Today I am violating a court order. I am not going back to school until we have a decent contract. I’m a Detroit public school teacher, and my union, the DFT, has been ordered back to work without a contract. Under a no-strike law, pushed by a particularly odious GOP governor, Michigan teachers are not allowed to strike. The consequences are serious – possible daily fines up to firing.
I’ve followed this site for a while and commented once or twice. Over the next few days, I’d like to share information about the state of public education in Detroit. The conservatives and the evangelicals have taken over the education debate. It is time for the Progressives to reclaim public education – one of the legacies of the first Progressives.
My hope is that the many teachers and educators who read and contribute to this community will add their experience and knowledge and together we can create a broad picture of public education in America. Teacher Toni has already contributed with her excellent pieces on the teachers union movement. Kidspeak’s diary also shed light on where we were. I’m sure others have also addressed the topic before my time here.
More later … I’m late for my contempt of court action.
Update [2006-9-11 16:9:33 by Teach313]:
LATER THAT SAME DAY …
It looks like the union held strong today. Reports from the picket lines are that few teachers reported to work. Tomorrow the students are scheduled to report. It is very difficult to walk a picket line when your students, children you have known for years, are entering the school. You want to be in there teaching, but we must stand strong. We can not allow the mismanagement of the district to be funded by cuts to the instructional budget and our salaries. Please see my next diary for a beginning analysis of where the money is going.
To all those who left positive comments, I thank you for the support. I’ll pass it on to my fellow teachers.
The Final Word for Today
The District reports that only 8% of teachers crossed the line. (Their figures are usually on the high side.) School has been cancelled for Tuesday. The Administration is headed back to court in the morning to seek legal relief. They should try honestly negotiating.
Hang in there teach. Keep us updated.
Being on strike is always hell. Being on strike despite a court order is hell combined with courage.
I wish you the best, and will anxiously await further reports.
In solidarity.
You’re right, the court order is bothering a lot of people. We’re trying to reassure the frightened that they can not replace 7,500 teachers and 2,000 support staff, but some people are in desperate financial situations already.
See my new diary for an overview of the problem in DPS.
All the best to you in your battle. Please remember that you have the support of millions of people who know you are doing the right thing. We are grateful.
Thanks. The support does help. I’ll pass the word on the picket line tomorrow.
Today is good day to stand up against anyone who wishes to take away your rights.
The very best to you. I hope you will keep us posted.
What is it you are seeking that the school board is rejecting or what are they seeking that you are rejecting?
Are the teachers unified on this strike? Is the community supportive?
The Judge overseeing the dispute has slapped a gag order on the negotiations, so it is difficult to know where things stand. I have no inside information about the bargaining. The contract we rejected three weeks ago was miserable. Our step raises (seniority raises) would be held for two years. (They were frozen last year.) Across the board paycut of 5.5%. 10 – 20% raise in Health coverage costs. All coverage switched to HMOs.
We demanded 5% raises for each of the next three years. (Of the 83 school districts in SE Michigan, we are approximately 72nd in pay.) We agreed that we needed to help out with rising medical costs. We also raised issues of class size, materials, and working conditions.
The details are available at the DFT website: http://www.dft231.com. The website is underpowered and is running slowly right now.
The teachers are united, but the financial cost and possible fines and/or loss of our jobs is a real threat. People are feeling very pressured. Many Detroit teachers are single parents or are the major source of income for an extended family. Many teachers have spouses who have been laid off from the auto industry. Often teachers are providing the health insurance for their families.
Most parents have been supportive. But we know from past strikes, parents get itchy the longer the children are at home.
Keep fighting the bastards!!!
Power to you, Teach!
In 1976, my local ATU (Amalgamated Transit Union) union struck in Salt Lake City with a no strike clause as well. We walked the picket lines for a week and stood in front of buses that the supervisors tried to drive out of the lot(yes they did attempt to run us over). We were proud of our fellow Teamsters who drove fuel trucks who refused to cross the picket lines and deliver fuel.
