Los Angeles, CA – On March 15, the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) and SEIU Local 99, which represents cafeteria workers, bus drivers, custodians, teacher assistants and other education workers, held a massive rally at Grand Park in Downtown Los Angeles. The action culminated with the announcement that UTLA and SEIU Local 99 would go on a joint three-day strike, the first in the two unions’ history, from March 21-23.

Enthusiastic delegations of union members arrived from all over the LA area carrying their schools’ banners or posters. Members of Centro CSO, a longtime ally of UTLA, joined the mass rally in solidarity.

Both unions, which together represent roughly 65,000 workers in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), have been in contract negotiations with the district for close to a year and are fighting for their members to be able to survive as inflation rises in Los Angeles. The district, led by superintendent Alberto Carvalho, have only responded with counter offers that show a disregard for the wellbeing of LAUSD’s workers, students and schools. He has also sent out voice messages and emails to parents discouraging the union plans.

In February, 96% of SEIU Local 99’s members in LAUSD voted to authorize a strike. Many of its members are part-timers who make little more than minimum wage and must take on other work in order to support their families. The average salary of LAUSD school workers is $25,000 a year. Local 99 is demanding a 30% raise and $2 per hour equity wage adjustment as well as more full-time hours, staffing, and health benefits.

UTLA – made up of roughly 35,000 teachers, psychiatric social workers and counselors – is demanding a pay increase of 10% for each of the following two years. Currently, two out of three LAUSD teachers can no longer afford to live where they teach, and many educators have considered leaving the profession. The force of Wednesday’s Grand Park rally has already made LAUSD move toward UTLA’s proposals, as the district offered a 14% salary increase over three years during the latest negotiations. UTLA countered by maintaining its position of 20% over two years.

UTLA also wants the district to meet the demands of its Beyond Recovery platform, which addresses the needs of students, their families and underfunded schools. These demands include smaller class sizes, increased support for special education programs, fully staffed schools, more green spaces on campuses, and equitable funding. Superintendent Carvalho, rather than use the district’s $5 billion in reserves to transform public education in LA, has largely ignored the Beyond Recovery platform.

In order to weaken the power of the strike, Carvalho has said that LAUSD will likely close next week while teachers and other LAUSD workers picket. However, UTLA and SEIU Local 99’s members, supported by students and parents, will not be deterred by Carvalho’s word and intend to show the superintendent – who only recently moved to the district from Miami – the power of organized labor in Los Angeles.

#LosAngelesCA #SEIU #teachersStrike #Strikes #TeachersUnions

(Photo by Brad Sigal)”)

Minneapolis, MN – On March 12 a car caravan brought honks of solidarity to Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) negotiating committee members while they were in talks with the school district administration at the Davis Center after a week of being on strike.

Organized by the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) and Asamblea de Derechos Civiles, the caravan started on Lake Street in the heart of immigrant communities of south Minneapolis. The cars in the caravan were adorned with signs supporting Minneapolis Public Schools educators who are on strike for the safe, secure and fully-funded schools that Minneapolis students deserve. The caravan started on Lake Street in south Minneapolis and then wound through many different neighborhoods before ending at the Davis Center on the Northside, honking the whole way and spreading the message of support for educators through the streets of Minneapolis.

When the caravan arrived at the Davis Center, union negotiating committee members waved and showed appreciation out the window from inside the building. The educators’ strike remained strong through the first week. Now on top of that, community pressure is also increasingly being brought to bear on the district to meet the educators’ demands.

#MinneapolisMN #ImmigrantRights #PeoplesStruggles #PublicSectorUnions #teachersStrike #Strikes #TeachersUnions #MinnesotaImmigrantRightsActionCommitteeMIRAC #MinneapolisTeachersFederationMFT

Minneapolis, MN – On February 23, Twin Cities teachers, along with education support professionals in Minneapolis and education assistants in Saint Paul, announced that they have filed ten-day notices to begin open-ended strikes in both cities’ public schools. The strikes are set to begin on Tuesday, March 8.

The educators who took strike votes in Minneapolis are members of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and they took a strike vote last week in which more than 93% of the bargaining unit voted to strike. In Saint Paul they are members of the Saint Paul Federation of Educators where more than 78% of votes were votes to strike.

The educators in both unions say that they need to strike now to protect the schools that their kids deserve. They have been fighting in contract negotiations for smaller class sizes, mental health and other health supports for students, racial justice in hiring and retention practices at the schools and increases to compensation for all educators. There has been a special focus on raises for the education support professionals and education assistants, who are by far the lowest paid and also the most diverse group of workers in the two school districts.

