WTU president unsurprised as his predecessor teams up with Rhee
Upon hearing the news that former D.C. teachers' union head George Parker was teaming up with rival-of-record Michelle Rhee, Randi Weingarten texted, "REALLY?"
Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, mediated tense contract negotiations between Parker and then D.C. Schools Chancellor Rhee, who has essentially labeled teachers' unions Public Enemy No. 1.
Weingarten was taken aback, to say the least.
But Nathan Saunders, who defeated Parker in his re-election bid for the Washington Teachers' Union presidency, felt quite the opposite. "This isn’t surprising news to me and a lot of people who really understood what was going on," he told The Washington Examiner.
In 2008, Saunders sued Rhee and Parker, saying in the suit that he was "systematically punished and retaliated against" for speaking out on teachers' issues.
"I was the first to come out and say that Mr. Parker and Ms. Rhee were colluding and pushing for the teachers’ contract, and that’s fairly reflected in the court records," Saunders said.
Parker is "definitely being used as a political tool," Saunders charged, but that's not his concern.
"We have received a lot of inquiries from teachers who felt they were never represented properly by Mr. Parker because of the rumors of him [colluding] with Ms. Rhee," he said. They're questioning "whether Mr. Parker sold them out."
"This is the very beginning of something that we’re going to have to pay attention to."
http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/capital-land/2011/05/nathan-saunders-george-parker-teaming-rhee-wtu
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