Teachers

First Fight For $15, Then West Virginia Teachers: Can New Playbook Rescue Labor Movement?

April 2, 2018 Max Zahn, Inthesetimes.com Strategize! Fight for 15, Labor, Labor Movement, Teachers, West Virginia

Shannon Johnson grew up with a birth defect in her throat that required multiple surgeries. Stuck in the hospital, she found solace in Disney movies. “I could get so immersed in the characters,” she said, recalling how she drew them on the walls of her bedroom. “It looked like a princess’ castle.” Johnson, 40, now works in food service at Disneyland Resort, a set of hotels next to the theme park, in Anaheim, California. She said her hourly wage is $11, the state minimum. When she leads a shift, it’s $12, she said. Her hours vary significantly from one week to the next, as does her paycheck. She eats one meal per day, often consisting of a can of tuna and celery sticks. She and her approximately 30,000 coworkers are asking for a raise, but not from Disneyland Resort. They’re counting on the residents of Anaheim. After contract negotiations with Disneyland Resort stalled, a coalition of unions submitted a city ballot measure this month that would require the resort and other large employers to pay an $18 minimum wage.

Kentucky Teachers Are Protesting And Walking Off Job To Save Their Pensions—And Winning

March 27, 2018 Michael Arria, Inthesetimes.com Resist! Kentucky, Protests, Teachers

Thousands of teachers across Kentucky have protested against proposed cuts to their pension benefits in recent weeks, and last Wednesday more than 60 of the state’s schools closed while their staff attended a rally at the capitol building in Frankfort. On the heels of the teachers’ strike in West Virginia, Kentucky teachers are effectively beating back an attack on public workers—and they plan to continue to fight. The proposed cuts emerged from a months-long GOP political push. Last October, Kentucky’s Republican Governor Matt Bevin pushed an even more draconian plan, which he called “Keeping the Promise,” aimed at “saving” the state’s pension system. Bevin’s plan would have forced workers and teachers to enter into a 401(k)-type system and pay an extra 3 percent to access their retiree health benefits. Bevin intended to call a special session to implement the changes.

Recipe For A Red-State Revolt

March 24, 2018 Eric Kerl, Socialistworker.org Resist! Class Struggle, Strikes, Teachers, West Virginia

A HAINT is stalkin' the mountains--the living memory of a century of class struggle in West Virginia. Some people might have been surprised when West Virginia workers staged one of the most militant labor struggles in decades. Mostly "white" and hailing from a region branded alternatively as "Trump Country" or "Coal Country," mountaineers are often depicted as poor, racist and reactionary. But the West Virginia wildcat strike has renewed interest in the mine wars and other high points of Appalachian workers' struggles. These rich traditions, both recent and historical, are one aspect of the militancy seen in the teachers' strike. Another is the deep social crisis, underway for decades in the region, that affects every aspect of mountaineers' lives. Ecological destruction, compounded by a catastrophic public health disaster, are two important components to include in the background to the teachers' strikes.

DeVos’ Education Department Accused Of Failing To Negotiate With Union

March 23, 2018 Ashley Curtin, Nation of Change. Educate! Betsy DeVos, Department of Education, Education, Teachers

Betsy DeVos and the Department of Education are facing allegations of possible union busting. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) recently filed a complaint against the education secretary’s department accusing the department of unfair labor practices and failing to negotiate “in good faith” with the union. “Secretary Betsy DeVos and her management team are attempting to strip employees of their collective bargaining rights and kill the union,” Claudette Young, AFGE Council 252 president, said.

Florida Teachers On Edge As New Law Threatens Their Unions

March 23, 2018 Jeffrey S. Solock, Tampabay.com Educate! Class Struggle, Florida, Labor, Teachers, Unions

Life without union representation is not a distant fear for Russell Baggett. Until two years ago, the Calhoun County school district in northern Florida had no collective bargaining unit to support teachers. "We had no contract," said Baggett, president of the two-year-old Association of Calhoun Educators. "They would say, yes, there is money for a raise or, no, there isn’t. Whatever they decided, went." The passage of new collective bargaining rules into law this month has Baggett and teachers across Florida on edge, with fears that they could be headed back to the "bad old days" without a voice. At issue is a new law requiring local unions to prove they represent a majority of the teachers in their districts. The measuring stick: Having at least half of all employees eligible to be in the union paying dues.

