[Editor's note: This was included in the inaugural issue of the MCEA newsletter.]
My name is Linda Day, and I am honored to have been nominated without opposition to serve as the president of your union.
During this unprecedented time, we see new challenges confronting working people all across this country. Despite these challenges, we have maintained our connection with our union and our members.
MCEA is reaching out to all of our Active and Active Retired members to update contact information in our database. We want to keep you abreast of all of our activities, and in a time where it is difficult to meet in person, we especially need our members' mail and email contact information.
Patience—counseled by former Vice President Joe Biden all election week as Americans waited for votes to be counted—finally paid off Nov. 7, four days after Election Day, when Biden won in Pennsylvania and gained enough Electoral College votes to acquire a new title: president-elect. AFT President Randi Weingarten says the union’s leaders and members “can’t wait to get started” on the work ahead “with an administration that will embrace and fight for the values we hold dear.”
Despite the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, MCEA was able to successfully hold its 2020 convention. With the help of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), we held our convention remotely, digitally, and safely. After all, the work of protecting the rights of our membership is too important to let fall by the wayside.
Some of the important achievements of this convention include:
MCEA members at Salisbury University scored huge in their fight for a fair, updated contract. On September 8, 2020, MCEA bargaining unit members, voting unanimously, ratified their new memorandum of understanding (MOU). The MOU took nearly two years to negotiate and finalize—in large part, due to the tenacity of MCEA’s bargaining team, who took the contract to mediation and ultimately requested the intervention of a fact-finder under Maryland’s collective bargaining act.