Archives for category: Unions
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The Past and Future of Labor Unions: An Interview with Stephen Greenhouse

By dianeravitch
September 2, 2019 //
7

Stephen Greenhouse was the labor reporter for the New York Times for 19 years.

In this interview with the California-based Capital & Main, Greenhouse reviews the history of the labor movement, the role it played in building a middle class, and its decline. He goes on to describe strong portents of a revival of power for working people.

No Seat at the Table: Steven Greenhouse on Labor’s Silenced Voice

Greenhouse has written a new book about the labor movement and why it matters. The book is titled Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present and Future of American Labor.

He said,

One of the reasons I wrote this book is that there’s a phenomenon that far too few Americans understand. Worker power in the United States, not just union power, but worker power overall, has fallen to its lowest level, certainly since World War II and probably since the Great Depression.

That has hurt tens of millions of Americans because it’s a big contributor to wage stagnation. Consumers don’t have enough money to spend. That’s depressed the economy a bit.

Another unfortunate result of this declining worker power is income inequality. One study I looked at showed that income inequality has increased faster in America since 1995 than in any of three dozen industrial nations. One reason for that is that unions and worker power in the U.S. have grown so weak.

A third bad result of the decline of worker power is that corporations have undue domination of our nation’s politics and policymaking.

Categories Education Reform, Equity, Unions

Cincinnati: TFA Alum Trying for a Seat on the School Board After Almost Being Kicked Out of Democratic Party

By dianeravitch
September 1, 2019 //
8

In this fall’s school board elections in Cincinnati, one of the candidates will be a TFA alum who is trying again after almost being kicked out of the Democratic Party three years ago.

Ben Lindy is the director of Teach for America in Cincinnati. He attended elite suburban schools, then graduated from Yale College and Yale Law School. After he taught in rural North Carolina, he tried to start his  political career by running for state representative in Ohio. He was nearly censured and booted from the Democratic Party at that time when union officials discovered that he had written a law journal article that was anti-union and that was cited in a Supreme Court case to hurt the cause of collective bargaining. In that paper, he argued that collective bargaining agreements raise the performance of high-achieving students and lower the performance of “poorly achieving students.” On the face of it, this claim is absurd, first, because there are many different variables that affect student performance, especially in the state he studied, New Mexico, which has one of the highest child poverty rates in the nation. Consider also that the highest performing states in the nation–Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Jersey–have strong teachers’ unions, while the lowest performing states in the nation (mainly in the South) do not.

The 2016 effort to oust him from the Democratic Party failed by 26-21. When he was questioned about this stance on organized labor, he claimed to be pro-union but claimed that he hadn’t give much though to union issues.

Lindy showed a lack of knowledge about some labor issues. When asked his stance on prevailing wage, he said: “This is an issue I’d like to know more about.”

“I’m not hearing how you’ve evolved,” said Pat Bruns, a committee member who sits on the state board of education.

Lindy is a prodigious fund-raiser, which is enough to recommend him to some party leaders.

But party leaders should check where Lindy’s campaign cash is coming from. If it is coming from “Democrats for Education Reform,” bear in mind that these are hedge fund managers who are anti-union and anti-public schools, who favor TFA and merit pay. If it is coming from “Leadership for Educational Equity,” that is TFA’s political arm, which is anti-union and pro-charter school.

Be informed before you vote.

 

 

 

Categories Accountability, Cincinnati, Democrats, Democrats for Education Reform, DFER, Ohio, Teach for America, Unions

ALEC: Advocate for Charters and Vouchers and Scourge of Teachers’ Unions

By dianeravitch
August 31, 2019 //
22

What do you know about the American Legislative Exchange Council or ALEC?

It is right now the single most influential private organization in the nation.

This article, though three years old, gives a good overview of the ALEC education goals, mainly to privatize public funding for schools and to eliminate teachers’ unions. This is not surprising, because the DeVos Foundations and the Koch Foundation are among its most important funders.

ALEC opposes any regulation. It opposes gun control and regulation of the oil and gas industry. It opposes the public sector having any power over corporations.

