http://themilitant.com/2018/8219/821901.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 82/No. 19 May 14, 2018
(lead article)
Teacher battles: Example for all working people! Arizona teachers,
school workers get broad solidarity
Militant
Thousands of teachers, supporters march in Phoenix April 30, demand
funds, raises, respect.
BY BERNIE SENTER
PHOENIX — A sea of people in red T-shirts flowed down the streets here
April 26, the first day of a statewide walkout by teachers and other
school workers in Arizona. More than 50,000 marched and rallied at the
state Capitol, demanding more funds for schools along with raises for
teachers and all school personnel.
As the walkouts and protests continued, large crowds have turned out day
after day here and in actions across the state. And the confidence and
fighting spirit of participants have grown.
The RedForEd Spirit Band, playing brass and drums, led a mighty chorus
in singing, “We’re not going to take it any more.” The Twisted Sisters
tune has become the signature of the school workers’ mobilizations
across the country.
“I’m here because of a decade of the government cutting education,” said
Matthew Martin, 28, a social studies teacher at South Mountain High
School here. “There has to be a stopping point.”
More than 100,000 school workers walked out April 26, closing some 1,000
schools, affecting 850,000 students, roughly 75 percent of the state’s
enrollment. The protesters are renowned for their creative signs, such
as “35 is a speed limit, not a class size.”
Those who couldn’t make it to the Capitol rallied in cities across the
state. While 30 teachers from Sierra Vista, close to the Mexican border,
traveled to Phoenix, school workers and supporters gathered at that
city’s Veterans Memorial Park, wearing red and waving signs. Kearny, in
the copper triangle in the southeast where Asarco’s Ray copper mine is
located, and Flagstaff in the north were among the cities where actions
took place. Some of the marchers had T-shirts sporting “Red for Ed on
the Rez,” and demonstrations were organized on the state’s sizable
Navajo, Apache and Hopi reservations.
Deplorable conditions
The school workers strikes and mobilizations, which started in West
Virginia in late February and continued in Oklahoma and Kentucky, have
now moved into Arizona and Colorado and will hit North Carolina May 16.
The North Carolina Association of Educators, the state affiliate of the
National Education Association union, has called a statewide protest at
the Capitol. These fights have shone the spotlight on some of the truly
deplorable conditions working people face.
Lights are out in the schools, heat isn’t on in the hallways, pipes are
leaking, textbooks — when teachers have them — are falling apart and
there are up to 40 students in a classroom. Teachers pay hundreds,
sometimes $1,000, out of pocket for supplies, clothes for kids, even
food. In Oklahoma, 20 percent of the schools work on four-days-a-week
schedules.
The fact is the propertied rulers don’t care if schools are crumbling.
Their kids go to private academies and Ivy League schools to learn to be
rich. Workers, they’re convinced, don’t need much learning. As a matter
of fact, they think literate and cultured workers are dangerous.
“We need funding,” said Yvanna Villa, a kindergarten teacher at Red Bird
Elementary School here. “When I left for the walkout, everything in my
classroom except desks, tables and chairs are things I provided.”
Workers in Arizona demand a 20 percent pay raise for teachers, raises
for all other school workers and restoration of funding to its 2008
level, which would require an additional $1 billion. Median pay for
Arizona teachers is one of the lowest in the country.
“It’s hard to meet their needs, when there are 32 students in the
classroom. I feel spread thin. I don’t have pencils, paper, I have to
buy them,” said Nancy Neff who teachers eighth-graders. “I joined my
union. I’m hoping it grows in power and right to work goes away.”
Arizona is one of 28 right-to-work states, as are North Carolina,
Oklahoma, Kentucky and West Virginia. The state legislature sets pay
levels and benefits. Alabama, Mississippi, New Mexico, South Dakota and
Utah are other states with the same setup. In addition to demanding
increased school funding and wages, protests have targeted pension cuts
and rising health premiums.
‘Build the union back up’
Arizona Educators United, a Facebook-based group for all those who work
in the schools, started up in early March. It now has 52,000 members and
has led the mobilizations. They’ve built a network of “liaisons” in
schools across the state and work together with the Arizona Education
Association, the largest union for school workers.
Union and nonunion workers from public schools and some charter schools
have been drawn into the growing movement. They’ve joined discussions
and actions, which culminated April 11 with more than 100,000
participating in walk-ins at over 1,000 schools. They took part in the
April 17-19 vote that decided to walk out, where some 57,000 workers
cast their votes with 78 percent in favor.
“The union is only good as far as it reaches,” said one-year teacher
Sibel Duzenli from Tucson. “I want to join and be part of building that
back up.”
State legislators have tried to divide the workers. Arizona Gov. Doug
Ducey has proposed a 20 percent pay raise for the teachers, making no
mention of raises for other workers, or of any funding to improve school
conditions.
Crystal Butler has worked as an instructional assistant for two years.
She makes $10.50 an hour and works only 30 to 32 hours a week. “The
governor’s proposal only covers classroom teachers and not support
staff. I work in the reading lab so I wouldn’t get the raise,” she said.
The only way she and others got increased pay was after a state
referendum was passed that raised the minimum wage from $10.01 to
$10.50. Like many other workers hoping for change, she voted for Donald
Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
In Arizona the bosses familiar tactic of red-baiting has reared its
head. In an April 25 opinion piece in the Arizona Republic, Maria Syms,
a statehouse representative, railed at Noah Karvelis, a leader of
Arizona Educators United, saying he was “channeling Lenin” to push “a
national socialist revolution.” Her evidence? He campaigned for Bernie
Sanders and says that “we must continue our fight and bolster the
working class.”
Karvelis spoke at the April 30 rally. “We are going to come away with a
win,” he said. “We are changing history.”
Broad support, social movement
The protests and walkouts have inspired workers and mobilized broad
support across the country. Workers are hungry for a fight after decades
of being pushed back by Democrats and Republicans in the White House and
state legislatures.
Some 15 members of the United Association Local 469, which organizes
plumbers and pipefitters, brought 11,000 water bottles to the rally
here, helping participants get some relief from the 100-degree heat.
Trevor Derry, one of 30 members from the United Food and Commercial
Workers, who work at area supermarkets, spent most of the day at the
Capitol. He said he thought the school workers “knocked it out of the
park.”
“Welcome to the labor movement, brothers and sisters,” Jim McClaughlin,
president of UFCW Local 99, said when he spoke at the rally April 30.
The organization of the walkout as a broad social movement helps win
solidarity and cuts across attempts to divide and defuse. Taking the
lead from West Virginia, school workers have reached out to involve
students, parents and other workers in the fight. Volunteers are
gathering food for the many students who depend on school meals.
Churches, community centers and families open their doors to students so
their parents don’t have to miss work.
“We are providing breakfast and lunch in the schools,” said Katie Wood,
a sixth-grade teacher from Flagstaff, who traveled here to rally outside
the Capitol. “We are making history! A lot of us thought there was
nothing we could do about the situation, but we are doing it.”
Related articles:
Workers are starting to act up today. Join in!
South Africa workers strike, protest for wage raise, rights
On the Picket Line
‘Hardhat Mass’ marks deaths of construction workers
Denver rallies demand school funding, pay raises
W.Va. workers proud of victory of teachers strike there
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home
