11,000 Educators Fired in December

Clean Up Your Act Teachers or You're Out! (Image from Flickr, by  emilydickensonridesabmx)

The Great Recession has been officially over for more than three years, but the plunder of the public sector and middle class wealth continues. According to the Department of Labor, more than 13,000 public sector workers were laid off in December, more than 11,000 of whom were teachers or other school employees (see WSWS).

This is unusual. Typically, teacher layoff notices go out in February or March in anticipation of coming budget shortfalls, giving teachers the summer to look for work (or to be rehired, as often occurs when revenue picks up). Mid-year layoffs are an indication just how desperate many school districts are, with states continuing to have large deficits and the feds continuing to do nothing about it.

Indeed, by ignoring the problem, state and federal governments facilitate the deterioration of public education, making it easier to argue that it is broken beyond repair, or that it can only be repaired through privatization. Since 2008, the private sector has hired about 725,000 new workers, while the public sector has lost almost the same number of jobs (again, see WSWS)—a statistic that is largely due to the divestment of tax dollars from the public sector. Obama, despite receiving early endorsements and massive support from the NEA and AFT, has made no indication that he intends to help struggling school districts.

Many cities are shuttering their schools and selling off their facilities or the operation of their schools to private for-profit education management organizations (EMOs). According to the WSWS, Philadelphia plans to close 36 schools. Detroit has closed dozens of schools over the past few years, with former financial manager Robert Bobb attempting to close half the city’s schools in 2011. Many of the closed schools were sold or rented to private charter school operators. Recently, secret leaked documents revealed that Chicago has been planning to close or consolidate as many as 95 schools, with many of them going to private charter operators. New Orleans already has 70% of its students attending charter schools.

As schools close and teachers are let go, the teachers unions lose members and strength, something they seem unwilling or unable to fight. In fact, the social contract union leaders have made with the bosses to keep their members on the job at all costs (not to mention the no-strike clauses in many of their contracts and state prohibitions against public sector strikes) has effectively stymied the unions and is leading to their own downfall. The laid off teachers, however, are free to sell their labor to the highest bidder—Increasingly nonunionized private charter school operators that pay less and require far more work than the traditional public schools.

Detroit Wild Cat Strike Shuts Down 2 School Districts

They say Michigan’s new Right to Work (RTW) law is now a done deal. That didn’t stop thousands of teachers and other union members from taking the day off to protest at the state capital this week. In Detroit, so many teachers called in sick that two school districts, (Taylor Public Schools and Warren Consolidated Schools), were closed for the day, according to Detroit News. Detroit Public Schools (DPS) remained open, though Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) President Keith Johnson did urge members to go to Lansing.

The state’s new RTW bills would make it illegal to require employees to join a union or pay union dues as a condition of employment. This would significantly reduce unions’ ability to raise funds to support their members, while allowing freeloaders to reap the benefits of union-negotiated contracts without providing any material support for this service. RTW states have lower wages and lower union membership than other states.

Pundits and many union activists are accepting the new RTW laws as a fait accompli. However, the fact that two unions were able to easily shut down their districts with wild cat sick outs demonstrates the power teachers and other workers actually have to force a reversal of the laws. While it may be illegal for teachers to strike in this situation, the law cannot stop teachers from exercising their rights to take days off for medical or personal necessities. Such actions can be organized informally and done on a rotating basis (i.e., rolling sick outs) to minimize the loss of individual sick days, while maximizing the impact.

On the other hand, workers need to get over their fear of breaking the law. Civil disobedience has a long and important history in this country, especially in the labor movement. Strikes and unions have both been illegal in the past, but workers still formed unions and continued to engage in job actions, often getting arrested and beaten in the process, and occasionally getting killed or deported. Breaking unjust laws (e.g., any restriction on the right to strike) in the name of improving personal and collective liberties, as well as working and living conditions, is both necessary and just.

Illegal Strike Looming in Detroit?

Public sector workers in Michigan are forbidden by law from striking, yet several Detroit municipal unions are considering strikes as Mayor Bing plans to eviscerate them by extracting devastating concessions and cutting more than 2,500 city jobs (25% of the total), according to the Daily Finance. His goal is to avoid being taken over by an emergency financial manager who would have the ability to rip up collective bargaining agreements and fire the mayor and city council. The concessions could include job outsourcing, no automatic reinstatement of higher pay levels, as well as health care and pension givebacks.

Despite the illegal status of strikes, Detroit workers have a long history of defying the ban and striking anyway. In November, bus drivers walked off the job for a half-day over safety concerns and in May of 2007 over similar safety issues. Garbage collectors and bus drivers
shut down service for 19 days during a 1986 strike and 1,700 workers held a three-day strike in 1978.

