Teachers Struggles Around the World

Croatia has been cutting its spending in order to close its deficit and improve its credit rating as it prepares to enter the European Union. It has been doing this by slashing public services like education and healthcare. In response, teachers and nurses have been striking against government plans to cut their pay. 70% of Croatia’s education workforce took part in a strike last Thursday, according to the Teacher Solidarity website.

In the German state of Saxony, teachers have begun a series of “warning” strikes for “equitable education funding” (also from the Teacher Solidarity website). More than 20,000 people (75% of Saxony’s education workers) took part in a November 16^th strike, with thousands participating in rallies in Leipzig, Dresden and other cities. One of the strikers’ demands is a shorter work week for older teachers to ease their workload and provide more openings for younger teachers, who make up a minority of Saxony’s teaching staff.

Meanwhile, in Hawaii, teachers have been participating in work-to-rule actions every Thursday in an attempt to roll back concessions imposed on them by their governor two years ago (from Labor Notes). The 2011 contract, which expires in 2013, included cuts to their pay and benefits. Their union negotiated a compromise contract, which included performance pay, evaluation reforms and a two-tiered compensation system for new hires. Not surprisingly, the teachers voted this contract down.

The teachers are arriving just before classes start and leaving immediately at the end of classes, temporarily ending after school tutoring, club supervision, lesson planning and grading papers. In lieu of their normal unpaid labor before and after school, the teachers have waving signs to passersby to promote their cause. They are hoping to bring up wages (starting salaries for Hawaiian teachers are only $31,000) and resist pressure to accept performance pay.

As in many states, Hawaiian teachers are barred from striking until after negotiations have resulted in impasse. Rather than waiting until then, when it would be harder to mobilize teachers, as well as public support, they have begun their protests and outreach early. So far, teachers are saying that students and parents are supporting their actions. The key will be to maintain both high participation rates in their actions, as well as public support, until their demands are met.

Sabotage, As American As Apple Pie

This Monday, on the public radio program Marketplace, host Kai Ryssdal mentioned that U.S. businesses will lose $1 billion over the next few weeks because of employees doing their holiday shopping on the internet at work instead of doing their jobs.

The OWS movement might learn something from this.

Their calls for people to stay home on Black Friday were not only ignored, but this past Friday ended up being one of the busiest retail shopping days ever.

My guess is that people have recession fatigue and desperately want to celebrate the holidays like they used to, whether or not they have jobs or economic certainty. They want this so badly that they are willing to risk their jobs by doing their shopping on the boss’ dime.

While most are not doing this deliberately to undermine the profitability of their employers, it is a consequence of their behavior. Workers do this all the time in other subtle and not so subtle ways and for various reasons including dissatisfaction with the job, boredom and revenge. They do things like taking home office supplies, extending their lunches, surfing the internet and corresponding with friends via email. People sometimes pad their time cards or prolong their time in the toilet or at the coffee machine.

All of these are forms of sabotage and it is as commonplace as work itself.

The IWW (Wobblies) promoted sabotage as a tactic to help workers win their grievances at work, by slowing down efficiency and profit-making. Their propaganda often included the image of a sabot, the Dutch shoe that workers often threw into the looms during the 19^th century to slow down production. In fact, the word sabotage comes from sabot. The Wobblies used the word sabotage to include any tactic that slowed down efficiency, including deliberately slowing down production, working to rule, bungling duties.

Considering that the majority of Americans do not seem ready to join the OWS movement in the streets and encampments, nor do they seem ready to boycott holiday shopping, perhaps a better tact for the movement would be to follow the example of the IWW and call for mass acts of sabotage in the workplace.

For those who are lucky enough to have jobs and who can’t afford to lose them by playing hooky to join an OWS protest, there are plenty of things that can be done at work to gum up the machinery of capital and cut into profits with minimal risk. The options are virtually infinite with a little creativity and caution. Numerous examples can be found in Martin Sprouse’s book, “Sabotage in the American Workplace.”

Class War: A National Wave of Anti-Worker Repression

Across the nation the attacks on workers is growing, and it’s not just by Republicans, either. The ruling class smells blood and fear and is getting cockier each day. As Walker and others strip away collective bargaining rights and other union protections, the mainstream union leadership has all but given up, telling workers to go back to work and not to make any trouble. This is exactly the kind of message that riles up the rich for further attacks. They can see that their prey is weak and unwilling to resist. They recognize that the time is ripe to go for the jugular.