In the leadup to the strike votes the unions held a joint march from Minneapolis to Saint Paul which thousands of educators, parents, students and community supporters joined despite subzero temperatures. Turnout for the strike votes was record breaking as were the strong votes to strike. While the educators have said that striking is a last resort and they would rather see the districts bring proposals that would move forward their demands and protect their schools and students, they also are fully committed to fight for as long as is needed if a deal is unable to be reached.

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #teachersStrike #TeachersUnions

Minneapolis, MN – On February 12, thousands of teachers, education assistants (EAs) and education support professionals (ESPs), joined by parents and community members, marched in subzero weather to press the school districts meet their demands at the bargaining table. If the demands are not met, an open-ended strike across both of Minnesota’s largest school districts is expected.

Despite the frigid temperatures, spirits were high as several thousand marched along a 1.5 mile route starting at Minnehaha Falls park in Minneapolis and crossing the Mississippi River into Saint Paul in a show of unity between the educators of the two Twin Cities.

The educators in both school districts are fighting for a variety of demands including caps on class sizes, mental health support in schools, equity and racial justice in schools and pay increases. The schools’ districts have been fighting against those demands.

In Saint Paul the school district has takebacks on the table that would do away with class size caps and is offering only 1.5% in raises. The Saint Paul educators held a large strike in early 2020 on the eve of the global pandemic where they won the caps to class sizes that the school district is now attempting to strip from them only two years later.

In Minneapolis the ESPs are fighting for significantly increased pay to raise the floor for their pay. In Minneapolis schools, the ESPs make up the group with the most oppressed nationality workers, and they are in low-wage jobs, with the average ESP making around $30,000 a year in total compensation.

Both groups of educators are also fighting for proposals to attract and retain oppressed nationality workers and help them work their way up into licensed positions within their own schools to increase diversity and equity among the teachers in the schools. The school districts have shown themselves unwilling to move on these demands or on wages for the educators, so the workers now feel the only option is to go on strike.

Teachers from both cities, along with the education assistants of Saint Paul and education support professionals of Minneapolis will be taking strike votes in the coming week and are expected to announce an open-ended strike to begin in the first week of March. This may result in the closing of schools across both districts.

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #teachersStrike #Strikes #TeachersUnions #MFT #SPFE

St. Paul, MN – Saint Paul educators are on strike, March 10. Their demands include multilingual staff, mental health supports for students, and special education services.

#StPaulMN #PeoplesStruggles #strike #PublicSectorUnions #teachersStrike #Strikes #TeachersUnions #StPaulTeachersStrike

Chicago, IL – Solidarity matters. Teachers and paraprofessionals at the Chicago International Charter Schools hit the picket lines at 6:00 a.m. on February 5 and stayed out until they had won what they needed at 3:15 a.m. on February 17. What they need was smaller class sizes for their students, adequate staffing for special education students, maternity leave for educators and a wage scale close enough to the Chicago Public School teachers to bring some measure of stability to the classroom.

They won these things by sticking together. The cold nasty weather did not deter the strikers. They kept in communication with parents. When management offered them adequate pay if they would allow them to sellout their students by reducing needed social workers and councilors, the bargaining team said, “No!”

Union members will be voting on the proposals which include pay raises of around 35% over the life of the four year agreement. Paraprofessionals fought for and won union recognition for the first time. Not willing to scab on their coworkers, they went out on strike with the teachers. Parents and students overwhelmingly honored the picket line.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #ChicagoTeachersUnion #teachersStrike #Strikes #TeachersUnions #CICS

Collective bargaining occurred in an all-day meeting on the Saturday before the strike. When it became clear that the school board members were engaging in filibustering and refusing to talk about the teachers’ claims, DCTA got up from the table to prepare to strike.

Picket lines formed at local schools all over Denver, with the striking teachers wearing DCTA red clothing. Monday culminated in an impressive rally of strikers and their supporters in front of the Colorado capitol building.

Collective bargaining resumed February 12 and DCTA held another impressive rally in a park a block away from the bargaining venue. Strikers circled around the building that housed the talks, carrying placards to tell the school board to come to the table with a decent offer.

DCTA has been very clear that they are fighting for the teachers, for the students and the future of public education in Denver. “This morning we head back to be picket lines and the bargaining table. We will continue striking for our students until the district brings a proposal that ends the instability of ProComp [a haphazard bonus scheme] and helps stop the teacher turnover crisis in Denver. You can’t put students first if you put educators last,” stated a recent DCTA communique.

