The event is called “Blackout for the Benchmarks” using the hashtag #RIPMetrics in order to highlight the neglect of state and county COVID-19 health benchmarks and safety metrics demonstrated by these school districts. State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Hoffman recommended at least two weeks of virtual learning as students return from winter break. Reactionary Governor Doug Ducey has publicly rejected this recommendation even as hospitals report their bed and staff capacities are reaching crisis levels.

The Chandler School District is located in the East Valley of the Phoenix area and its state legislative district has long been dominated by reactionary politicians connected with the corporate lobbyist group ALEC.

It is important to note that Governor Doug Ducey, himself a member of ALEC, weaponized education funding in July when he decided to give 105% of funding for schools that offer in-person instruction. This meant schools that decided on remote learning faced budget concerns for staff and have felt pressure to return to the classroom and jeopardize lives. Also, in the fall when the election neared, Ducey urged the state Department of Health to change the COVID-19 benchmarks to again create the conditions to force schools to return to in person. It comes as no surprise that, as the biggest school districts in the state returned to in-person learning, COVID-19 cases rose, deaths of educators and others occurred, and many districts had to return to remote learning within a matter of weeks in order to stop the spread of the virus.

President Trump also recently opened up federal Community Services Block Grant money to states to private tuition. This falls in line with the right-wing agenda of destroying public education and promoting private schools.

Arizona has been in the grips of a reactionary assault on public schools, through chronic underfunding from the state’s awarding tax loopholes to large corporations and relying heavily on regressive sales taxes. But educators and allies recently delivered a major blow to the reactionary regime by passing the ballot initiative called the “Invest in Ed Act.” This will secure around $900 million in annual public education funding by taxing the richest Arizonans.

#TucsonAZ #PeoplesStruggles #teachers #TeachersUnions #RedforEd

It is clear many educators are fed up with being overworked, underappreciated and routinely put at risk of being infected with COVID-19. As the local union said: “While the CEA executive board has not promoted a sickout due to the many different views that our members have on this complex issue, we are not at all surprised that a number of our educators are angry enough to demonstrate their frustration in this manner.”

The Chandler School District is located in the East Valley of the Phoenix area and its state legislative district has long been dominated by reactionary politicians connected with the corporate lobbyist group ALEC.

It is important to note that Governor Doug Ducey, himself a member of ALEC, weaponized education funding in July when he decided to give 105% of funding for schools that offer in-person instruction. This meant schools that decided on remote learning faced budget concerns for staff and have felt pressure to return to the classroom and jeopardize lives. Also, in the fall when the election neared, Ducey urged the State Department of Health to change the COVID-19 benchmarks to again create the conditions to force schools to return to in-person. It comes as no surprise that as the biggest school districts in the state returned to in-person, COVID-19 cases rose, deaths of educators and others occurred, and many districts had to return to remote learning within a matter of weeks in order to stop the spread of the virus.

In 2018, the #RedForEd movement ignited Arizona educators into a massive strike that saw around 100,000 teachers and support staff win demands for better funding for public schools and pay increases for staff. “We are powerful when we are united, organized and building our union as our organization to fight and win the demands for our co-workers, our students, families and communities,” said CEA President Katie Nash.

#TucsonAZ #PeoplesStruggles #TeachersUnions #RedforEd #COVID19

Tucson, AZ – As one of the country’s longest running strikes continues into week 13, educators from Arizona’s RedForEd movement brought food donations to the picket line. The eight unions serving nearly 2000 workers at five Asarco copper mining operations have created a tradition at the Pima Mine: Sunday dinner. It’s a beautiful display of worker solidarity and union power as striking workers and their families come eat a warm meal and enjoy their camaraderie. It is there that a van-full of non-perishable goods from Phoenix-area educators was delivered.

President of the Chandler Education Association, Katie Nash, said “I came down to the picket line to show solidarity to union siblings who showed us solidarity during our strike in 2018. It’s important as union siblings that we stand united and lift each other up when needed. Many educators contributed to this because we know their parents are doing the right thing by striking but we wanted to make sure their children continue to have food.”