The Republicans are preparing to destroy unions entirely. They hate unions’ ability to negotiate higher wages, which cuts into profits. They also hate unions’ ability to raise large sums of money for their Democratic allies. The Republican goal is the destruction of unions and the Democratic Party. The Democrats, on the other hand, desperately need unions and their resources and votes, but they, too, want to see a decline in the power at the workplace. The Democrats, after all, are also part of the ruling elite. They too have large investments on Wall Street, successful law partnerships and appointments on boards.

Partial Rundown of State Attacks on Labor

• Arizona has several bills on the table that will lead to a virtual police state for workers. SB 1350 blocks public employees from being a member or officer of any committee of any political party or running for office. HB 2367 bans collective bargaining entirely, including wages and applies to all public workers, including public safety employees (i.e., cops). SB 1363 outlaws all opposition to corporate abuses, including pollution or safety violations, by banning picketing, mass assembly and secondary boycotts. SB 1563 prohibits sickouts, work to rule or any other job actions that could slow down profits or services.
• In California, Republicans are refusing to allow a measure onto the June ballot that would extend regressive taxes unless the legislature slashes public employee pensions. In order to make it onto the ballot, Gov. Brown needs two-thirds of lawmakers to approve it, something that will not occur without some Republican support. Even if the measure does make it onto the ballot and is approved by voters, Brown still plans to slash $500 million each from the UC and CSU university systems, $400 million from community colleges, $1.5 bilion from Cal-Works (welfare-to-work program) and $1.7 billion from Medi-Cal, which will result in a lot of people losing their jobs and health care. (If the tax extensions don’t pass, an additional $5 billion may be cut from K-12 education).
• Connecticut has legislation pending that would block binding arbitration from awarding raises whenever unemployment is more than 7%. A sister bill would tie these raises to the Consumer Price Index. Gov. Molloy is collaborating with unions to freeze wages, add furloughs, and cut health benefits.
• Florida’s SB 830 would prohibit automatic dues check-offs by unions, thus starving them of resources and limiting their ability to organize (which is what they should be doing) as well as lobby (which is what they’re spending most of the money on). HB 7005 slashes unemployment benefits. Gov. Rick Scott also plans to fire 8,100 state employees.
• Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal plans to fire 14,000 state workers and slash K-12 spending by 5.6% and university spending by 10%, resulting in additional job losses for teachers and professors.
• Hawaii passed a law preventing unions from negotiating employer contributions to health care. They also have pending bills that would increase employee contributions to health and pensions, and one that would kill Medicare Plan B reimbursements for retired government workers.
• Indiana is trying to pass “right to work (for less)” legislation.
• Michigan is pushing a new law that would allow the governor to dissolve local governments and school boards and rip up existing workers’ contracts when he decides they are in financial trouble.
• Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton wants to slash state employee pay by 6% and is eliminating subsidized health care for 7,200 poor adults.
• Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman is demanding freezes in state employee pay and education spending.  He would also slash Medicaid and punish anyone who tries to use it without being gainfully employed.
• New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie wants to increase state employee contributions to their health plan by 30% and double their contributions to their retirement plans.
• Ohio’s SB 5 would end collective bargaining for public sector workers.
• Pennylvania is cutting $1 billion from K-12 education and $600 million from their university system and freezing state employee pay. Gov. Corbett also wants to freeze teacher pay. 1,500 state workers will lose their jobs, as will countless teachers and university professors. Thousands will also lose health coverage under his budget plan.
• In Tennessee, SB 1033 criminalizes all forms of union or employee opposition to corporations. Another bill prevents workers and their unions from donating to political parties and candidates. SB 1032 bans strikes and all other forms of job actions, including work to rule and other “slow down” tactics. The punishment for those who break this law would be fined $1,000 per day and any union representing those workers would lose its right to collect dues for the entire state. Other pending bills would block teachers from negotiating working conditions.
• Texas plans to slash education spending to 23% below their own state-mandated levels, and fire up to 100,000 teachers.
• Washington has bills pending that would amend their Constitution to allow pay cuts for public officials during an economic crisis. Gov. Gregoire plans to cut $1 billion from education.
• Collective bargaining for public sector workers is being attacked through legislation in Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin.