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OCEA History

A Brief History of the Union... In the Beginning...
Past Presidents of OCEA

Okeechobee County Education Association got its start 54 years ago. On June 18, 1965 the Okeechobee Federation of Teachers received its charter from the American Federation of Teachers to become a representative of the teachers of Okeechobee County. That enabled us to have one of the lowest affiliate numbers in the United States-Local 1604. The driving force behind this unionism was Fred O. Miller. Mr. Miller came from a small town in Pennsylvania where his family was union. When he traveled all the way to Okeechobee to become a Business Education teacher at Okeechobee High School, he brought with him his union suitcase.  Through his efforts and the efforts of the original membership we are where we stand today. There were 10 members that signed the original charter and some of these names might be vaguely familiar: Danny Mullins, former teacher and superintendent; Kay Mullins, Danny’s wife and teacher, and past Provost at Indian River Community College-Dixon Hendry Center; Gay Carlton, teacher and current board member as well as Ralph Beaks; Mary Gray; James S. Liston; B.D. Wallace; David Hardin; Grace Jordan and Wilburn A. Cockrell.

Since the formation of Okeechobee County Education Association, formerly known as Okeechobee Federation of Teachers we have had nine different presidents. In this series we will revisit the past and talk about some of the significant events of each presidency.

 

OCEA’s presidents included: Fred Miller; George Kalidonis; Magi Janiewski Terry (Cable); Darrell Ferneau; Elijah Robinson; Cammie Hudson; Marvin Arnold; Tom Murray,  Candy Walker, Lisa Harwas, and Jorje Botello (2017-present

 

Fred Miller was our originating President and served from 1972 through 1977. It was through his tireless efforts that Okeechobee has a teacher’s organization. He successfully lead the “election” process by which our bargaining unit was formed. Because of his foresight we are the oldest American Federation of Teachers local in the state. Through his tenure we established many articles by which we are governed today.  Planning periods at that time were non-existent and lunch was 10 minutes!  Beginning salary was around $8,000 with the salary topping out at $12,664.  Once the “Collective Bargaining Act” was established by the Legislature in 1974, we began the long process.  In 1975, our proposals included a duty free lunch, faculty only restrooms, a daily planning period and uniform teacher evaluations.  Did we get these items? Not all of them.  These basic things we take for granted took a lot of effort at the table to get the board to institute.  We did get 4 paid holidays, a grievance procedure of sorts and NO pay increase.

 

In our second year at the table some of our proposals were: a duty free lunch, limits on the number of bus duties we could be assigned to; and the option of getting our July and August checks in June.

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