Curmudgeon's Corner

GEA Recertification Voting Begins Tomorrow

Posted by Al Campbell on Nov. 17, 2011

Germantown, Education

The Germantown Education Association (GEA) has filed for a recertification vote and that will commence on Friday and continue until December 8^th.  The outcome will be interesting given all the changes that have occurred.

I am told that notices, based on the WERC (Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission) design, are posted around the schools.

The changes made included the requirement that 51% of all members will need to vote in favor of recertification in order for that to happen, and will have to vote to recertify annually.  The 51% rule requires that that portion of all members (versus the former 51% of voting members) be attained for approval.

You probably recall my references to the anecdotal discussions I’ve had with teacher friends about the number of teachers who really wanted to belong to a union being quite a small portion of all the teachers.  Those discussions indicated that there is a segment, usually described as 15% to 20% of the membership, that were really pro-union while the rest felt compelled to go along.

The new law requires that districts not withhold union dues for the unions, but instead the teachers have to either authorize withdrawal from their checking accounts or write a check each month.  Speculation has been heavily weighted to this being another cause of membership drop-outs.  The monthly dues will become even more evident thus causing more to decide to drop their membership.

Of the roughly 425 districts with unions in Wisconsin, something on the order of 200 of those unions has filed to recertify.  All will be voting from tomorrow through December 8^th, so we should know all the outcomes relatively soon.