ALEC is a rightwing “bill mill.” Its staff drafts model state legislation.

About 2,000 state legislators belong to ALEC.

They attend its posh meetings at elegant resorts and return home with fully developed bills that they can introduce in their own states, simply writing in the name of their state on an ALEC bill.

Then they can attend the next ALEC meeting and boast about their accomplishments.

If you want to know more, read Gordon Lafer’s fine book The One Percent Solution: How Corporations Are Remaking America One State at a Time, which nails the ALEC approach and shows that its purpose is to lower expectations.

As  you read the article noted above, you will see a proliferation of voucher plans under many names. Each of them is a camel’s nose under the tent. Pass one and soon there will be demand for another and another. The rightwing oligarchs are not interested in poor children or in education; they are interested in power and in killing the public sector that belongs to all of us.

Categories Accountability, ALEC, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Koch Brothers, Privatization, Unions, Vouchers

STRIKE POSSIBLE! Teachers in Clark County, Nevada, Announce Plans for Strike

By dianeravitch
August 21, 2019 //
4

The Clark County Education Association (Las Vegas) announced that teachers will strike on September 10 if they can’t reach a settlement with the district before then.

Categories Accountability, Nevada, Unions

Newark Wipes Out Performance Pay for Teachers

By dianeravitch
August 20, 2019 //
18

When then Governor Christie and then Mayor Cory Booker persuaded billionaire Mark Zuckerberg to give $100 million to impose corporate reform on Newark, performance pay for teachers was the heart of their plan. Pay the “best” teachers for getting high scores, eliminate “bad” teachers, and Newark schools would be transformed.

In a major blow to the corporate reform movement, the latest teacher contract in Newark just eliminated performance pay.

It didn’t work in Newark, and it hasn’t worked anywhere else. It is a zombie idea. Teachers aren’t holding back, waiting for a bonus to goad them on. They are doing the best they know how. With help and support, they can improve, but not because of rewards and threats.

https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/newark/2019/08/15/merit-pay-was-the-heart-of-a-revolutionary-teachers-contract-in-newark-now-the-cory-booker-era-policy-is-disappearing/

In 2012, Newark teachers agreed to a controversial new contract that linked their pay to student achievement — a stark departure from the way most teachers across the country are paid.

The idea was to reward teachers for excellent performance, rather than how many years they spent in the district or degrees they attained. Under the new contract, teachers could earn bonuses and raises only if they received satisfactory or better ratings, and advanced degrees would no longer elevate teachers to a higher pay scale.

The changes were considered a major victory for the so-called “education reform” movement, which sought to inject corporate-style accountability and compensation practices into public education. And they were championed by an unlikely trio: New Jersey’s Republican governor, the Democratic-aligned leader of the nation’s second-largest teachers union, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who had allocated half of his $100 million gift to Newark’s schools to fund a new teachers contract.

“In my heart, this is what I was hoping for: that Newark would lead a transformational change in education in America,” then-Gov. Chris Christie said in Nov. 2012 after the contract was ratified.

Seven years later, those changes have been erased.

Last week, negotiators for the Newark Teachers Union and the district struck a deal for a new contract that scraps the bonuses for top-rated teachers, allows low-rated teachers to earn raises, and gives teachers with advanced degrees more pay. It also eliminates other provisions of the 2012 contract, which were continued in a follow-up agreement in 2017, including longer hours for low-performing schools.

“All vestiges of corporate reform have been removed,” declared a union document describing the deal.

Categories Accountability, Billionaires, Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Corporate Reform, Education Reform, Merit pay, New Jersey, Newark, Teachers, Unions

Jeremy Mohler: What Is Democracy? Bargaining for the Common Good

By dianeravitch
August 10, 2019 //
22

Jeremy Mohler of the organization “In the Public Interest” wrote this reflection on the meaning of democracy:

 

The word “democracy” either fires you up or makes your eyes roll.

It’s so overused that even Donald Trump is wielding it to ramp up support for his administration’s meddling in Venezuela.

