The following is a story that has been partially crossposted from the Raging Chicken Press due to the length of the article. You can find the full version here!
The School District of Philadelphia is about to witness a process that can bring major changes to the city's public education system. These changes will not come from the General Assembly in Harrisburg, City Hall or the School Reform Commission. Instead, they'll come through contested union elections within the Philadelphia of Federation of Teachers. As reported earlier, the Caucus of Working Educators is challenging the union's executive leadership by running on a social justice unionism platform that comes with a winning track record.
Social justice unionism makes the local union more democratic, organizes rank and file members and organizes in the communities they serve. Reform caucuses within the country's largest school districts have swept union elections, organized wayward rank and file members and organized their communities. Because of all this, teacher unions have brought major changes to membership and advancements to the community through direct action and the bargaining table.
The first major victory occurred in 2010 when the Chicago Teachers Union elections when the Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE) ousted the United Progressive Caucus, who held control of the union for 38 years. Karen Lewis was elected president of the CTU after getting 59 percent of the vote in a runoff election and the CORE slate swept nine citywide offices and 23 vice presidencies in elementary and high schools. After the 2010 election, newly elected union leaders focused on organizing members and laying the groundwork for the infamous 2012 strike. The organizing efforts sought to find and build leaders in every school, and efforts ramped up when the Board of Education made the decision to close 17 schools. According to Norine Guetkanst:
The tactics of our coalition were confrontational and escalated throughout the effort. We disrupted and took over a board meeting; parents and community activists occupied a school; and community organizations led a vigil outside the mayor’s home. These actions built members’ confidence in the types of tactics we would use during the strike and provided visible examples of joint union-community action.
This, along with more organizing laid the groundwork for the 2012 strike. When the strike occurred, teachers had picket duty at every school. They shut down traffic with marches throughout Chicago's financial district. Held rallies in predominantly African American and Latino neighborhoods, and had overwhelming support from the public. Besides resolving issues around fair pay and health care, the conclusion of the CTU strike brought major victories to the local community. The teachers were able to get more funding for music and art education programs, school supplies, textbooks, shorter school hours and mayoral accountability.
In the past year, the Progressive Educators for Action Caucus in Los Angeles ran a 25 member "Union Power" slate and changed leadership by sweeping all 25 seats. Then in San Francisco, the Educators for a Democratic Union ran a 16 member slate and claimed 14 victories. When reform caucuses aren't winning in the ballot box, they're winning in the streets through actions and strikes.
The caucus responsible for reforming the Seattle Teachers Association, Social Equality Educators, fell 45 votes short of taking over the presidency with the turnout at 54 percent, which is "twice as many participating as ever before," according to SEA President Jonathan Knapp. The teacher who challenged Knapp was Jesse Hagopian, who rose to prominence leading a testing boycott against "Measures of Academic Progress' in Seattle.
His work or any anyone else's in the Social Equality Educators stopped there. Earlier this month, the Seattle Teachers Association went on strike for the first time in 30 years after teachers the voted unanimously to go through with the action. According to Hagopian, the contract "contract contains many hard fought wins for social justice that the school district said it would never grant," and they include scaling back standardized testing, more recess and race and equality teams in the schools. But the largest win was not with the contract. Hagopian explains that the largest victory was the solidarity that the community showed. The striking teachers were able to garner support from parents, the local NAACP and the city council.
More on Philadelphia's story here