Teacher’s Unions Intensify Efforts To Suppress Growing Class Struggle In The US

March 22, 2018 By Jerry White, Wsws.org Strategize! Class Struggle, Labor, Teachers, Unions

On Sunday night, the National Education Association (NEA) shut down the strike by 4,000 teachers and support staff in Jersey City, the second-largest school district in the state of New Jersey. The NEA ordered educators to return to their classrooms without providing any details on the tentative deal, let alone allowing workers to vote on it. Presuming that an agreement actually exists, it will do nothing to address teachers’ demands to end soaring health care costs. The one-day strike is the latest in a growing wave of protests and calls for strikes that have spread from West Virginia to Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arizona, Tennessee, Colorado and other states, plus the US territory of Puerto Rico, where teachers struck against school privatization yesterday.

Inspired By West Virginia, Teachers Spread Red For Ed Movement Across Arizona

March 20, 2018 By Rebecca Garelli, Labornotes.org Organize! Arizona, Education, Labor, Strikes, Teachers

This all got started two Fridays ago, March 2. I had become friends with Jay O’Neal from West Virginia, who helped start the teachers and public employees Facebook group there, and he let me into their group. I’d been hanging out, just watching things, thinking, “Why is nobody in Arizona doing this?” So my Chicago blood got boiling, and I said, “I’m just going to spark the fire, I’ll be the catalyst.” I had been communicating with some folks on the Arizona BATS page—Bad Ass Teachers. I had been posting some things coming out of West Virginia, and others would get fired up too, so we started a dialogue. And then one of the admins of that page said, “Anybody else think Arizona should do something like that?” I said, “Yess!!!” I and another teacher started a Facebook group that day: Arizona Teachers United. There was no mention of striking, no mention of action.

Teachers In Jersey City Begin Strike As Demands For Walkouts Expand Across The US

March 19, 2018 Staff, Wsws.org Resist! Labor, New Jersey (NJ), Strikes, Teachers

Approximately 4,000 public school workers in Jersey City, the second largest school district in the US state of New Jersey, walked off the job on Friday afternoon. It is the first strike at the city’s school system since 1998. In addition to teachers, school staff such as nurses, paraprofessionals, guidance counselors, administrative assistants and others joined the picket line. The strike is part of a growing wave of working-class opposition in the US and internationally, following the shutdown of the West Virginia teachers strike earlier this month. The teachers’ unions ended the West Virginia strike based on a rotten agreement that fails to address rising health care costs and pays for inadequate pay increases through cuts in social programs. However, the struggle in West Virginia, which temporarily broke out of the straightjacket of the unions, has inspired teachers throughout the country.

Oklahoma School Funding Paves The Way To A Teacher Walkout

March 17, 2018 John Thompson, Livingindialogue.com Organize! Education, Oklahoma, Protests, Teachers

Oklahoma is one of the states heading for a teachers walkout. Because of a complicated set of reasons, the political challenge facing Oklahoma educators is more formidable than the problems faced in many or most states, so we will mostly be talking about what it will take to head off a disaster. But – like the rest of the nation – we should also ask what it would take to bring all of our kids to the national average in terms of student performance. The Rutgers Graduate School of Education and Education Law Center just published a blockbuster report which shows that our state spends $7,228 per student for students in the lowest quintile of poverty or $299 per student more than how much funding it would take for those kids to reach the national average in student outcomes.

As Class Divides Expand, More Calls For Internet Censorship

March 13, 2018 By Jerry White, Wsws.org Educate! Censorship, Class Struggle, Internet, Strikes, Teachers, West Virginia

The growing wave of working-class unrest in the United States and internationally is exposing and clarifying basic political questions. Among them is the central purpose of the campaign by the tech giants, the US government and the mass media to censor the Internet, under the fraudulent pretense of combating “fake news” and “Russian meddling.” The real aim is the suppression of social opposition. This week is opening with an expanding number of working-class struggles. Although the unions managed to sell out and end the nine-day strike of 30,000 West Virginia teachers and school employees last week, the rebellion of educators across the US is spreading. Teachers in Oklahoma, Kentucky and Arizona—organizing chiefly through Facebook groups that have added tens of thousands of users in the last few weeks—are pressing for West Virginia-like strikes to demand higher pay and secure pensions.