There’s even a new documentary out called What is Democracy? by filmmaker and activist Astra Taylor, who interviews everyone from philosophers to factory workers to get at the answer. The conclusion? There’s no definitive single answer to the question.

Maybe all we can say is: you know democracy when you see it.

I certainly see a refreshing example of democracy on display in the growing public school teachers movement. And it’s the real thing—not the electoral kind that we’re used to.

It’s called “bargaining for the common good.” The gist: teachers and other government workers use their ability to negotiate for better wages and working conditions to also improve the lives of other people in their community.

Some recent examples:

In January, striking teachers in Los Angeles won better wages and benefits but also 300 more nurses district wide, more green space at every school, support for immigrant families, a stop to random police searches at schools, and more.

In Oregon, the state’s largest unions came together a few years ago to collectively win higher wages, paid sick days, better retirement security, and nondiscrimination protections for most full-time workers statewide.

The Chicago Teachers Union is considering demanding the city’s board of education support rent control efforts and new taxes on corporations and the wealthy to fund more affordable housing.

And it’s not just happening in blue cities.

In March, West Virginia’s teachers shut down a bill that would’ve allowed charter schools to open in the state. Having witnessed the pain caused by the opioid crisis, job losses, poverty, and homelessness to their students and families, they argued that privatization isn’t the answer.

It just makes sense, right? Government workers often live in the communities they serve and therefore share many of the same interests.

That’s what makes bargaining for the common good so refreshing and potentially powerful.

It’s a direct counter to the past four decades of conservative attacks on government and corporate “trickle down” economics. And it’s a crystal clear example of what democracy actually looks like in action.

Categories Democracy, Unions

Beware of Right-Wing Groups Promoting Union-Busting Shell Called “Free to Teach”

By dianeravitch
August 10, 2019 //
30

 

Jonathan Burdick, a history teacher in Pennsylvania, wrote on Twitter about a new group called “Free to Teach,” which encourages teachers to abandon their union and form an “independent” union.

He can be found @JonathanBurdick on Twitter. In case you are not on Twitter and can’t find the thread, Jonathan writes that the group’s ads are sponsored by an Oklahoma-based organization called “Americans for Fair Treatment.” Here we go down the rabbit hole of right-wing groups. That group shares the same registered address in Oklahoma with “The Fairness Center,” which sued the teachers’ union in Philadelphia and lost. The Fairness Center shares offices in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with the Commonwealth Foundation. The Commonwealth Foundation is funded by DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund. These organizations are part of a massive network of right-wing groups called the State Policy Network. These organizations have donated HUNDREDS OF MILLION OF DOLLARS to extreme right causes: many anti-union and pro-educational privatization. These organizations are funded by billionaires including the Koch Brothers and Richard and Helen DeVos—the parents-in-law of Betsy DeVos. They also fund the Mackinac Center in Michigan, a favorite cause of Betsy DeVos, which works to crush unions and workers’ rights. Jonathan Burdick points out that Peter Greene wrote about “Free to Teach” and its connections to the right-wing oligarchs.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Education Reform, Koch Brothers, Michigan, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Teachers, Unions

In the Public Interest: Inside the LA Teachers’ Strike

By dianeravitch
August 5, 2019 //
16

 

The photograph below was taken during the UTLA strike last January. The guy in the center is famous rocker Stevie Van Zandt, who loves teachers and public schools and unions. Stevie is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He played in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.

Stevie is constantly giving back, and he gave back in Los Angeles, where he picketed in the rain. Stevie will be a featured speaker at the Network for Public Education national conference in Philadelphia, March 28-29, 2020. Be there!

Stevie made a great video to celebrate International Teachers Day. 

Jeremy Mohler of “In the Public Interest” writes:

 

 

 

Like many districts nationwide, Los Angeles’s public school system was “broke on purpose.”

It’s suffered through decades of underfunding and anti-government rhetoric—”bad teachers.” Despite being the world’s fifth largest economy, California is 41st in the nation in per pupil funding.

It’s also bore the brunt of the charter school industry’s rapid growth. Los Angeles Unified School District has more charter schools than any other district in the country and now spends nearly $600 million annually to prop up a competing, parallel sector of privately managed schools.

