March 19, 2005 11:59 AM

Hurray for special interest groups!  We would not ever had civil rights
legislation,  federal laws protecting women and minorities and we would
never had legislation protecting the rights of disabled people had it not
been for "special interest" groups.

I am very proud to have been part of that advocacy for as many years as I
can remember.  I am also proud to be a local union president and national
union executive vice president representing our public school principals,
assistant principals, administrators and supervisors.  We believe that
strong, validated, and respected  leadership absolutely supports the
interests of our students and our communities.

The best forum for discussing and resolving  divergent points of view
between management and its employees is through labor-management discussions
or at the collective bargaining table.  When this fails, there is a process
for neutral arbitration, selected and paid for by both parties.  For you to
disparage this process and the people involved is ridiculous.  Obviously,
you would "have your way with labor" - a most common corporate management
attitude which is not aligned with the operation of not-for-profits and
social service institutions like our schools.

Please remember that the very things you may believe are dysfunctional
about teachers' contracts ( and others) are the very agreements signed by
management, management that, when hungry for contract resolution, does not
even begin to care about the future impact of those agreements. While they
are here for short-term, we are committed toiserve our schools over the
long-term!

J.L.