In March, 30 of the city’s unions sold out their members by giving away major concessions to the city, including a 10% pay cut, layoffs, and changes to their pensions. It will be interesting to see if any of these unions strike. It will be interesting to see if any of these unions go on strike. Considering what they are up against, they have little to lose.

It is important for workers everywhere to remember that ALL strikes were once illegal and workers were routinely assaulted by thugs, goons, vigilantes, police and federal troops. (For a partial history of the violence unleashed on the labor movement, please see Modern Schools Labor Timeline). Workers have made all of their most significant gains, (including moribund ones like the 40-hour work week, weekends, and overtime), through sacrifices and risks such as refusing to work even when work stoppages were illegal.

Detroit Unions Give It Away, Snyder Not Satisfied, Will they Strike?

Will Work for Free (Image from Flickr, by psyberartist)

Last week, 30 Detroit public sector unions sold out their members by giving away major concessions to the city, including a 10% pay cut, layoffs, and changes to their pensions, in a completely voluntary reopening of existing contracts well before they expire. The move was an attempt to preempt the declaration of financial failure by the state and the imposition of a financial manager who could dissolve local governmental agencies and union contracts.

The Detroit City Council has decided not to vote on the new contracts because they conflict with a proposed consent agreement negotiated with the state and is telling unions the state is requiring them to return to the bargaining table, mlive reported this week.

Gov. Rick Snyder wants city leaders to approve a consent agreement that would eliminate the need for an emergency manager. Snyder’s agreement would require even more take backs from the unions, including a watering down of the grievance procedures.

3 Council members (JoAnn Watson, Brenda Jones and Kwame Kenyatta) criticized Mayor Bing for delaying approval of the contracts and suggested that by doing so they will jeopardize long-term labor relations with the unions.

Now that the deal is off, AFSMCE local 25 President Al Garrett, is refusing to any more negotiations until their current contracts expire and said he would call for a strike before he agreed to the state-requested reforms.

30 Detroit Labor Unions Sell Souls for Illusion of Security

A coalition of 30 labor unions representing Detroit workers ratified new sell-out contracts this week in hopes of averting the imposition of an emergency financial manager by Gov. Rick Snyder. Under Michigan’s Emergency Manager law (see here, here and here), the governor can dissolve union contracts, abolish collective bargaining and fire elected officials when a city or municipality is deemed a financial failure.

The unions agreed to accept 10% pay cuts, layoffs and changes to city pensions, according to MSNBC. As has become the norm for unions lately, Detroit’s city unions have completely forgotten their reason for being: to improve the working and living conditions of their members. Union officials said they were willing to help save their city from financial meltdown, but apparently forgot that their members were not the cause of the city’s financial woes, which are the result of lost revenue due to the financial crisis, mismanagement, a declining population and tax base, and politicians’ unwillingness to tax themselves and their wealthy friends at a rate that could keep the city in the black.

The unions’ concessions not only contribute to the immiseration of their members, but they won’t even necessarily save their jobs or their union contracts. Under the agreement, Detroit would save about $54 million per year from the concessions, which is less than half of what Mayor Dave Bing had hoped for.  Thus, a financial manager could still be imposed, union contracts abolished, and pay and benefits reduced even further.

Indeed, Terry Stanton, a spokesman for Gov. Snyder, said "The state's concern is that the agreement does not generate the savings needed to address (Detroit's) long- and short-term crisis."

When Detroit Mayor Bing called the labor agreements historic he was not far from the truth. Unions have been giving away more and more over the years, but in this case they gave it away without getting anything tangible in return. Furthermore, it significantly improves Bing’s chances of being appointed the new financial manager, which would give him greater flexibility to bust the unions and privatize public works.

Michigan Attempts to Crush Teachers Unions

A House committee of the Republican Michigan Legislature approved legislation this week banning school districts from deducting union dues from teachers’ pay, according to the Detroit News. If the legislation passes, it will serious hamper union activities by making it much more difficult for the unions to collect dues and amass war chests for organizing, lobbying and attempting to purchase politicians.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Joe Haveman, said "I don't believe the schools should be in the business of being the bill collectors for the unions." However, because of the automated payroll systems, it costs the districts virtually nothing to include union dues in the billing. Even Haveman himself admitted that the savings would be nominal.

The real motivation behind the legislation is clearly to weaken the unions. David Hecker, president of the American Federation of Teachers in Michigan was quoted by the Detroit News saying "The goal is to totally undercut the voice of teachers by totally undercutting their unions."

As if any more proof was needed, Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, suggested that a "right to teach" bill would be a good idea, undermining the ability of unions to create closed shops in which all employees must become members. While it is true that Michigan and most other states do not have truly closed shops for teachers and teachers can opt out of the union, they still often get some money deducted from their paychecks for union representation and generally get the same contracts as the fully paying members. If a “right to teach” bill were successful, one likely implication would be that all teachers would have to negotiate individual contracts with their districts, without the power and benefits of collective bargaining, most likely resulting in significantly lower wages and benefits.