There is a lot of evidence of popular support for the strike. Parents and supporters have been buying coffee, water and food for the strikers. Several local restaurants have offered free lunches to teachers. Union insignia and banners from the CWU, International Laborers, and the Amalgamated Transport Workers, among others were displayed at the DCTA rallies. On the first day of the strike a group of Teamsters parked their trucks in front of a local high school and blocked deliveries to the school for an hour.

The school district claimed that they had everything under control and the schools were operating well. This claim was belied by local news footage showing chaos in the schools, with a mass dance party in the halls of one school during school hours and in other schools showing students who had no teachers. A lawsuit was filed in Federal Court for the District of Colorado alleging that the Denver School Board has not made sufficient plans to protect children in special education.

Bargaining is to resume, February 13. Striking teachers are planning to be outside the bargaining venue demanding decent pay for Denver’s teachers.

#DenverCO #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #ChicanoLatino #teachersStrike #Strikes #TeachersUnions #DenverClassroomTeachersAssociation #DenverTeachersStrike

Los Angeles, CA – More than 30,000 striking teachers, along with supporters, parents and students rallied at City Hall, January 18, to press for a decent contract and oppose attempts to privatize public education.

#LACA #PeoplesStruggles #teachersStrike #Strikes #UTLA #TeachersUnions #UTLAStrike

Los Angeles, CA – Citywide, UTLA teachers and parents continue the strong momentum and LAUSD politicians are feeling the pressure. Negotiations have restarted today, January 17. The UTLA strike is getting national attention and the newly elected California Governor Gavin Newsom is calling on LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner and LA Mayor Eric Garcetti to continue with negotiations. Newsom is bringing both politicians in to negotiate at LA City Hall. UTLA has the strength and momentum to win for fully-funded, public, community schools.

Teachers throughout the city held picket lines with parents and students in unity. In Boyle Heights strong picket lines at Breed Street Elementary started once again as early as 4 a.m. Three contingents, one on Breed Street at the student drop off; one at the other entrance on 3rd Street and Chicago Street where staff parks – but not a single car was there; and the contingent along 4th Street rallied and made a lot of noise.

Teachers and Centro CSO hung a large banner on the fence at Breed Street Elementary facing the thousands of passing cars. The banner slogan reads, “Support for public education! No privatization and no mega KIPP Promesa Charter School!” With pouring rain, high winds, but an unwavering spirit, the large group kept the picket line strong.

California 53rd Assemblyman Miguel Santiago made an appearance at Breed Street Elementary. Centro CSO members approached him to ask him about his stance on the strike.

“I asked Santiago if he would be urging LAUSD Board President Monica Garcia to support the teachers and to support their demands,” says longtime Chicano revolutionary Carlos Montes. “He just smiled, but I’m hoping he takes what we asked of him serious.”

After the morning pickets, all East-Area UTLA members inundated the sidewalks of major streets. A massive sea of red shirts, banners and chants greeted the shouts and honks of support from motorists.

In Boyle Heights, strikers and supporters lined the streets for miles, chanting, “Everywhere we go, people wanna know who we are! So we tell em ‘We are the teachers, the mighty mighty teachers! Fighting for justice and for education!’” and “Huelga! Huelga!” (the Spanish word for strike).

The future of public education in Los Angeles will depends on the outcome of the UTLA strike.

At the monthly Centro CSO meeting, Lupe Torres, who is a UTLA chapter chair and teacher at Marvin Avenue School, gave a strike report. Part of the report included an in-depth talk about the failed model in teaching by KIPP Charter school. Carlos Cerdan, who is also a UTLA chapter chair at Breed Street Elementary, stated that this strike opened his eyes.

“The inequalities we face as teachers has never been clearer as it is now. It's like the veil was lifted,” says Cerdan. “Our school and teachers have been facing so much repression from LAUSD administrators and principals, since our strike.”

Picket lines will continue tomorrow Friday, January 18 to complete the first school week of the intense strike. The evening of January 16, UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl announced during the daily press conference that UTLA and LAUSD were re-entering negotiations. Centro CSO live-streamed the announcement at their monthly meeting.

Plans are to continue picketing in the morning, and joining the massive rally at Grand Park 10:30 a.m., January 18, in downtown Los Angeles, gathering in front of City Hall, and ending each school day with the ongoing picketing. All are encouraged to participate and to join the striking teachers and staff of UTLA.

#LosAngelesCA #PeoplesStruggles #CentroCSO #LAUSD #teachersStrike #Strikes #UTLA #TeachersUnions

Los Angeles, CA – On day 3 of the UTLA teachers strike, seven regional rallies were held citywide, resulted in major street shutdowns. In East LA, East Area UTLA teachers held a loud enthusiastic rally at Soto Street in front of the LAUSD East Area offices. The rain did not put a damper on the loud, enthusiastic teachers and community supporters numbering in the thousands.

The parents of Jesse Romero, 14-year-old who was a student at Mendez High School who was killed by LAPD August 9, 2016, joined the rally. They held up a large Centro CSO banner with the slogan “Support public education! No privatization of education!”

Led by a MECHA student speaker who called on all students to support UTLA by joining picket lines, the rally was inspiring. Teacher speakers called this a historic strike that will be remembered and paid homage to Chicano and Black civil rights activists like Dolores Huerta and Rosa Parks.

Adrian Tamayo, director of UTLA East Area led chants like “Whose schools, ours schools!” Vice President of Elementary Education Gloria Martinez gave a passionate speech on the dedication and sacrifices teachers willingly make for the students and community. Martinez also said UTLA was disrespected by the latest inaccurate comments and false information made by LAUSD board members and Superintendent Austin Beutner. Beutner and the others attempted to confuse parents into returning the students to school.

The UTLA strike at LAUSD, which is the second largest school district in the nation, has led to massive student absences and massive teacher participation. With over 300,000 student absences, the successful strike is putting extreme pressure on LAUSD. The strike has overwhelming support in Southern California area as well as national backing from labor unions, celebrities and many politicians.

In the remaining two days of the first-week strike, UTLA has called for more actions, including another mass rally on Friday, January 18, in front of LA City Hall.

Centro CSO members will continue to picket daily at Breed Street School and encourage all to express solidarity with the striking teachers, support-staff, students and parents.

#LosAngelesCA #PeoplesStruggles #teachersStrike #Strikes #UTLA #TeachersUnions

Los Angeles, CA – Arriving at 4:30 a.m. to confront scabs, a large crowd of teachers, parents, students and allies showed up for the picket lines at Breed Street Elementary, January 15, day two of the UTLA teachers strike. Rain and wind did not stop the passionate and determined teachers. The day focused on the fight against privatizing education

Members of Centro CSO and Freedom Road Socialist Organization showed up at Breed Street Elementary, where a campaign has been waged against a mega KIPP Promesa Charter school in Boyle Heights. Teachers at Breed Street Elementary, like Carlos Cerdan, a teacher with 18 years of experience, have also been fighting against the colocation by Extera Charter at Breed Street Elementary.

“I'm proud to have been teaching at Breed Street Elementary for all these years,” says Cerdan. “But charters make our fight as public school teachers even more difficult. We're colocated here but if KIPP Promesa Charter moves in next door, we'll be even more in danger.”

Chanting, “I don't know but I've been told! Privatizers run the board!” and “When I say ‘Trump’ you say ‘charters!’”

Over 400,000 students have not attended school during the UTLA led strike and some 30,000 teachers and support staff have gone on strike. On the first day of the strike an estimated 27,000 teachers went on strike. Day two has reported a large growth, and even more are expected to participate in the UTLA strike.

A mass rally comprised of a sea of red shirts in downtown took place around 10:30 a.m. The massive UTLA group gathered for a protest at the offices of the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA). CCSA has funded pro-charter candidates in LAUSD and state-wide elections. The rally included Eloisa Galindo, mother of Marianna Avenue Elementary school students. Galindo denounced the proliferation of charter schools in East LA and said it was the rich attacking public education with the goal of privatization.

Teachers and UTLA leaders like Gloria Martinez and Alex Caputo-Pearl spoke to the energized masses. Centro CSO youth members hung a large banner over the wall of a five-story parking lot building. The crowd responded with cheers to the slogan, “Support public education! No privatization! No mega KIPP charter school in Boyle Heights!”

The enormous rally ended with a performance by the Chicano band Ozomatli.

Next up for UTLA are plans to continue the daily picketing, regional actions and ending each school day with another picketing.

Longtime Chicano activist and member of Centro CSO Carlos Montes says, “We support UTLA in this strike, especially the demand to control and regulate the spread of charter schools at LAUSD. We only need to look at New Orleans and Puerto Rico after hurricanes.”

