Lessons from the Chicago Teachers' Strike

A couple of weeks ago I attended an event hosted by our friends at the BCGEU that featured a conversation on coalition building, community organizing and sheer determination to fight back against the austerity attack on public education.

The panel was great:

• Glen Hansman, President of the BC Teachers' Federation
• Michael Brunson, Recording Secretary of the Chicago Teachers' Union
• Sonia Singh, Labor Notes

Glen focused on the recent victory their union had in the Supreme Court of Canada - a rare decision off the bench that restored the right to bargain class size and composition. Next up are discussions with government on how they will implement the plan across the province. One thing I have learned in my time in the labour movement is that teachers are passionate about public education and their students' learning conditions. This 14 year battle united teachers giving the BCTF the best opportunity to start doing some serious internal organizing. They have been going all around the province to see their 42,000 members' working and learning conditions and the effect the chronic under-funding of our public K-12 has had on each district. I was lucky. I lived in an affluent area of School District #36 (Surrey) where there were supplemental programs available to enrich our learning. 

In Elementary school I participated in a gifted program called Highly Able Learners' Enrichment (HALE). I loved to read from an early age and always wanted to learn more. Ms. Kaur challenged us to think beyond ourselves. We learned of Bloom's Taxonomy and had to apply those principles in a variety of ways. She introduced us to various social justice issues - environmentalism (and David Suzuki), racism, peace, animal rights and so many more. We also took on a religions of the world project where we were each assigned a religion to do a project on and that included interviewing a local religious leader (I chose Judaism and interviewed a Rabbi). We then took a number of fieldtrips visiting various places of worship - a catholic church, mosque, gurdwara, synagogue, buddhist temple and the forest on the territory of the Semiahmoo First Nation. That program introduced me to so many concepts, books, issues and critical thinking pathways that I still use today. It's a travesty that kids don't get to have the opportunity I had in that program all because the government chose to prioritize funding private schools over the majority of kids in BC. Shame.

In high school I was fortunate to attend a school that had a well funded and regarded music program. Our music teachers were great - they exposed us to everything from Holst's Jupiter to Count Basie's Queen Bee to Earth, Wind and Fire and everything in between. We travelled to various music competitions across Canada and the USA - learning from jazz masters like Lionel Hampton, Ray Brown, Diana Krall, Christian McBride. To see music and art programs first on the chopping block is heartbreaking because you learn so much more than chart reading. Music helps your math skills, there's cultural relevance for every piece of music you play, there's teamwork and active listening. Music was part of the quadrivium - recognized that it plays an important part in a well rounded education....I'm ranting.

It will be interesting to see how the increased funding for K-12 will play out over the next little while.

Next on the panel was Brother Michael Brunson, the Recording Secretary for the Chicago Teachers' Union (CTU). He taught us the lessons the CTU learned when the Coalition of Rank and File Educators (CORE) decided to reclaim their union from the out of touch leadership - focusing on organizing teachers and allies to better the working and learning conditions of public education in Chicago. They were able to galvanize teachers in each area of the city by talking to teachers, to listening to their issues and finding creative ways to fight back against economic austerity and the privatization of their education system. He also brought forward the idea of how unionism has changed over the past few decades. Focusing solely on labour relations and collective bargaining constitutes business unionism. Working together to make policy change or change in government makes for social justice unionism. Organizing and building two way relationships with community allies is about social movement unionism - where union leadership isn't afraid of putting their asses on the line to truly bring about change not just to get themselves re-elected. 

That's what CORE did. They made a concerted effort to have the leadership of the CTU reflect the face of their membership. They were elementary and high school teachers, experienced and new teachers, race and gender diversity. Not just the table officers but also the delegates to the CTU conventions - they campaign and took out the entire incumbent leadership and changed the course of the direction of their union. They trained teachers to organize themselves, to hold town halls and meetings to hear directly from members  - about their working conditions at different times of the year not just before a campaign or a school closure. They activated their members and took ownership of their working conditions and won the right to bargain such things like class size and composition. 

It was inspiring to hear. 

Unions are about workers working collectively to better the relationship and working conditions with their employers. It's about defending the principles that we espouse and in the case of the CTU - the fundamental right to a just and fair public education system for all students in Chicago. I'm inspired by leaders who are willing to put themselves on the line for the better of their members. 

Sonia Singh from Labor Notes told us the story of farm workers in Bellingham, Washington who started the Driscoll's boycott. Like BC. farm workers aren't recognized under the labour code in WA but that didn't stop the workers for standing up for themselves. They carried our a successful boycott across the US to the point where the employer called the workers' leadership into the room and said they would recognize them as a collective and they were able to bargain improvements to their wages and their working conditions. 

There's no question that working people are under attack and the struggle still continues. Stories like Michael, Glen and Sonia's keep pushing me to do more. TO push our leaders to do more and to include rank and file as much as possible. The more people involved isn't a threat to us - we need more people involved and ready to take to the streets. And it can be done. 

Mad props to the BCGEU for bringing this forum together - I left inspired and committed to rethinking my activism and how I can do better at all levels.