, because I signed up 74 percent of the teachers for the election of board teacher representative,” he said.

Bennett said he has given the BOE ample time to take this matter seriously but BOE and the State Board of Education’s reluctance prompted him to coordinate with GFT on Guam.

Board member Herman T. Guerrero questioned the GFT’s presence on Saipan and whether GFT representatives have jurisdiction in assisting CNMI teachers in forming the union. He also said that there are other legal issues that should be considered.

Guerrero surmised that GFT may be running out of money and is trying to recruit somewhere else to increase the group’s funding.

Bennett said the board is taking the issue personally against him. He said there were insinuations that he was attacking the board. “As one individual, I am powerless against five voting members of the board,” he pointed out.

Teachers are afraid, said Bennett, and that is the problem. “Most of the teachers are really afraid to be vocal or have any kind of dissenting opinion or even contributing opinions because they are afraid [of losing their jobs],” said Bennett. (Marconi Calindas)