The fight in Boyle Heights will continue against KIPP Promesa Charter school. All are encouraged to join the UTLA picket line on day three and to also join the fights against gentrification and privatization of education. Join Centro CSO. You may also donate to the lawsuit against the giant KIPP Promesa Charter here: http://www.gofundme.com/HelpCentroCSO

#LosAngelesCA #PeoplesStruggles #CentroCSO #teachersStrike #Strikes #UTLA #TeachersUnions

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU).

The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), representing 95 million workers in 130 countries across the globe, sends its internationalist and militant greetings to the teachers of Los Angeles who took the streets and organized a huge strike in order to defend their labor rights.

During their mobilizations more than 30,000 teachers signed in on picket lines across Los Angeles, more than 900 schools sites also participated while more than 10,000 parents, students and working people showed their solidarity with the teachers in struggle. The strikers not only have been struggling for a public education but they also intend to rebuke the anti-worker agenda which seeks to starve and privatize the schools.

The class-oriented WFTU family will firmly continue to support the strikers’ rightful demands against the anti-worker US bourgeois government’s agenda.

We call upon the US working class to join its voice with the strikers and to demonstrate their solidarity with the LA teachers in their struggle for a quality, public and free education system.

LA teachers are not alone! Long live internationalist solidarity!

The Secretariat

#LosAngelesCA #PeoplesStruggles #teachersStrike #Strikes #WFTU #UTLA #TeachersUnions

Jersey City, NJ – On March 16, public school teachers in Jersey City, New Jersey went on strike after months of frustrating contract negotiations with the city’s Board of Education. Their union, the Jersey City Education Association (JCEA), announced the strike to their nearly 4000 members late on the night of March 15.

Teachers began showing up to picket lines and rallies across the city before 5 a.m. – mere hours after the strike was officially announced.

The Jersey City Board of Education attempted to bring in substitute teachers as scabs to break the JCEA strike, offering to pay them double the normal per diem rate. Far from undercutting the strike, the move only furthered the resolve of teachers and staff districtwide.

The board decided not to cancel school, instead insisting that classes continue with a 12:45 p.m. early dismissal. But, their decision backfired since there were far fewer substitute scabs available for the school day to proceed normally. Student-teacher solidarity

However, the Jersey City Board of Education’s biggest miscalculation was to underestimate the level of student solidarity with teachers and school staff.

Students, rather than demonstrating “apathy,” ignored suspension threats by the school district and left their buildings to stand with their striking teachers, school staff and paraprofessionals. Students organized chants such as, “We want our teachers back! We’ve got our teachers’ backs!”

“Concerning the strike, I feel that if we want to talk about educating our kids, we need to pay our teachers,” said student Gekson Orlando Casillas, 18, at McNair Academic High School, who joined the picket lines. “It's hard to get teachers excited to come to work when they know they aren't making enough to get by. If we pay our teachers what they deserve, that means they get the resources and support they need.”

Casillas continued, “Students walking out with our teachers felt like the right thing to do. As the child of a JCPS employee, the battle these teachers are fighting is personal. It affects my family every day. Our teachers have our back. They support us as not only teachers, but as mentors, confidants and sometimes like parents. The student-teacher relationship is so important. So now it's time we help them.”

Key factors in the JCEA’s decision to strike

According to the union, the strike centers on two key issues: the “fight for affordable health care and a fair contract settlement.” The JCEA and the Board of Education have met more than 20 times for negotiations since their contract expired Sept. 1, 2017, with little progress and harsher cuts to teachers’ health insurance plans demanded by the school district.

Later in the day of March 16, the JCEA led a march of several hundred teachers and students to the Board of Education building, demanding a fair contract and no cuts to teachers’ health insurance.

Like the West Virginia teachers who won their statewide strike earlier this month, JCEA has organized food drives for students and families that rely on free and reduced breakfast and lunch programs through the public school system.

Health insurance cuts at the core of Jersey City teachers strike

While the Board of Education’s refusal to agree to a fair contract led to the strike, the root issue is a series of cuts proposed to teachers’ health insurance plans. Budget cuts and austerity measures passed under former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie have devastated public education funding in the state. School districts like Jersey City are enforcing these budget cuts by forcing teachers to pay more out-of-pocket health care costs and reducing the quality of their insurance plans.