The West Virginia Option

March 12, 2018 Joe Burns, Portside.org Organize! Labor, Strikes, Teachers, Unions, West Virginia, Workers Rights and Jobs

The ongoing teachers’ strike in West Virginia is remarkable in many ways. Thousands of public workers are engaged in a grassroots rebellion, defying restrictions on their right to strike. They’ve forced the state’s Republican governor to grant concessions, carrying on despite an announced deal by union officials. They’ve inspired other workers to think anew about militant action, both in West Virginia and outside the state. All of this is fitting at a time when anti-union forces are trying to turn back the clock on collective bargaining rights. The modern public employee union movement was born of struggle — the product of a great strike wave in the 1960s and 1970s. The school personnel strike in West Virginia represents a return to those militant days.

Anatomy of a Worker’s Victory

March 11, 2018 Cathy Kunkel, Jacobin Resist! Resist, Strikes, Teachers

The strike of West Virginia teachers and school service personnel ended Tuesday after the state senate finally agreed to a 5 percent pay raise. Although the pay raise had been announced a week previously in a deal reached by Governor Justice and the leaders of the teachers’ unions, state senate leadership proved to be the major roadblock to actually passing the bill. West Virginia teachers and service personnel achieved a historic victory. Rank-and-file school employees led a nine-day, statewide wildcat strike that resulted in meaningful concessions from a hostile state government. In doing so, they educated and mobilized thousands of school employees, many of whom had previously paid little attention to state politics. They reminded the nation of West Virginia’s proud union history and challenged unfounded assumptions about what is possible in a “red” state. While they cannot yet declare victory on health care, it is not over.

What The Teachers Won

March 7, 2018 Emily Comer and Jay O'Neal, Jacobinmag.com Create! Class Struggle, Strikes, Teachers, West Virginia

West Virginia shows that we can fight back and win. We talk to two teachers to assess the tentative settlement and what comes next. On Tuesday afternoon, a deal to give all public employees in the state of West Virginia a 5 percent pay raise was passed by the legislature and signed by the governor. A struggle that mobilized tens of thousands of workers, won widespread popular support, and was led by rank-and-file leaders, ended in a tangible victory. Confusion arose, however, as reports indicated that Republican state politicians wanted to offset the increase with cuts to social services. But though the Republicans are threatening to pay for this in part through cutting essential services, the bill itself is not tied to any such cuts. To assess the tentative strike settlement, Jacobin’s Eric Blanc sat down with Emily Comer and Jay O’Neal — teachers and union activists in Charleston, West Virginia.

“It Was About The Insurance Fix”

March 6, 2018 Meagan Day, Jacobinmag.com Resist! Medicare for all, Strikes, Teachers, West Virginia

On Friday, hundreds of striking teachers flooded the foyer of the West Virginia capitol building in Charleston. Holding signs that read “Whose side are you on?” they voted to occupy the building until their demands were met. As the Supreme Court considers the Janus v. AFSCME case this very week — posing an existential threat to public sector unions throughout the country — labor movement activists should be watching the West Virginia teachers’ strike closely. The coincidence of the two events seems almost scripted: as Janus promises to gut the legal framework for public sector worker organizing, West Virginia teachers are militantly flouting the law. Many in the labor movement contend that this level of rank-and-file engagement is the key to surviving right to work.

Oklahoma Teachers Planning A Statewide Strike

March 5, 2018 Burt Mummolo, Ktul.com Resist! Oklahoma, Strikes, Teachers

MOORE, Okla. (KTUL) — Oklahoma teachers are fed up with state lawmakers. A public school teacher in Stillwater created the Facebook group "Oklahoma Teacher Walkout - The Time is Now!" two days ago, and it has already gained more than 20,000 members. Today, teachers gathered in Moore to discuss the possible statewide strike. "Frustration levels are high, so a strike is not a touchy word anymore," said Molly Jaynes, a teacher in Oklahoma City. "'Strike' is a big word, but I think it's necessary for Oklahoma," said Chloe Prochaska, a teacher in Mustang. "We are to the point where we have no other option," said Heather Reed, a teacher in Oklahoma City. Fed up with a legislature seemingly mired in quicksand, teachers from Oklahoma City, Mustang and Tulsa, just to name a few, are laying the groundwork for a statewide strike.

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