A member's comments
Wayne Shrubsall reflects on the union's necessity

“As many of you seem to know, I will be retiring at the end of this term. . . All of you, in one way or another, have made my teaching life ever so rewarding. I especially appreciate the expertise and professionalism I have encountered here . . .

Now in leaving, let me stress one thing that all of you need to consider: join and support the American Federation of Teachers*. It has done much for many of us here at TVI; it is an organized voice guaranteed to provide instructors with a means of voicing concern and criticism; it is a guarantee of discourse, too often ignored in bureaucratic structures such as large educational institutions tend to be.

If we can assert that things now are better here at TVI than they have been in the past, we can thank the Union for much of that. I have been in the Union the entire time its presence has been felt here, and I was a member while I was working at APS.

I would not consider for one minute working as an instructor in an institution whose organizational structure puts teachers at the bottom of the chart UNLESS I were in the Union.

I truly believe that TVI is a good school administered on the whole by fine, intelligent people; but even that has been made better by the Union.

That said, let me offer this: If you think for one minute that things have changed for the better in the world, that unions are a thing of the past, that everyone wishes everyone else well, you need to pull your head out of the sand, wash out your eyes, straighten your pinfeathers, and look around you. The advances you have made as a teacher here were facilitated by the presence and work of the Union.

And there is much left to do. It can be done more easily and definitely more effectively if you are an organized, unified entity . . .”

Used with permission.

-      Wayne Shrubsall

*Dr. Shrubsall is a Charter member of the TVI Employees Federation, Local 4974. He has 37 years
of teaching experience.