Tag: Union

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ONE Conference Wrap Up!

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After a year of planning, the 2024 ONE Conference has come to an end. Thank you to everyone who has worked so hard to make it a success! So many great presenters, speakers, volunteers, and IEA staff have worked tirelessly to pull it together.

I want to thank everyone who was able to take the time out of their incredibly busy schedules of work, family and other responsibilities to come and learn, collaborate with fellow support staff and to build upon your union work. We hope you felt welcome and celebrated because what we do IS tough. The contributions of education support professionals in our schools/universities are essential to our students and to our communities. Without education support professionals…learning doesn’t happen and One Job Should Be Enough!

Don’t forget, we deserve rESPect, and Together as One, we will make it happen! If you haven’t joined rESPect, join today, www.iearespect.org

Signup to bring your voice to our rESPect table. Click to register to attend our monthly rESPect steering meetings. Second Thursday of each month, 5:30-7:00pm.

#ieaespcouncil #IEArESPect #OneJobShouldBeEnough #ONEConference2024

Education Support Professionals, Illinois Education Association

You’re invited – ESP Council Virtual Meeting – June 22nd

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Dear Education Support Professional,

You are cordially invited to join us as we come together to bring ESP voices to the table. 

Join us virtually and share your successes, challenges, hopes and dreams and help us as we advocate to improve ESP wages, health insurance, pensions and job duties to retain and recruit new staff.

**Virtual Event** All ESPs Welcome
Saturday, June 22
(For those who have already signed up, this meeting has been changed to Virtual Only)
VIRTUAL Meet & Greet
9 a.m. – 10 a.m.
VIRTUAL Roundtable
10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Click to register
Education Support Professionals, Illinois Education Association

Thank you! We can’t do it without you!

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Thank you to everyone who attended our last rESPect steering meeting of the 2023-24 school year this past Thursday evening. At this meeting we focused on evaluating our successes and our challenges, and we reviewed our goals to make sure our targets haven’t changed. We are doing so many things right and we are having great successes…but there is ALWAYS room for improvement. One of the biggest takeaways for me is team members wanting more…more opportunities for engagement and to take on more leadership roles. YES!, that is what we need. This is your campaign and your voice and leadership will drive this campaign to the finish line.

Reminder – There is NO rESPect steering meeting in July.

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Day 2, of the IEA May Board of Directors Meeting

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Great Work and Advocacy

Yesterday was day 2 of the May IEA Board of Directors meeting. A lot of great work happens at each BODs meeting: New business discussions, several reports (Secretary/Treasurer, Vice-President, Legislative, Aspiring Educators, Education Support Professional, Higher Education, NEA Directors, President Support Team, Retired, SURS, and TRS) are presented along with many other committee and subcommittee re committee reports.

Elections for IPACE and IEA Executive Committee

I am extremely proud to announce that Gina Lozano and myself have been re-elected to the IEA Executive Committee. I am so proud to be in an organization who values education support professionals and their contributions to the betterment of public education and our members.

Images: myself, giving the Education Support Professional report and Gina Lozano and Leatreasa Lilly-Madison, both sectional reps, and ALL of us representing you from the Education Support Professional Council. I also can’t forget the fabulous Karen Moore!

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IEA Spring Election Results

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Welcome to our new Education Support Professional Council Members! We are truly excited for you join us as we collaborate and advocate for education support professionals throughout Illinois!

A HUGE thank you to those amazing council members whose term is ending. Your skills and voice have been essential to elevating ESP issues and building a foundation of rESPect.

2024-spring-election-resultsDownload
Education Support Professionals, Illinois Education Association

Call to Action – Undo Tier 2

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In 2010, the Illinois General Assembly hastily created a “Tier 2” of separate, lower pension benefits for public school and public university employees hired after 2011. We are asking our members to take action now to change this.

