Nontenured NJ Teachers are Separate and Unequal.

I paid $1084 (that's more than 2% of my salary) into the local teacher's union this past school year.  It was my second year in this huge urban north Jersey public school district, and I was in good standing.

Then came the budget cuts, no thanks to Gov. Christie.  In the spring of 2010, the district premptively riffed many hundreds of tenured and nontenured teachers.  "Riffed" refers to a Reduction In Force letter that basically tells you that you are laid off because it is necessary to reduce the staff in the district.  It's a "pink slip," so-to-speak, but you are not terminated, your employment with the district is put on hold pending the availability of funds to hire you back (you can be "recalled").

Not to worry, the union's got our backs.  Or so I thought.

Immediately, the local union starts trying to make sense of the layoffs and eventually to determine if recalls are following the law according to seniority and tenure, which does not help me, a nontenured teacher.

All summer long, the head of the local union emails me, often two or three times a week, to say that the situation is in disarray, one hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing in this disfunctional district, but he is diligently working on the situation.  Well, actually, he's working to get the tenured teachers their jobs back first.

September 1, 2010 rolls around--the first day of school for teachers.  I am still unemployed. 

I receive word from contacts at my former school that all of the nontenured teachers have returned to work.  In fact, a fellow nontenured teacher in my department with less experience and training, and fewer certifications has returned, AND, a tenured teacher from the district has been hired into my department.

One of these two has, in effect, replaced me!

Regarding the tenured teacher taking my job, the NJEA's position is clear:  tenured teachers have the right to be rehired, and a nontenured teacher has no rights at all.

Regarding the nontenured teacher in my department (with less experience, training, and fewer certifications) taking my job, the NJEA's position is clear: a nontenured teacher has no rights at all, not even the right to a job by seniority or by an objective assessment of the better teacher's performance.  My district uses a point system on our evaluations, so an objective evaluation from the same supervisor, whom we shared, would easily suffice.

I have since seen jobs posted on the district web site for which I am qualified, yet I have NOT been recalled to work, even though I have served the district for two years in good standing.  I emailed the assistant superintendent about this, and I was told to apply for any jobs that I may want!

Oh, that's right, a nontenured teacher has no rights, not even the right to a job over any other applicant not already employed in the district!

Herein lies the problem:

• A nontenured teacher pays the same union dues as a tenured teacher, but the union doesn't represent a nontenured teacher's interests equally.  A tenured teacher can take a nontenured teacher's job because a tenured teacher is part of a separate and privileged class supported by the same union as a nontenured teacher.
• A nontenured teacher working in this district pays union dues, and a non-union member not working in this district pays no union dues, yet, they share equal footing in competition for a job in this district.  The NJEA cannot support a nontenured teacher's rights to a job in a district because the union admits that nontenured teachers have no defensible rights to a job.

For nontenured New Jersey public school teachers in the NJEA, this situation is tantamount to taxation without representation.

Nontenured teachers should not pay union dues to the NJEA that are equal to that of tenured teachers, because our rights and representations secured by the union ARE NOT EQUAL.

The solution:

• eliminate or revise tenure laws, OR
• revise the NJEA union dues to reflect the unequal treatment of nontenured union members