Union meeting gathers only 25 teachers

By Marconi Calindas
Reporters

CNMI teachers gathered yesterday morning at the Kagman Community Center for a half-day discussion and recruitment for a possible teachers’ union on the island.

Only 25 teachers attended the event, said Board of Education teacher representative Ambrose Bennett, though he said in earlier reports that the meeting was aiming for about 300 teachers.

Bennett said all who attended already signed up their application forms.

Though only 25 teachers attended, he believes the number would grow exponentially, as teachers who attended the session would now recruit other teachers to join the union.

He recalled that during election of the board teacher representatives, he was able to sign up 74 percent of the more than 500 teachers in the CNMI, despite needing only 30 percent for membership.

He pointed out that the 50 percent requirement is for the collecting bargaining agreement; only 30 percent of the 593 teachers is needed to actually form the union, so about 178 teachers signing up is already enough.

When asked what will happen if he fails to garner the required number of teachers, Bennett said, “If the teachers don’t want it, it’s over. It’s in the teachers’ hands now, there’s no more Ambrose Bennett.”

Public School System federal programs advisor Tim Thornburg and Board of Education teacher representative Scott Norman showed up at the meeting but they were asked to step out by the Guam Federation of Teachers facilitators. See related story on Page 2.

Guam Federation of Teachers president Matt Rector said that he found the turnout “very positive.” He said that their task was to help teachers so that CNMI teachers could have a voice in the education process.

“After all, who knows better what our children need than our teachers in the classroom that do the education?” Rector said.

He also said the union is all about negotiation and organization of contracts to improve the quality of education in the CNMI. He said that what the public does not realize is that the teachers’ working condition is the student’s learning condition.

“As the teacher’s working condition gets better, our student’s learning gets better,” he said, eventually affecting the quality of education in the CNMI.

GFT, a part of the American Federation of Teachers with 1.3 million members, will help the CNMI train teachers to be better teachers, said Rector.

He said among the problems raised by CNMI teachers includes security of tenure and other benefits. He said these problems are not helping teachers.

The GFT representatives will leave Saipan this afternoon, but they said that they would continue working with CNMI teachers until their goal is realized.