Since then, the drastically reduced benefits for “Tier 2” workers are further diminished due to inflation, meaning they can’t keep up with rising costs like grocery and drug price increases. Many education employees cannot collect Social Security, and these pension benefits are their sole source of retirement security. You can see the negative effects of Tier 2 reflected in the shortages of both educators and Education Support Professionals (ESPs) in schools and universities across the state. The shortages mean an increased workload and sometimes overwhelming working conditions for everyone working in our schools and at our colleges and universities.
This problem was created by politicians failing to pay into the retirement system, and it’s them we should be holding accountable, rather than punishing educators.  
From April 15-18, please join Illinois public employee unions in a week of action. Contact your lawmakers and tell them they must take action to fix Tier 2 pensions. You can write your lawmaker here. Or, you can dial 507-497-1665 to be connected to your legislators by phone.
ACT NOW!
This action is the first step to push legislators in Springfield to ensure that all school employees have a fair, secure retirement and we can retain essential teachers, adjuncts and higher ed staff, Education Support Professionals (ESPs) and all public school and university employees.  All educators deserve an equitable retirement. 

Stand up for your colleagues. Help us Undo Tier 2. 

Remember, we are stronger united! And together we are IEA! 
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Check Out These Opportunities

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Organizing Basics
Saturdays  |  April 20 and May 4  |  10 a.m. – 12 noon

Are you new to the concept of organizing? Want to learn how to develop the organizing skills necessary to build a strong local or motivate members to act around a specific issue? In this two-part course, we will start by learning the basic terminology of organizing, how to create an organizing statement and develop a strategy utilizing tactics that focus on a specific leadership challenge. You will also learn the leadership skills necessary to lead a successful organizing campaign. We will briefly discuss the role power and resources play when embarking on an organizing campaign. In the second session, we will work as a team, creating an organizing plan that can be implemented at the state, local or even national level.

Facilitators: Crystal Bush, UniServ Director and Lakilia Bedeau, Organizer
REGISTER NOW 
Arbitration Basics
Saturday  |  April 27  |  10 a.m. – noon

In this course you will learn the basics of arbitration – the final step in the grievance process. We will briefly touch on the grievance process, and then walk through the various steps of arbitration including the possible reasons against arbitrating a grievance. You will learn best practices for developing the case for hearing, selecting and preparing witnesses, communicating with your district’s representative and writing opening statements. We will conclude with a discussion about whether to rest your case with a closing argument or a post-hearing brief and some tips for writing each.

Facilitator: Bonnie Booth, UniServ Director – Naperville Office
REGISTER NOW
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Four Keys to Building Strong ESP Locals

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Monthly on Thursdays  |  6 – 8 p.m.
Feb. 29 | March 28 | April 25 | May 30

Are you a local leader, building representative, committee chair or member looking for ways to build membership and increase local engagement? This four-part course will provide you with the tools necessary to build local capacity. Topics covered include the role leadership style and local structure plays when developing strong locals, how to increase membership growth, engagement, development, recruitment and retention, and how to create value for your members. All participants will develop a year-round organizing plan designed to fit your local, building or committee needs. We will also look at creative strategies for increasing membership participation. The sessions will be held the fourth Thursday of each month from 6 to 8 p.m. Once you register for the first session, you will automatically be registered for the entire course. If you have any questions, please reach out to unioned@ieanea.org.

Facilitator: Crystal Bush, IEA UniServ Director – Elgin Office and Coordinator of Support & Services for ESPs

Click to register
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Thank you to all who attended last nights rESPect steering meeting

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Click image to visit the IEA rESPect website

Un oh…technical difficulties.

We started with a few hiccups with technology, but ended with a great meeting full of collaboration and awesome ideas shared by many! Each rESPect team (Legislative, Model Contract Language, Communications, and Organizing and Leadership Development), worked in breakout rooms to accomplish the goals of their team. It is the members and IEA staff that come together and share their voice and talents that will build this into the powerful campaign needed to bring the changes that will benefit the lives of education support professionals in Illinois.

You’re invited to attend our next meeting on February 8th

Click to register for our next respect meeting

#IEArESPect #IEAESP #rESPect #NEAESP