Subject: [SocialistWorker.org] A victory for solidarity and struggle
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http://socialistworker.org/2012/09/19/victory-for-solidarity-and-struggle
Comment: Elizabeth Schulte
======== A VICTORY FOR SOLIDARITY AND STRUGGLE ===============================
Elizabeth Schulte reports on the proud conclusion of the Chicago teachers'
strike.
September 19, 2012
CHICAGO TEACHERS are returning to work after a nine-day strike--standing
proud after driving back Mayor Rahm Emanuel's attack on their jobs, their
union and their schools.
Late on Tuesday afternoon, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) House of
Delegates voted overwhelmingly in favor of suspending their strike and going
back to work on Wednesday. The tentative agreement that the CTU reached with
the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) now goes to members for a ratification vote
over the next two weeks.
"I'm excited, and most teachers echo this sentiment," said Lawrence Balark, a
teacher at Moos Elementary on the city's West Side. "We are going back to
work, and standing strong in solidarity in doing so. It was definitely a
victory. So many other unions have had to accept merit pay, but I'm proud to
say that we held that off."
According to Jackson Potter, staff coordinator for the union:
>We feel empowered. We feel stronger as a union. Some elements of the
>contract weren't entirely what we wanted on the economic issues, but we won
>some important non-economic improvements in areas such as professional
>autonomy, language to prohibit bullying by principals, and an appeals
>process for teacher evaluation and disciplinary decisions.
>
As Potter added, "We built power, and we will be more effective in our
buildings when we return. And this will make us more able to stop abusive
principals, to organize the charters and to stop the school closures."
Rahm Emanuel pulled out every weapon in his arsenal--from character
assassination to divide-and-conquer tactics with other unions to the threat
of a court injunction--but the teachers never blinked. "We're glad to be
going back on our own terms," Susan Hickey, an 18-year social worker, told
NBC's Channel 5 News.
The Chicago teachers' strike is an inspiring example of what's possible when
union members are engaged and active in a common struggle. Said CTU President
Karen Lewis at a press conference after the vote, "We're happy to have a
united union. When a union moves together, amazing things happen."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
THE OUTLINES of the agreement took shape late last week when CPS officials
began to back down from the harshest demands for concessions in the face of a
solid strike that electrified Chicago. Every day, there were picket lines at
schools in every neighborhood of the city, serving as an organizing center
for both teachers and their supporters--followed by huge demonstrations,
often downtown, where the streets were clogged by a mass of people in CTU
bright red.
As soon as word of progress leaked to the press, the media began a campaign
to stampede teachers back to work on Monday. But when the House of Delegates
gathered with union officers on Sunday night, the meeting decided to extend
the strike into a second week to give all CTU members a chance to examine the
proposal in detail. On the picket line on Monday and Tuesday, teachers went
over the 23-page contract summary--often article by article, to discuss and
debate the pros and cons.
Emanuel tried to play tough guy one more time--on Monday, he ordered his
lawyers to file suit against the union, seeking an injunction that would
force teachers back to work. But a Cook County judge decided not to hear the
case immediately--and so the teachers kept the initiative to decide whether
to end their strike.
Before the meeting on Tuesday, it was clear that delegates were weighing both
the problems with the deal and the odds that the union could get more if it
continued the strike. Inside the meeting, union leaders went over not just
the accomplishments and concessions of the contract, but put the deal in the
broader context of the current assault on unions, particularly teachers.
According to a teacher at the meeting, CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey spoke
about the historic nature of this contract fight--pointing out that the CTU
has stood up at a time when many unions have retreated. This contract isn't
the end of the struggle either, he argued, but the beginning of a longer
battle for education justice. Sharkey also embraced delegates who wanted to
continue the strike and fight for more, identifying the important role that
these members will play in the weeks to come.
After the vote to end the walkout and a thunderous cheer, delegates left the
meeting with a palpable sense of unity and power. That's something they will
need in the fights ahead--to keep CPS from reneging on its commitments, for
one thing, and to organize against the further attacks on public education
that lie ahead, such as the planned closure of as many as 100 neighborhood
schools.
"I've been a delegate for 11 years, but I've never seen anything like this,"
said John from Ray Elementary on the South Side. "I've had some success in
getting people involved, maybe to do some lobbying or advocacy, but the level
of unity and participation in this is incredible. Sure, there are some things
in the contract that I wish were better, but we can go back to work stronger
and better prepared to organize and fight again."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
TEACHERS ARE relieved at having fought off some of CPS's worst demands. But
they are also conscious of contract provisions that are painful concessions
to the politicians' austerity drive.
The CTU defeated the city's attempt to establish merit pay--basing teachers'
wages on how well their students perform on standardized tests, a central
part of the corporate school "reform" agenda, even though it does absolutely
nothing to promote teaching.
