CONDEMNING PENNSYLVANIA STATE EDUCATION ASSOCIATION AND ITS ACTIONS IN THE BELLE VERNON AREA SCHOOL

WHEREAS, the Belle Vernon Area Federation of Teachers, the newly elected bargaining unit representative in the Belle Vernon Area School District in Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, was forced to strike in the winter of 1989 when negotiations broke down; and

WHEREAS, the Belle Vernon Area Education Association, in an attempt to undermine and break the strike, crossed the picket lines and reported to work; and

WHEREAS, the local Belle Vernon Area Education Association members actively encouraged and recruited other substitute teachers to act as strikebreakers for $100 per day; and

WHEREAS, a Pennsylvania State Education Association staff employee encouraged its members to scab by his comments, failure to urge its members to support the strike action and failure to condemn and expel the Belle Vernon Area Education Association or its members; and

WHEREAS, the action allowed and encouraged by the Pennsylvania State Education Association was detrimental not only to organized teachers in Belle Vernon but to all teachers across the nation and, in fact, to all members of organized labor:

RESOLVED, that the AFT censure the Pennsylvania State Education Association and its Belle Vernon Area local for allowing members to breach a fundamental principle of union solidarity and to scab in a strike situation; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT and its affiliates refuse to attend labor functions in which the Pennsylvania State Education Association is permitted to participate; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT demand that the National Education Association investigate the action taken by the Pennsylvania State Education Association to ensure that similar incidents will not occur again; and

RESOLVED, that this resolution be sent to the president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association and the executive director of the Pennsylvania State Education Association.