The Arizona Education Association donated $1000 at the beginning of the strike in October and a handful of locals have followed suit the Chandler Education donated $200 to strikers and the Tucson Education Association donated $250 and raised another $260 from members.

#TucsonAZ #TusconAZ #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #ChicanoLatino #strike #Strikes #RedforEd #Asarco

Tucson, AZ – It has become tradition in Arizona to wear red and take selfies on Wednesdays to support the #RedForEd movement to demand that the legislature fully fund schools. However, since there are currently 2000 workers on strike at the Asarco mines, educators took selfies with Steelworkers and Teamsters on their picket line on Wednesday, October 16.

Spirits were high as strikers and supporters chatted while the sun went down. As the mine is located in a rural area, not much traffic goes by so the strikers knew exactly who a replacement worker was and shouted “Scab!” at them as they passed.

Up against the world’s third largest copper producer in Grupo Mexico’s Asarco, the eight unions are hoping their shutdown of a smelting facility, refinery and mining operations will force the company to offer a decent contract. Asarco workers have gone nearly a decade without a raise and are facing a spike in the cost of benefits.

The unions are on an ‘Unfair Labor Practice’ strike because Asarco has refused to bargain with the unions.

Arizona educators share a common enemy in the dark money connections that Asarco established through its membership with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Around three dozen Arizona state legislators attended the most recent ALEC summit in Houston in August. ALEC is a notorious hotbed of conservative economic and political legislation aimed at weakening unions, pushing charter schools, cutting taxes for billionaires and corporations and deregulating the energy sector.

“We appreciate so much the solidarity demonstrated here tonight by teachers and education workers. All working class deserve better pay and benefits and striking and solidarity is the way forward,” said Steelworker Eduardo Placencio.

#TucsonAZ #PeoplesStruggles #strike #Strikes #Asarco

Chicago, IL – Strikes are on the agenda. The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) made this perfectly clear, turning out more than 250 people on October 24 for a rally to announce strike authorization votes at 19 charter schools next week. The votes will occur at two of the largest charter networks: Acero (formerly UNO, famous for scandals) and Chicago International Charter School (CICS).

“These two networks have about 650 CTU members,” said CTU charter division chair Chris Baehrend, “But we have people here today from all twelve of the unionized networks as well as CTU district members and allies. We have lined up all our charter school contracts. We will strike all of them if need be, in order to get our public tax dollars spent in our classrooms.”

Acero represents everything that is ugly about the charter industry. Public money given to private insiders turned up in their corrupt real estate deals. They have changed the name of their 15-school charter network, now called Acero, but they remain the poster child for secrecy, corruption and questionable finances.

The union will also be taking a strike authorization vote at four CICS schools. The strike authorization vote will occur at CIVITAS, a fully-owned subsidiary of CICS. This ‘division’ allows CICS to collect 16% of the public funds for management and then up to another 12% as CIVITAS in additional management fees. “We want the money to go into the classrooms,” said Jen Conant, a union leader at Northtown High School.

The rally was held at Acero Fuentes Elementary School because the Acrero Board was meeting there. After the announcement, protesters packed the meeting. During the public comment section Acero Marquez kindergarten teacher Emma Tarkowski said to Acero Board CEO Richard Rodriguez, “You see students as test scores and dollar signs. You don’t see the unique and beautiful people that I get the privilege to teach every day.”

It has been the policy of these and other charter operators to use charter exemptions from legal and financial oversight to bust unions, drive down wages and erode the public sector. Both political parties have been complicit in these policies. This year, the Chicago Board of Education gave $688 more per student to charter schools than to district public schools. Still, the turnover in charter schools is extremely high because wages are so much lower than in district schools. The charter operators create instability in their own schools by pocketing such huge portions of the public money.

“Educators’ working conditions are our students’ learning conditions. Teachers and paraprofessionals are woefully underpaid and overworked, with critical staffing shortages and a perilous lack of funding for basic services,” said CTU President Jesse Sharkey.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #teachers #ChicagoTeachersUnion #Strikes #TeachersUnions #RedforEd

Viewing “Double-talk Ducey’s” deal as a true 20% raise is as rosy as his Koch Brothers-funded staff’s economic projections for funding the deal. It is simply a bold-faced lie from Ducey and a shameful example of a monopoly-dominated media system that echoes the talking points from politicians. This corporate-controlled Republican legislature was not about to grant a true 20% raise into this year or any year’s budget.

