Why We Need to Transform Teacher Unions Now | Alternet - 1 views
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This work reminds me of the words of activist/musician Bernice Johnson Reagon, of Sweet Honey in the Rock: “If you are in a coalition and you are comfortable, that coalition is not broad enough.”
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February 6, 2015
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Immediately following Act 10, Walker and the Republican-dominated state legislature made the largest cuts to public education of any state in the nation and gerrymandered state legislative districts to privilege conservative, white-populated areas of the state.
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By Bob Peterson / Rethinking Schools
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long history of being staff-dominated.
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And it has. In New Orleans, following Katrina, unionized teachers were fired and the entire system charterized.
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But it recognizes that our future depends on redefining unionism from a narrow trade union model, focused almost exclusively on protecting union members, to a broader vision that sees the future of unionized workers tied directly to the interests of the entire working class and the communities, particularly communities of color, in which we live and work.
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It requires confronting racist attitudes and past practices that have marginalized people of color both inside and outside unions.
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Having decimated labor law and defunded public education, Walker proceeded to expand statewide the private school voucher program that has wreaked havoc on Milwaukee, and enacted one of the nation’s most generous income tax deductions for private school tuition.
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For nearly a decade we pushed for a full-time release president, a proposal resisted by most professional staff.
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“Social Justice Unionism: A Working Draft”
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Social justice unionism is an organizing model that calls for a radical boost in internal union democracy and increased member participation.
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business model that is so dependent on staff providing services
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building union power at the school level in alliance with parents, community groups, and other social movements.
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The importance of parent/community alliances was downplayed
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instead of helping members organize to solve their own problems.
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Our challenge in Milwaukee was to transform a staff-dominated, business/service-style teachers’ union into something quite different.
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only saw the union newsletter after the staff had sent it to the printer.
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Key elements of our local’s “reimagine” campaign and our subsequent work include:
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Building strong ties and coalitions with parent, community, and civic organizations,
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broader issues
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action.
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earliest victories was securing an extra $5/hour (after the first hour) for educational assistants when they “cover” a teacher’s classroom.
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lobby
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enlist parents
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we amended the constitution
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consistently promoting culturally responsive, social justice teaching.
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encourage members to lead our work.
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release two teachers to be organizers
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appear en masse at school board meetings
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to shift certain powers from the staff to the elected leadership
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new teacher orientation and mentoring are available and of high quality.
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The strength of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) 2012 strike,
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rested in large part on their members’ connections to parent and community groups
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Karen Lewis
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Portland, Oregon, and St. Paul, Minnesota
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In Milwaukee, our main coalition work has been building Schools and Communities United,
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We wanted to move past reacting, being on the defensive, and appearing to be only against things.
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Key to the coalition’s renewal was the development of a 32-page booklet, Fulfill the Promise: The Schools and Communities Our Children Deserve.
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concerns of the broader community beyond the schoolhouse door
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English and Spanish
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Currently the coalition’s three committees focus on fighting school privatization, promoting community schools, and supporting progressive legislation.
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schools as hubs for social and health support,
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This work reminds me of the words of activist/musician Bernice Johnson Reagon, of Sweet Honey in the Rock: “If you are in a coalition and you are comfortable, that coalition is not broad enough.”
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Our new professional staff is committed to a broader vision of unionism with an emphasis on organizing.
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We need to become the “go-to” organizations in our communities on issues ranging from teacher development to anti-racist education to quality assessments.
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nonprofit organization, the Milwaukee Center for Teaching, Learning, and Public Education
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We provide professional development and services to our members
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reclaim our classrooms and our profession.
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We partner with the MPS administration through labor/management committees
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multiple committee meetings, inservice trainings, book circles (for college credit), and individual help sessions on professional development plans or licensure issues.
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we offered workshops that drew 150 teachers at a time.
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More teachers were convinced to join our union, too, because our teaching and learning services are only open to members.
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mandate 45 minutes of uninterrupted play in 4- and 5-year-old kindergarten classes
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We also won a staggered start
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convincing the school board to systematically expand bilingual education programs throughout the district.
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school-based canvassing around issues and pro-education candidates, and organizing to remove ineffective principals.
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With the plethora of federal and state mandates and the datatization of our culture,
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It’s clear to me that what is necessary is a national movement led by activists at the local, state, and national levels within the AFT and NEA—in alliance with parents, students, and community groups—to take back our classrooms and our profession.
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social justice content in our curriculum
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waiting to use any perceived or real weakness in public schools as an excuse to accelerate their school privatization schemes,
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On the other hand, speaking out can play into the hands of the privatizers as they seek to expand privately run charters
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including participation on labor/management committees, lobbying school board members, and balancing mass mobilizations with the threat of mass mobilizations.
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In the end, we recognize a key element in fighting privatization is to improve our public schools.
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In Los Angeles, an activist caucus, Union Power, won leadership of the United Teachers Los Angeles, the second largest teacher local in the country.
