Independence Educators Stood Together and Won

When a decertification petition threatened years of hard-won protections, INEA members organized building by building.

Rebecca Mace teaches library media at Independence Academy. She cares deeply about her students. But caring, she will tell you, is not enough. "I teach because I care, but I am Union to make sure that my voice and the voices of all educators are heard," Mace said, "because caring alone isn't enough without protection and support behind it."

That conviction was put to the test this school year when the local MSTA affiliate launched a decertification effort aimed at removing Independence NEA as the exclusive bargaining representative for more than 1,000 certified educators across 30 buildings. The effort was backed not by a groundswell of teachers, but by a former superintendent now serving as a district financial consultant and a small number of agitated MSTA members. Their goal was to strip INEA of its certification and replace a legally enforceable contract with a meet-and-confer process, one that would carry no legal weight under Missouri law.