"I hope you have people's support on this"

Yes, that was the snotty remark I got from one of my co-workers today. She's supposed to be our Senior Building Rep for the union and she has no desire to support me in what I'm doing.

Here's the story:

We received a copy of our schedule for our Parent-Teacher Conferences. We are given 90 minutes for our lunch/prep time. The problem with this is that we are supposed to be given 115 minutes (85 minutes for prep and 30 minutes for lunch). I did my research and made sure that I was right, had the union support, and was handling this in the best way. I also got another building rep in on this with me so I wasn't going this alone.

We tried to meet with my principal, but he was too busy to meet with us, so I emailed him. It was the textbook, kiss-ass email. "We realize this is the way it has been done and hasn't been questioned before..." "This is our building's issue, so we'd like to help you solve the problem..." "We wanted to give you a heads up before the union stepped in formally..." Instead of dealing with me, he contacted a building rep who is in the administration's back pocket. She's the one who told me (after I blew the whistle on an attempt by the administration to have us work without getting paid) that "that's not how we do things here..." "You're not a team player."

My principal dismissed my email, saying that I was wrong in how I read the contract (it's not hard to read, thanks though) and set the ass-kissing building rep loose on me trying to get me to shut up. She basically told me that people were going to be pissed off at me and I was sticking my nose in where it didn't belong. She also told me that I better be sure I have people on my side because I'm causing division among our membership.

Who in their right mind wouldn't want the other 30 minutes of prep time they are owed?

Who wouldn't want to have 30 minutes more prep time and 30 minutes less time in Parent Conferences?

Does she really think that people are going to be mad at me for getting them more time; time which we never seem to have enough of?

The only way I can see people being mad at me is if our principal decides to be an ass and start policing people's behavior during their prep time and making sure people are only planning during that time. My response is SO WHAT?!?!?! Why should we be allowed to do other things on our prep other than school work? Why shouldn't we use the time we are paid for? Maybe if everyone followed the rules a little more, we'd stop having people fired for misusing their leave. Maybe people would get their job done during hours more and stop playing this "Martyr" role and just do their jobs.

So, I'll take my "not-a-team-player" self, go to work in the morning, face the backlash from my principal and the other building rep and TEACH my kids, which should be my first priority, not my afterthought.