It should be pointed out that the automatic dues check off, while making it easier for unions to finance themselves, is certainly not necessary for a union to be effective. In fact, it may actually contribute to the bureaucratization, laziness and wimpiness of union officials. Back in the day, there was no automatic dues check off and union organizers had to collect dues from each member in person, giving them the chance to do more real organizing, listening to members’ grievances and suggestions. It forced them to be more accountable to members because they failed to make members happy, they simply refused to pay their dues.

What’s Good for GM Is Good for American Kids, Not

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, like an increasing number of politicians across the country, has placed a business executive with no experience running a public school district in charge of Detroit Public Schools (DPS). The incompetent and corrupt Bob Bobb will be replaced by a former General Motors executive Roy S. Roberts as the new Emergency Manager of DPS, with the power to nullify teacher contracts, fire all teachers and privatize DPS schools to his heart’s content under Michigan’s financial martial law.

Roberts, like Bobb, has a similar sounding name and a history of serving the interests of capital. Unlike Bobb, Roberts has no direct connection with Eli Broad, which means his $250,000 salary won’t be further bloated with donations from the Broad Foundation (Bobb’s salary, including foundation support, was $425,000). It should be pointed out, though, that after his stint at GM, Roberts worked for Reliant Equity Investors, alongside Thomas Darden, who did attend the Broad Superintendent’s Academy before being hired as an administrator in Philadelphia (See Broad Academy website). Presumably they shared notes from time to time?

However, the lack of official Broad support will probably mean very little when it comes time to close the DPS budget gap. Roberts will be under the same pressure as Bobb to get results in a district that has a rapidly shrinking student population and funding stream and shares Bobb’s cockiness. The Wall Street Journal quoted him saying, "I'm not going to let anybody in this state deter me." Roberts, like Bobb, is fully invested in the reform mania plaguing the nation.

The WSJ said that Bobb’s agenda of closing and privatizing schools was being called into question, especially by the governor, implying this was the reason for the change of guard. However, considering the governor’s love for big business, a more likely explanation for Snyder’s displeasure with Bobb was his failure to close the district’s budget gap, stabilize enrollment or win the support of parents. Perhaps Bobb was not ruthless enough in his attacks on teachers, and Snyder wants someone with more business experience to be his axe man in Detroit. Roberts would certainly be the man for the job, having served as Vice President in charge of personnel at GM in 1987.

Roberts himself lends credibility to this hypothesis, saying he intends to continue with Bobb’s plan to close 14 schools and convert up to 45 others to charter schools by next year, according to the Detroit Free Press, a move that demonstrates his allegiance to private business and his disdain for teachers.

Detroit Mayor Asks God to Close Budget Gap

Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons

Detroit’s mayor Dave Bing was quoted in the Wall Street Journal saying "I'm not afraid of an emergency financial manager being named . . . he or she almost becomes god and can do whatever is necessary to bring financial stability back." Bing could be anointed god of Detroit under Michigan’s Financial Martial Law legislation, which allows the Governor to declare any city or school district a failed state and impose a financial manager who has the authority to shred union contracts, fire everyone (and let some other god sort it out later.) Bing, a Democrat, has already slashed city workers' health care and pensions to close a $200 million city budget gap. However, he said that if city unions refuse to agree to rollbacks, the budget gap could reach $1.2 billion by 2015, setting up the unions as straw men to justify declaring financial martial law in Detroit.

Detroit Public Schools (DPS) has already been declared a failed state and has had its own financial manager, Robert Bobb, for several years now. Bobb has taken advantage of his god complex by sending out pink slips to every one of DPS’ 5,466 employees, according to the WSJ, including all of its teachers and 250 administrators. Reuters reports that Bobb has pledged to use his powers as financial manager to address the school districts $327 million budget hole, threatening to make unilateral changes to teacher contracts and abolish seniority rules. Bobb has already shut down dozens of Detroit schools and plans on closing dozens more or converting them to private charter schools.

Meanwhile, opposition has already begun, with at least twelve students and teachers occupying the Catherine Ferguson Academy for pregnant, parenting teens, to prevent it from being shut down, according to the Daily Censored. The protest was organized by the group By Any Means Necessary, which fears that the school will be converted to a charter school and cease to provide services for pregnant and parenting youth. Hundreds of others joined the protest outside, providing logistical support for those inside the school and attempting to block the police from entering. Eventually, though, the protesters were arrested for trespassing and taken to jail, including young mothers and their children. Police threatened to turn their children over to Child Protective Services. However, the children were eventually released back to the parents, all of whom were cited and released.