That’s why what the city’s teachers did earlier this year was so powerful.

As a new report from Reclaim Our Schools LA outlines, “The Los Angeles strike resulted in a stunning array of substantive victories well beyond the scope of a typical labor agreement.”

Not only did teachers win pay increases, but they also won more nurses, counselors, and librarians in schools; smaller class sizes; reductions in standardized testing; an end to random searches of students in some schools; and more.

If you’re wondering what democracy looks like in the age of Citizens United, voter suppression, and Trump, what’s being dubbed “bargaining for the common good” is a glimpse.

Read Building the Power to Reclaim Our Schools for the story of how teachers and the community organized and worked together to use government for the common good.

Thanks for reading,

Jeremy Mohler
Communications Director
In the Public Interest
Categories California, Funding, Los Angeles, Unions

Florida: Teachers in Orange County Overwhelmingly Reject New Contract

By dianeravitch
July 30, 2019 //
22

Just in: Teachers in Orange County, Florida, defeated a contract proposal by a vote of 4-1.

The contract would have raised wages but increased health care costs which would have left many teachers with less income overall.

The average teacher pay in the county is $49,000.

It is outrageous that teachers are paid so little, and that the state continues diverting public money to charters and vouchers.

What does the future hold for Florida, where education is a political football and held in such low regard?

 

Categories Florida, Teacher Pay, Unions

Prominent Ex-Labor Leader Fights Teachers’ Unions

By dianeravitch
July 28, 2019 //
43

This is a puzzlement. Andy Stern was once one of the nation’s most important labor leaders as head of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). After he stepped down, he became close to Eli Broad and joined the billionaires’ fight against teachers’ unions!  

Hamilton Nolan writes:

Andy Stern spent 14 years as the head of the SEIU, America’s most politically active labor union. He was perhaps the most visible union leader in America. And what is he doing now? He’s lending his name to a billionaire-funded astroturf group that aims to quash the power of teacher’s unions.

When Stern left the SEIU in 2010, he was a true political power player—his official bio, in fact, brags that “Stern has visited the White House more frequently than any other single person during the Obama Administration.” Under his leadership, his union dramatically grew its membership and helped Barack Obama get elected. But his successes came at a cost. Stern developed a reputation as a business-friendly union leader, known for striking deals with companies that were often seen as too weak by many in the labor movement. Under the guise of modernization and growth, Stern seemed to lose his connection to the grassroots, radical, people-powered aspects of the union world. In 2010, The Nation quoted one union leader as saying, “Andy Stern leaves pretty much without a friend in the labor movement.”

His post-SEIU years have only intensified this feeling. Stern has spent the past decade serving on corporate boards, touting the idea of a universal basic income as an economic solution superior to building labor power, and further ingratiating himself to corporate America as a sort of post-union ambassador to the Aspen Institute world. He also took a seat on the board of the Broad Foundation, a billionaire-funded group that pushed charter schools—raising eyebrows from teacher’s unions, who are often cast as the villain by wealthy reformers seeking to build alternatives to America’s public education system…

The most prominent and powerful American labor actions of the past year were the teacher’s strikes that swept the nation, from West Virginia to California. Public school teachers have, more than anyone, been the most visible engine of recent union militancy. And as all of that was happening, here is what Andy Stern did: in April of this year, he was announced as an official adviser of the National Parents Union, an education reform group with deep ties to the Walton Foundation, the charitable arm of the family of Walmart heirs, the single richest family in America. (Charter schools are a major focus of the Walton Foundation; the NPU’s board members are affiliated with a variety of groups that have received significant Walton Foundation funding, and its co-leader is an executive at Green Dot Public Schools, a charter group funded in part by the Waltons.)…

The SEIU—still a politically active union, and one which is now having its name used, to fight against teacher’s unions, by a corporate-friendly former president who maintains a higher profile than the union’s current president—did not offer any comment.

Categories Broad Foundation, Education Reform, Unions, Walton Foundation
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