“My members are fighters,” said JCEA President Ronald Greco in a March 16 press statement. “They fight for their students every day. They fight to make sure our kids get a quality education despite the questionable spending practices of the board of education on high-priced consultants and failing programs. My members fight to keep our communities safe and our students out of harm. And even now, when it’s our issue at the bargaining table, what we’re fighting for is not exclusive to just us. Quality, affordable health care is a fundamental right for everyone. My members are prepared to step up and take on this fight for everyone, knowing full well that it will be a long, difficult process.”

The Jersey City teachers strike comes on the heels of a nine-day statewide teachers strike in West Virginia, which ended in that state’s legislature passing a 5% raise for teachers and other public workers. West Virginia teachers faced deep cuts to their health insurance and placed humiliating burdens on teachers to keep their coverage. There, the state legislature demanded budget cuts for the same reason that Jersey City’s Board of Education cites: responding to budget shortfalls, which were created by giving tax breaks to corporations, millionaires and billionaires.

Strike fever

While public employees can legally strike in New Jersey – unlike West Virginia, where public sector work stoppages are illegal – the militancy of the JCEA is part of a strike fever sweeping teachers across the U.S. Budget cuts and givebacks demanded by state and local governments have pushed teachers to the limit, forcing many to strike out of necessity. Teachers unions in Oklahoma, for instance, have set April 2 as a tentative deadline for the state to pass greater funding for public education or face a West Virginia-style statewide shutdown.

This strike fever among teachers unions happens against the backdrop of the Supreme Court’s looming decision in the Janus v. AFSCME case. The court is expected to rule against unions and implement right-to-work-for-less laws across the country for public employees. This ruling will weaken public sector unions by allowing workers to reap the benefits of union membership – raises, contract protections, health insurance, pensions and more – without joining or paying dues.

Public sector unions are a key pillar of the U.S. labor movement, making up just under half of all union members. In 2017, 34.4% of all public-sector workers were union members (7.2 million), versus just 6.5% in the private sector (7.6 million). The Janus case is the latest attempt by anti-union billionaires like the Koch brothers to break the back of organized labor.

But while the Janus decision will hurt organized labor, especially public-sector unions, the militancy of the teachers in West Virginia, Jersey City, and Chicago – who held a one-day strike in 2016 – shows a path forward. With the law stacked against them, the teachers in West Virginia blatantly violated the anti-union laws restricting their right to strike, and they won. They demonstrated that these laws are written by and for the 1%. In reality, workers hold the real power. Even in a post- Janus world, unions can grow stronger and win through workplace militancy and struggle.

FightBack! will continue covering the Jersey City teachers strike.

#JerseyCityNJ #PeoplesStruggles #strike #teachersStrike #Strikes #NewJersey #TeachersUnion #TeachersUnions #JCEA

Chicago, IL – 1100 faculty members at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) went on strike, Feb. 18, to demand a fair contract. Several rallies drew 500 strikers and their supporters to the middle of campus.

These members of Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) Local 6456 showed a high degree of solidarity. Issues in the strike include a wage increase for the entire bargaining unit, but also a minimum salary for the non-tenured full-time lecturers – teachers with PhDs currently earning only $30,000 a year. IFT Local 6456 is demanding a $45,000 minimum for them.

The union points to the wrong priorities in place at the university, where tuition has risen 25% since 2007 and where the school has over $1 billion in reserves, but where faculty are not paid what they are worth. Most professors have gone two years without raises. Three years ago, their pay was docked through the use of furlough days.

IFT leaders blame the Board of Trustees and University President Bob Easter. Joe Persky, president of UIC United Faculty, said in a statement, “The administration’s priorities don’t match the University’s mission, and after trying to negotiate a fair contract for eighteen months, they’ve left us no choice but to strike.”

UIC looks more and more like a corporation each year. The IFT notes that the number of administrators has increased by 10%, while tenured faculty positions have decreased by 1% in recent years. In response to this, one of the chants heard from picketers has been, “Chop from the top!”

#ChicagoIL #ChopFromTheTop #UniversityOfIllinoisChicago #tuitionHikes #teachersStrike #workersRights #IFTLocal6456

Chicago, IL – Sarah Chambers, a teacher at Saucedo Academy in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, was exhausted but happy when Fight Back! reached her Tuesday night, Sept. 18.

A member of the bargaining committee and the House of Delegates (HOD) of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), she had been on strike for the past week and a half; been in meetings in the morning with her coworkers at Saucedo, and then in the afternoon attended the HOD meeting, discussing the offer from management; and had been fighting hard against the corporate agenda of Mayor Emanuel and the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) for two years.

