Citizens' Group Renews Battle With Teachers' Union over Emails Plotting Teacher Strike
By Donna Gundle-Krieg January 16, 2009
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Did teachers in Wayne-Westland use a school district account to send out emails plotting a teachers' strike?
The Education Action Group has renewed its effort to expose the truth in this matter. Last Tuesday, the EAG filed a new request under the Freedom of Information Act. They asked the Wayne-Westland School District for copies of messages from the same school-owned email account, minus the type of messages that the union previously objected to in court.
Hopefully the teachers' union will stop fighting the release of these emails, and prove that they did nothing wrong. However, it sure seems like they are trying to hide something.
If they have nothing to hide, why did the MEA fight like crazy over the release of the emails? Why did the they eventually wear down the citizen advocacy group and force them to drop the original lawsuit? It is obvious that a small non-profit group has no hope against the powerful deep-pocketed union in a lawsuit like this.
The EAG has high hopes that the union will do the right thing.
“We feel we’ve addressed the union’s objections, and now if they try and halt the FOIA request again, they are clearly throwing up any argument to block the public’s right to know,” said Kyle Olson, vice president of EAG.
Olson said that his group believes that some of the messages sent by a school employee on the e-mail account will prove their point: last fall’s teacher strike was an effort to protect an employee health insurance plan that financially benefits the MEA. The union told the public that the strike was about class size.
The EAG also believe some of the e-mails may provide further proof that the union is a driving force behind a current effort to recall several school board members, which the MEA denies.
.For more information, see Lawsuit Dropped Over Emails Plotting Teacher Strike
EAG tries again to expose the truth
Reform group addresses union's concerns,
resubmits FOIA request
MUSKEGON--Two weeks ago, the Muskegon-based Education Action Group’s Freedom of Information request for copies of e-mails sent from a Wayne Westland school district account was effectively squelched by the Michigan Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union.
By challenging the FOIA request in court, the MEA made it too expensive for EAG to fight on behalf of its request. EAG was told that it would cost approximately $10,000 for qualified legal representation, an amount that exceeds the small organization’s budget.
But EAG is not tossing in the towel in its quest for truth. On Tuesday, Jan. 13 it filed a new FOIA request with the Wayne Westland school district, seeking copies of messages from the same school-owned e-mail account, minus the type of messages that the union objected to in court.
In a preliminary hearing on the matter, MEA attorneys told Judge Kathleen MacDonald that the union was concerned about turning over e-mails containing private employee health information or the union’s collective bargaining strategies.
EAG’s new FOIA request explicitly exempts copies of any e-mail discussing either of those subjects.
“We feel we’ve addressed the union’s objections, and now if they try and halt the FOIA request again, they are clearly throwing up any argument to block the public’s right to know,” said Kyle Olson, vice president of EAG.
EAG believes some of the messages sent by a school employee on the e-mail account will prove that last fall’s teacher strike was an effort to protect an employee health insurance plan that financially benefits the MEA, and was not in response to class sizes, as the union told the public.
We also believe some of the e-mails may provide further proof that the union is a driving force behind a current effort to recall several school board members, which the MEA denies.
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The Education Action Group is a non-profit, non-partisan organization supported by concerned citizens, parents, school board members, and public school advocates. EAG is working in communities to communicate the situation school boards across Michigan face, ways to ease the financial pain, and how to implement sensible solutions.
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