In Arizona, a yearly state budget determines the funding sources and the plan for the monies to be spent on select programs. With Ducey’s deal, he chose to include the 10% in only this year’s budget and consciously selected to place two more years of 5% increases into future budgets. This is constitutionally impossible in Arizona as a governor cannot tell a future legislature its budget. The educators’ raises would have to be written in as legislation because budgets are a yearly decision made by the legislature and governor. Thus, the future 10% raise is a lie and will most likely result in another struggle from the educators’ movement.

Moreover, the raise is not going to be funded from new sources of revenue like corporate income tax or closing the $14 billion per year corporate tax exemption loopholes. Rather, the funding comes from Ducey’s rosy projections based on the first quarter of 2018 and the enrollment of people in certain programs like the state health care system, work opportunities for the developmentally disabled, and other important programs for working people on the margins. For many in #RedForEd, this deal feels like a punch in the stomach knowing that many of their students and their families could be negatively impacted if the funding dries up for the programs on which they survive.

It must be recognized that on the one hand, the success and power of the #RedForEd movement forced a nearly immovable Republican state government to pay its educators better, one the other, there’s more duplicity involved in this deal. As Lando Calrissian said in The Empire Strikes Back, “This deal is getting worse all the time” and that’s what it looks like when we examine the details of the so-called raise for this year. The 10% raise is specifically written for certified teachers who have a classroom roster, despite the demands of the movement to expand that definition to include certified staff whose roles are important but are not in the classroom. The #RedForEd movement also demanded a significant raise for classified or support staff.

What’s more, Ducey deviously designed this setup so that districts and staff are left to squabble with each other, not the governor, over how that raise is divided up. This means that for the movement to remain true to its demands, it is in a position to have to spread the funds from the 10% allocated for certified teachers with a roster to all public education employees. Therefore, this raise of 10% is washed out and lowers the actual amount as it spreads over more workers. You will not find that in any monopoly-controlled mainstream media report.

One more final detail about this deal reflects the spiteful use of state power from this rotten Republican legislature. They raised taxes by 9% on property owners in the Tucson Unified School District. They vengefully targeted this district that had one of the highest votes in favor of the walkout and also contains some of the poorest working-class neighborhoods in the state. “It reminds me of The Matrix: Reloaded when Morpheus says, ‘one Sentinel for every man, woman and child. That sounds exactly like the thinking of a machine to me,’” said educator J.J. Federico when talking about Ducey’s taxing of Tucson to pay for his budget.

Coming soon to Fightback! will be a deeper analysis of the movement, its opponents, and the lessons for other educators’ movements and broader organizing struggles.

#TucsonAZ #strike #Strikes #DougDucey #TeachersUnions #RedforEd

Tucson, AZ – As the historic statewide strike of Arizona educators concluded its unprecedented fourth day on May 1, Tucson rallied under the banner #RedForEd. Speakers shared stories connecting economic policies that have destroyed state budgets, foreign countries and working people’s livelihoods and illustrating the bonds between education, immigration and labor.

The crowd swelled to nearly 2000 at Armory Park then took the streets to the State Building downtown to deliver the demands of the #RedForEd movement.

Meanwhile in the state legislature, corporate-backed politicians and trying to push through the proposal made by Governor Ducey.

As the fast-moving events unfold, Fight Back! will continue to publish news and analysis.

#TucsonAZ #internationalWorkersDay #Strikes #TeachersUnions #Mayday #RedforEd

Phoenix, AZ – The historic statewide educator walkout entered its third day Monday, April 30. Tens of thousands filled the capitol once again in order to talk with legislators and pressure Governor Ducey to fully fund public schools.