When the HOD met on Sept. 16, Chambers had said she wouldn’t vote for a contract unless it included “a win for the kids.” Tonight she said the contract was a victory for teachers and students.

According to Chambers, the wins for the students included:

“Books on day one.” Hard as it is to believe, it has been common for Chicago classrooms not to receive text books for a month or more after the start of classes each year.

“Music, art, and language positions, which will continue throughout the contract.” The tentative agreement requires that the board will hire more than 600 additional teachers in those areas.

“The contract includes increased funds for resources for the kids.”

And finally, “They have to prove the teaching staff has increased diversity.”

For the teachers, the contract includes a 7% raise over three years; CPS lost its move to force ‘merit pay’ into the contract; and one half of all CPS hires must be displaced members.

A prominent issue in the past days was teacher evaluations. The CTU defeated a move by the School Board to evaluate teachers based mainly on test results.

For Chambers, one final victory was that, “We won language that principals cannot bully teachers and teachers have the right to design their own lesson plans.”

All of this was made possible, ultimately, by the unity of the members. According to the statement from union president Karen Lewis, “We feel very positive about moving forward. We feel grateful that we have a united union and that when a union moves together we have amazing things happen.”

#ChicagoIL #ChicagoTeachersUnion #MayorRahmEmmanuel #teachersStrike #Strikes #TeachersUnions

Chicago, IL – On Sept. 16 the members of the House of Delegates of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) received the contract offer from management of the Chicago Public Schools. The Bargaining Team, made up of the four officers and the CTU lawyers, presented a 23-page summary of the 180-page tentative agreement.

The mood of the House of Delegates was distrustful of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s school board. No surprise, given that Emanuel declared war on the teachers from the moment he announced his run for mayor in 2010. Therefore, they voted to give themselves an extra day to present the summary to members back at their respective schools.

In retaliation, Emanuel threatened the CTU with an injunction. The city’s lawyers are bringing charges that the strike is illegal. If a judge grants the injunction, the teachers would be forced back to work without a contract.

The injunction was filed today, Sept. 17, and it claims that the union was striking over matters such as layoffs and class sizes that the union cannot legally strike over. CTU stated, “The Chicago Teachers Union is striking over mandatory subjects of bargaining such as compensation, evaluation procedures and the conditions within our classrooms.” The Chicago Teachers Solidarity Campaign, an organization of supporters of the CTU, issued a statement in response as well: “…compensation and other ‘legally strikable’ issues are still part of the negotiations. But the CTU has been fighting to get these health and safety issues into the contract because they know that this is the only way to hold Chicago Public Schools and the mayor accountable.”

The mayor lectures teachers and parents that his attack on the CTU is in the interests of the children. In fact, teachers and parents are united to fight to defend public education against attacks that are coming from exactly the wealthy class that includes Emanuel. The mayor backs Tax Increment Financing zones (TIFs) – which funnel hundreds of millions in tax dollars to real estate developers at the expense of the schools – and he increased funding up to $75 million this year to private charter schools.

#ChicagoIL #ChicagoTeachersUnion #MayorRahmEmmanuel #teachersStrike #Strikes #TeachersUnions

Chicago. IL – Over 25,000 striking teachers and supporters converged on Union Park on Chicago’s Westside, September 15. Allies and supporters from throughout the Midwest traveled here to support them. Labor leaders and community supporters spoke powerfully from the stage fully backing the strike and the fight for public education. In polls taken during the week, the parents of public school students overwhelming supported the strikers. 87% of the students are African American or Latino.

Saturday was the sixth day of the strike that has idled over 600 schools in Chicago. On Friday, there was much talk in the mainstream press that there was a deal between the union and management. The union was clear – we are on strike until you hear from CTU. The union’s House of Delegates (HOD) is scheduled to vote on a deal September 16.

Coming from internal divisions that stifled this union, Chicago Teachers Union Local 1 has come a long way. Just last year the politicians in Springfield were patting one another on the back about how they had hamstrung the teachers in Chicago from striking. “This Union has proven the Chicago labor movement is neither dormant nor dead,” CTU President Karen Lewis said in a statement about the tasks of the HOD meeting on Sunday.

Student leaders from University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, who had fought against the attacks on unions by Governor Walker in the past two years, travelled to Chicago to march with the CTU. “This union should be congratulated for their bold challenge to Rahm Emanuel’s union busting agenda,” said Danielle Meyer of Occupy Milwaukee. “He and his right wing buddies want nothing less than the privatizing of public education.”