The union also maintained "steps and lanes," a pay structure that grants
additional salary hikes based on years of experience and additional
education. CPS didn't get the five-year contract it wanted, but agreed to
three years instead--which means the agreement will expire as Emanuel is
running for re-election.
Base pay will increase 3 percent in the first year and 2 percent in each of
the next two years, with language that bars the city from rescinding raises
as it did last year. But these increases are counterbalanced by uncompensated
additional days in a longer school year.
Another concession concerns what happens to teachers who are laid off--an
important question for teachers in a school district that has slated so many
schools for closure or "turnaround." The contract stipulates that half of new
teachers hired must be displaced CTU members--but it decreases time teachers
remain in the displaced teachers' pool with full pay and benefits from 10
months to five.
These concessions are tough to swallow, especially for teachers in schools in
poor neighborhoods that are likely to face the threat of closure. And they
are a disappointment after such an incredible mobilization throughout the
strike.
School boards across the country have put teachers in their sights in the
same way. Overall, public-sector unions are getting hammered with concessions
as the politicians preach austerity and sacrifice. For the CTU to have held
the line in so many areas and even made some gains is practically unique--and
must be recognized for the accomplishment it is.
That's why the CTU's fight has become a rallying point far beyond the borders
of Chicago. Labor and political activists recognized the high stakes in this
battle and the importance of the teachers' mobilization.
At every step, Rahm Emanuel--one of the most powerful Democrats in the
country, with a direct line to the White House--underestimated the teachers'
union and overestimated his ability to bully them into submission.
First, he got his allies in the Illinois legislature to push through an
anti-union law directed specifically at the CTU, which required the union,
among other things, to get 75 percent of all members to vote to authorize a
strike. Emanuel's political allies boasted that there would never be another
teachers' strike in Chicago. But the CTU not only met the threshold but
surpassed it, with nearly 90 percent of teachers voting to authorize a
strike.
Emanuel tried to pit parents and students against the union. The CTU
responded by actively seeking their support and devoting resources to the
fight to make classrooms better for Chicago children, like art, music and
foreign language instruction; working air conditioning; and caps on class
sizes. Those efforts paid off when a majority of Chicago residents--and an
even larger majority of CPS parents--supported the union, a rarity in a
teachers' strike.
One of the most politically powerful men in America declared war on the
teachers' union--but the teachers won this battle, not Rahm.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
OUTSIDE the House of Delegates meeting on Tuesday night, Rolando Vazquez,
representing Brighton Park Elementary on the Southwest Side, talked to the
/Chicago Sun-Times/ about the outcome. "I feel great about it," he said.
"We're going back to school tomorrow. The parents and the [people in the]
city were with us, three-to-one against Rahm Emanuel. And we made a great
show of strength."
Powerful ties of solidarity built during the strike now connect teachers,
parents and students, despite the city's attempts to divide them. As Erica
Clark, cofounder of Parents 4 Teachers, told a crowd at a protest outside CPS
headquarters hours before the House of Delegates meeting, "Parents are asking
for the same things the teachers ask for."
That solidarity will need to be nurtured and strengthened as the fight for
our schools continues. The city is getting ready to close down a rumored 80
to 100 schools, while allowing charter school operators to take over CPS
buildings and recruit the CPS students they want--as the rest are left behind
in a system more starved for resources than ever.
"I think we can't stop until public education is free for all of our
children," said Marvin Neely from the far South Side school Pullman
Elementary. "We have to fight the charter schools. By letting private
companies educate our children, this sends the wrong message to neighborhood
schools. The fight for neighborhood schools is the CTU fight."
The Chicago teachers strike cast a national spotlight on the crisis of public
education and the ongoing attack on teachers--and not only through the verbal
statements of union leaders, but with protests and pickets, often
concentrated in poor Black and Latino neighborhoods, that exposed the
national scandal of public schools in 21st century America.
Alicia Peshel-Schoenbeck, who teaches third grade at Mitchell Elementary on
the West Side, described the significance of the fight:
>This is a victory for public education. We made the education system
>front-page news, and that's a way to advance the quality of public
>education. I think we were effective in getting across our point that our
>working conditions are students' learning conditions.
>
>I definitely feel different today than I did two weeks ago. I feel more
>politically aware, and that I need to keep myself more informed about what
>politicians are up to. They need to understand that public education is a
>right.
>
Comments like that make it clear that the Chicago teachers strike was the
latest stage of a broader opposition developing against corporate greed and
government austerity--like last year's struggle to defend union rights in
Wisconsin that took over the Capitol building, or the Occupy Wall Street
movement that spread from New York City around the country.
This time, the fight took place at hundreds of schools across Chicago. Call
it Wisconsin in the workplace--or Occupy Chicago Public Schools.
The teachers can be proud of their inspiring struggle and its outcome, but
the fight is far from over. The battle will continue for the kind of schools
our teachers deserve to work in--and that our children can learn in.
Mario Cardenas, Trish Kahle and Eric Ruder contributed to this article.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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