President Elena Smith Says it’s Union Busting

Elena Smith

According to President Elena Smith, the docking of teachers’ salaries is not only seen as ‘downright mean-spirited,’ but also as a form of union busting.

Senator Elena Smith, National President, B.N.T.U.

“It has to be looked at seriously because we do know that when our members lose salaries or when any person loses salary it makes them think twice and so then this could potentially affect future actions of the B.N.T.U. and so we also see it not only as deducting teacher’s salaries or as a means of punishing our teachers for standing up for their rights but it is also seen as a form of union busting because these managements are aware that some of our teachers really and truly can’t afford because of their belief and position on the issues that we stand up for our teachers come out with us- it’s not that they can afford this because they feel that what we stand up for is just and right and so they join us as members they join us and so we have to look at how it’s going to affect our union long term and how it’s going to affect our members wanting to support us when we call for these actions to occur. Again is it going to minimize our strength, is it going to minimize our membership we’re not sure. At this point in time, we know that our members are really and truly supportive of our union and we cannot thank them enough for that support but again as time goes by as you earn more the amount that comes out gets bigger. And so some of our members they are single parents and so they have a lot of bills to pay so they really cannot afford to have these deductions coming out every time we take action so we have to look at it from that angle.”