SEA/WEA SAYS THE RECALL IS “COMPLETE.” MEMBERS SAY: NOT WITHOUT TRANSPARENCY.

SEA members deserve to know what has happened with our recall petition.

On October 5, we were informed by WEA that 732 signatures had been submitted by the August 24 deadline, but only 469 were ultimately verified. We were told the newly calculated threshold was 581.

That means 263 submitted signatures were not included in the verified total.

And we still do not have an accounting of what happened to them.

Before verification occurred, we asked questions about being present to observe the verification process. Those questions were not answered before the September 30 verification meeting took place.

We were subsequently informed that SEA Board members and WEA staff had already completed verification.

Now we are being told:

“This completes this recall process.”
We do not consider our questions complete.

We want to know:

What happened to the 263 signatures that were not verified?
How many were determined ineligible?
How many could not be matched to membership records?
Which signatures were verified and which were not?
What opportunity do members have to correct a verification problem?
Why were our questions about observing the verification process not answered before verification occurred?
Why did WEA initially provide one membership number and threshold and later provide another after reporting a “data warehouse error”?
These are not unreasonable questions. They are basic questions about transparency in a member-governed union.

The communication reporting the result was also marked:

“Please do not share or post.”
We respect legitimate confidentiality concerning individual members' personal information. But we will not interpret confidentiality as requiring silence about the recall process itself, the aggregate results, or our unanswered governance questions.

732 MEMBERS SIGNED THIS PETITION.
That fact matters.

Hundreds of SEA members put their names behind a request to hold a recall election. When 263 of 732 submitted signatures are not included in the verified total, members deserve a clear accounting of how that happened.

We are not alleging that all 263 should have been counted. We are asking SEA and WEA to show members how they reached their determination.

Transparency is not hostility to our union.

Accountability is not hostility to our union.

Asking what happened to members' signatures is not hostility to our union.

And declaring a process “complete” does not make legitimate questions disappear.
We have requested the verification breakdown and additional information from WEA.

Petitioning members do not consider the questions surrounding this recall concluded.

We will continue asking for answers.

We will continue advocating for transparency.

And we will not be silent about the governance of our own union.