Last Friday, Ducey said he had a deal after a special session with a few Republican legislators. But the #RedForEd movement was suspicious and rejected his proposal based on rosy projections and “robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

After Thursday’s monumental public demonstration of support with nearly 75,000 people at the capitol, Republicans shut down the Senate and left for the weekend. Where did they go? Many in the movement suspect they flew to Grand Rapids, Michigan for the ALEC Spring Summit. It is believed that many Arizona legislators who are ALEC members attended in order strategize how to defeat the walkout and #RedForEd.

Monday also saw the arrival of American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten and other national union presidents.

The capitol area is surrounded by educators under tents prepared for a long day and night in order to keep vigilant watch over how the legislature discusses and votes on funding. There is no apparent mood to end the walkout at this time.

#PhoenixAZ #PeoplesStruggles #Teamsters #teachers #strike #Arizona #TeachersUnions

Phoenix, AZ – A red tidal wave is washing over downtown Phoenix, April 26, as the #RedForEd movement takes its demands to Governor Ducey and the Republican-dominated legislature. A week ago, 78% of the 57,000 educators who voted chose to walk out as a response to the lack of a realistic proposal from Ducey. His proposal, what he called last night his “final offer” uses a lot of unverified projections and moving monies from important programs such as health care and funds for the disabled and veterans.

Dubbed “DoubleTalk Ducey,” educators do not trust him, as he says there’s an economic boom in the state and that there’s money to meet the teachers’ demand of a 20% raise. These are contradictory statements because Arizona lawmakers have approved huge corporate tax cuts for years. For example, from 2016 to 2017, state revenue increased yet corporate income tax dropped $200 million. Moreover, the tax exemption loopholes in the state allow for an annual $14 billion in corporate profit. That amount is roughly the size of state revenue.

It is clear that education workers in Arizona are fed up with the extremely low pay and the criminal denial of funds to public schools. Behind all of this are the enemies of the labor movement, unions and public institutions: the Koch brothers, ALEC, and the DeVos agenda to crush public sector unions, slash corporate taxes and privatize education.

A decision will be made very soon as to whether or not the walk out will continue in the face of Republican betrayal of Arizona students and educators.

#PhoenixAZ #PeoplesStruggles #teachers #strike #Arizona #TeachersUnions

Their opponent is the poster boy for the conservative right’s pro-corporate economic policies. Governor Doug Ducey regularly receives donations from the infamous Koch brothers and his Deputy Chief of Policy and Budget is the president and CEO of the ultra-conservative think tank, the Goldwater Institute.

Last spring, Ducey rammed through legislation that allows for public funds for vouchers to private schools and are a weapon in the war on public education. He then traveled up to Colorado and told a conference that his success with vouchers would not have been possible without the support of the American Legislative Exchange Council, the notorious ALEC. It is clear this local fight has national implications for not only public education but also the labor movement’s fight against corporate domination.

The movement of educators has received support from AFSCME in Tucson, which covers the bus drivers, who unanimously voted in favor of the walk out as well. The state AFL-CIO affiliate has also offered transportation support for people to the capitol.

#TucsonAZ #Strikes #TeachersUnions #RedforEd

Plans for the coming week include three straight days of walk-ins before school and the walk-out day of Thursday, April 26.

Arizona has been the testing ground for many reactionary policies – like the infamous SB1070, which legalized racial profiling, and HB2281, which targeted Mexican American Studies. The state also allows an annual $14 billion in tax breaks for corporations; the ten-year drop in corporate income tax has resulted in a $2.5 billion shortfall of public schools’ funds.

Educators will continue to build community support and capacity to support students for when the strike hits. Many will model their efforts off the lessons shared by West Virginia educators, whose nine-day strike inspired a prairie fire of educator actions.

#TucsonAZ #strike #Strikes #DougDucey #TeachersUnions #RedforEd

This action is a continuation of the massive surge of activity seen since the successful teachers strike in West Virginia.

“My protest sign is going to be on lined paper to show that my pay is so low I can’t afford a poster and markers,” said teacher Joy Noriega.

After school’s release in Tucson, there will be marches from schools close to the State Building where public education and #RedForEd supporters will gather and demand the return of the missing $1 billion for Arizona public schools.

#TucsonAZ #teachers #TeachersUnions #RedforEd