We were out for a week and the public demanded the Utah Transit Authority bargin with the Union (their offer was a take our offer or no offer at all).
We got most of what we wanted and a whole lot of new respect from management.
Stay with it for as long as you can! I will stand beside you, if only in spirit.
Thanks for your support. A Teamster strike in Utah … there’s a recipe for disaster. I’m glad it worked out. We teachers are a milder bunch, but we’re pretty stirred up. I can’t see us barricading the door and keeping students out. There’s been some talk on radio that we may be close to an agreement. We’ve been close before, but the District always pulls something goofy .
Actually, ATU, our union, was a part of the AFL-CIO, not teamsters, but the teamsters drivers of fuel trucks honored our picket line. Yeah, even in Utah.
Best wishes, hope it ends well and soon for you.
There are districts in this area where teachers are entering their fourth year without a contract. The no-strike clause gives too much power to the school mis-administration. Didn’t the Board turn down binding arbitration last week? Go, Teach, go!!
Many districts in SE Michigan are working without a contract. As the largest union, we have the best chance of standing up to the oppressive law.
so Granholm won’t enforce the law, because she needs your votes.
Granholm is walking her usual fine line. She needs our votes, but she doesn’t want to identity herself herself too closely with Detroit. She needs the suburban women, who left the Republican camp in 2002, to stay with her. She doesn’t want the plutocrat De Vos or his supporters to run video of Granholm surrounded by angry Detroit teachers, many of whom are black. As you know, Michigan is about as highly charged racially as it gets. Granholm’s Detroit office, the one she uses as Gov when she’s in town, is two blocks from the DPS palace and four from the DFT’s much more modest digs. The negotiations where mostly held in the next building over from hers. She could have wandered over via the Skywalk and not even stepped outside.
Much love to my Brothers and Sisters of the DFT. This is an outgrowth of the move to privatize public education. Let me know if there is a strike fund to which I could contribute.
I wish we could work more closely with Hamtramck and other nearby locals. I’m sure you know more about this than me. You’re dead on about the privatization of education. I see it as part of the movement to destroy all forms of social structures in favor of a mythical “Family.”
We do not have a strike fund, per se. The union has arranged with the MichiganFirst Credit Union to provide loans of $300/week. After we pay off the loans, the union will reimburse us for the interest. Thanks for the offer.
Anytime. We could be in the same boat in H-town. We are completely overrun with parasitic charter schools that don’t teach science or promise students short on credits some free credits.
We enter negotiations this year. We’ve had no raise in the last two years, though we have managed to hang onto our benefits.
The new superintendent is…a piece of work. He’ll look to chop everything.
I suspect this is a huge question that would call for a diary, but here goes – How is the huge immigrant influx effecting the Hamtramck schools? Are any charters being set up along ethnic or religious lines?
I’m not a union officer, but I do wish that the area teacher unions would get together to address the issue of representing charter school staff. To many of these schools are education sweat shops.
I just want to offer my support too. Our school district went without a contract for more than 2 years and threatened a strike. I completely supported that strike. It sounds like you are in a similar situation.
They simply have to stop trying to cut costs through the teachers’ salaries and their benefits while the administration makes 6 figure salaries.
Please keep us posted. My heart is with you.
Yahoo News
The report you cited matches what we’re hearing here, but no official word yet. I’ll post a link to the tentative agreement when it is available. One key issue is the existing freeze on step raises. For non-union people, step raises are pay scales tied to years experience. So each year, until you reach the 10th and final step, you get a new level of pay plus the pct raise that everyone in the bargaining unit gets. The steps are much larger than the raises. If the steps are frozen again, those at the bottom of the pay scale will suffer.
There are many other issues like the freeze on step raises and working condition issues. We won’t know until tomorrow what happens. The media only reports the teacher pay issues and that frames the public debate. We are asking for so many more issues concerning the operations of the school and the learning environment for the students.