The Not So Secret (But Still Widely Unknown) Lives of TK-12 Public School Teachers

This Week: Brian Lees

By Brian Lees

I answered my own interview questions through the lens of being a labor union representative for other teachers.  I also wanted to have a written narrative I could use as a rough sample of the format to share with others to help them generate their own worker stories.  I have taught at three different elementary schools in my 28-year career and have been a site union representative at all three of them for all but 3 of those years.  Here is my worker story from the perspective as that rep.

What has been your biggest challenge as a school site representative?

There is such a wide spectrum of opinion and viewpoints, especially among elementary teachers.  High school and middle school teachers have a tendency to be more direct with the assertion of what they feel are their rights and entitlements; elementary teachers have a tendency to temper that with the veil of warmth and, in some cases, a “bleeding heart” for the younger population they work with. 

Elementary teachers definitely tolerate more push back from administrators and parents, as well as more impingements on their time.  Even at the elementary school level, this varies greatly from grade level to grade level and from individual to individual.  There are also many different viewpoints politically.  Our union leadership has often indicated our membership is about 40% Democrat, 35% Republican, and 25% Independent.  There are many different teaching philosophies as well, many of which I don’t agree with, and many behaviors that teachers engage in that I wouldn’t exactly classify as meeting professional standards.  For example, there are teachers who are still resistant to using technology in their classes and use an endless cascade of worksheets; teachers who don’t enforce school rule or teach to curriculum standards; teachers who use outdated practices or curriculum that are not research-based or examples of best practices for optimal student learning; teachers who repeatedly show up late as the final morning bell is ringing and the gates are closing for the morning; teachers who do not interact with other teachers using professional communication. 

Fortunately, these teachers are the exception and not the rule.  But my challenge as a union site rep is that I still have to try to listen to their viewpoint, understand it, respect it (at least with my union rep hat on), and even defend it when they feel attacked or are needing support or representation.  I have to be more open than I may want to be.  I have to follow a higher standard of confidentiality and be more circumspect than most people in our profession may be.  This has put me in many an awkward situation over the years, and it seems as though these challenges are becoming more prevalent now and in recent years than they were before.

What role did our union, Poway Federation of Teachers (PFT), play in supporting you, and if a new teacher came to you and asked you if they should join the union and if it is worth it, what experiences would you share with them to help them decide?

One of the questions PFT put out on its most recent survey was if we, the members, viewed our union as merely an “insurance policy,” there when we need it, or as something bigger, more all-inclusive, and unifying.  I do not have knowledge of what the actual results of this survey were (at least not yet), but I do know that most people at my site have voiced the opinion that they only belong to our union because it’s the “insurance policy.”  If their continued employment is threatened or a legal matter comes up, they want to know they have the union in their corner. 

I have needed my union to support me in this way numerous times, and they have always been there.  For example, as a new teacher, I was hired as a “temporary” teacher and not a “probationary” teacher, which means I was not entitled to re-employment rights or due process once my “temporary” contract expired at the end of the first year.  My union was instrumental in guiding me through this process, making sure I was re-employed, initially as temporary once again, but quickly moved over to probationary, so that I would have a chance to earn my tenure status in my third year. 

When administrators have not respected teacher time as outlined in our collective bargaining contract, my union made sure binding agreements were followed.  When I found myself in a situation of facing false accusations from a mentally unstable student and mentally unstable parent, I was once again represented with the highest quality I could hope for. 

But I’ve also felt my union has been so much more, whether it is through collective bargaining, communicating outcomes, trying to bring teachers something that can act as a bonding agent and bring us together.  Maybe I see this more as a more active member and an insider because I am a union rep, but I also feel that our members who are a bit out of touch with their union could be more proactive about receiving the communication our union sends out.

As for new teachers coming into the profession, I have joined PFT leadership on at least one occasion to help them recruit our new teacher hires at a new teacher orientation to join our union, citing some of the examples above as evidence of what the union can do, but also trying to communicate that it is so much more.  Is it worth it?  Absolutely.  Would I have wanted to be without union membership at any time in my career?  No way.

What has been your greatest success as a site rep?

I don’t really believe that has happened yet, but I will say that I feel my greatest success story stems from my involvement in PFT as a site rep, which led to them nominating me to be a delegate to the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council where I was able to organize, with the help of the Palomar Faculty Federation and other North County unions, a food distribution on the Palomar College campus during the height of COVID in June of 2020.  Bringing this to fruition and keeping it going for nearly 18 months was a great way to get involved in building a stronger bond between our unions and the community and putting our union and unions in general in a more positive light, since we often face heavy criticism for our activism. 

As Katelyn Hailey, who was part of the Labor Council leadership at that time said, “We don’t just want to connect with the community, we ARE the community,” and I believe that not only do those words ring true as almost a daily mantra for me, but also as a way of confirming or vindicating what we were doing.