Wow. The Illinois Education Association is trying to organize a charter school in Pingree Grove, IL .  The management response included a staple of union busting: the mandatory meeting to harangue the staff.  This is usually accompanied by mandatory one on one meetings in which workers are interrogated in an effort to identify "ring leaders" (i.e. people interested in excercising their rights under the law) etc. This stuff is usually illegal, always immoral and all too common.  But you don't usually see something quite this ham handed.

According to an IEA staffer who has gone on the record, the mandatory meeting smacked of loyalty oaths and seems better suited to low rent apparatchiks of the Brezhnev era than anything else.  The story states that employees were each given a form they were expected to fill out and sign. The form gives employees three options wherein they would:

• Assert that they did not act "against the interests of Northern Kane Educational Corp." and in the wake of the Daily Herald published report they "demand a public apology from those who sullied my reputation."

• Admit they did act against the interests of their employer "without regret or remorse" and "intend to assert my personal interest" above those of their employer.

• Admit they did act against the interests of their employer, but "regret and repudiate" their actions and will publicly apologize. They also will "withdraw any expression of interest given to a UniServ representative."

No word on whether employees were asked to declare their allegiance to the central party of the charter school.  Also no word on whether there was a check box giving people the choice between declaring whether they like the executive director, love the executive director, or think of the executive director as Godlike in his educational awesomeness. 

Yes it's oafish and easy to mock, but make no mistake about the stakes. As we ramp up our own organizing, we're seeing more of this. It's real and it's wrong. Teachers refused to go on the record with reporters on this story, telling the paper they feared losing their jobs. Teachers are smart. Hopefully these teachers are smart enough to stick together and stand up. Its the best thing to do when faced with a bully.

 I'm wondering if PREA Prez will have any further insights.

Update: He does and correctly points out that we need to update the blogroll.  See also Kevin Carey.

(Also - apologies for the totally light blogging. I've been preoccupied keeping up with Spring Training other work).