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Chicago, IL – Thousands of teachers, students and Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) supporters marched to Buckingham Fountain in downtown Chicago on the second day of the CTU strike, Sept. 11. The rally came after a morning of pickets at the 144 holding centers, also known as ‘contingency plan’ schools, put in place by the Chicago Public Schools board.

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Chicago, IL – On Sept. 10, Chicago Teachers Union Local 1 went on strike after ten months at the bargaining table. They tried to use negotiations with the Chicago School Board to defend their jobs and the interests of their students. When the Chicago Public Schools refused to back away from their corporate agenda, CTU members had no choice but to strike.

Picket lines were formed at over 600 schools and anyone driving the streets of Chicago on Monday morning could see that the pickets were strong.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel told parents he would have their children in “contingency plan” schools. One parent said the contingency school in his area was supposed to receive 1000 students, but instead only 60 showed up. According to Sarah Chambers, a teacher at Saucedo School and a member of the CTU bargaining committee, “The contingency plan schools were a colossal failure. The fact that almost no students showed up at these schools displays the parents’ complete mistrust for the CPS' board of education and CPS' ability to provide a safe place for the children of Chicago.”

Battle with the city; battle for public opinion

Emanuel and the media tried to make it appear that the CTU is unreasonable. According to School Board President David Vitale, the school board made major concessions. He claimed in the press that the teachers were overpaid and yet he was offering them big raises. But the school board violated the binding contract with the teachers when it refused to honor the 4% raise in the last year of the old agreement. The measure of his generosity has to subtract the wages lost when he violated the contract last year.

The real story in this conflict is that public education has been under attack by corporate-backed politicians like Emanuel. Teachers unions are facing the fiercest assaults by both the Republicans and the Democrats because they are the only strong defense that students have. “There were more kids on our picket lines than in the Mayor’s contingency schools,” noted Chambers, indicating more parent support for striking teachers than for the CPS.

Parents support the CTU because the union fought for both their jobs and the kids. The strength of the union defeated plans to make teachers work longer work weeks than the current 58 hours; they defeated Emanuel’s plan to have them get pay raises based on improvements in test scores; they won back math, science, music and art classes, and recess for their students. Only when they couldn’t stop the attacks through bargaining did they call a strike in order to continue the fight.

20,000 march on school board headquarters

After the 30,000 union members picketed all day, 20,000 of them and their community supporters marched on the headquarters of the Chicago Public Schools in downtown Chicago starting at 3:30 p.m.

Standing outside her school, a tired but determined Chambers said, “The solidarity of the teachers and the parents in the community, united and fighting for their schools – it’s amazing. Spirits are high on the picket line. Teachers are prepared to fight for their kids and a fair contract.”

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Chicago, IL – In the largest labor rally here in at least 30 years, tens of thousands of teachers, parents and community and trade union supporters rallied on Labor Day in preparation for a strike by the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), if Chicago Public School (CPS) doesn’t meet their demands.

CTU has been in contract negotiations with the school board since November 2011. Teachers have been without a contract since June of this year after the five-year agreement with the district expired without a new one in place. Issues included the lengthening of the school day, testing and class sizes. Then the school board rescinded the 4% raise scheduled for June 30 in the CTU contract.

“CPS seems determined to have a toxic relationship with its employees,” Karen Lewis, CTU president, said. “They denied us our 4% raises when there was money in the budget to honor our agreement; they attempted to ram a poorly thought out longer school day down our throats; and, on top of that they want us to teach a new curriculum and be ready to be evaluated based on how well our students do on a standardized test. It has been insult after insult after insult. Enough is enough.”

At the Labor Day rally, Lewis also called Mayor Rahm Emanuel “a liar and a bully” in her remarks, and said, “The only way to beat a bully is to stand up to a bully.” CTU is going forward with their plans to strike on Monday, Sept. 10. This will be the first teachers strike since 1987.

The entire trade union movement is behind the Chicago teachers in their struggle for better schools, smaller classes and better pay. Also, many parents are joining Parents For Teachers, because they know that it is the teachers who have the interest of the children at heart, not Rahm Emanuel and the class of bankers he represents.

According to Sarah Chambers, a member of the union bargaining committee, “Parents are frustrated by the mayor and his decisions, like the increase in class sizes.” Chambers said further, “The children of the school board and the mayor attend private schools. Parents realize that the teachers, not the school board, are for the students.”

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