School Scope: Teacher Strikes, Amazon and Unions, Public Advocate By Norm Scott

Published March 8, 2019 in The WAVE - www.rockawave.com

School Scope: Teacher Strikes, Amazon and Unions, Public Advocate

Recently West Virginia teachers went on strike, closing down all but one county. Diane Ravitch reported: “thousands of West Virginia teachers and school workers walked off the job to kill a privatization bill reputedly written in retaliation for last year’s historic nine-day teachers strike. Only hours into the Tuesday-Wednesday walkout, the state’s House of Delegates voted 53 to 45 to indefinitely table Senate Bill 451, which had linked a teacher pay raise to the gutting of job security and a first-time legalization for West Virginia of charters and private school vouchers.” WV teachers refused to be bribed and the legislators blinked. And Kentucky teachers engaged in wildcat sickout actions. Both states are red Trump territory.

The wave of strikes continued in blue-state Cal ifornia with a week long strike in Oakland which ended with an 11% salary increase, 3% bonus at ratification, lower class sizes with phased-in class size reductions, 5-month pause in school closures, lower caseloads for special education teachers and counselors, the school board will vote to push the state for a charter school moratorium. The Oakland education system has been dominated by the anti-public school/pro-charter reformists funded by billionaires, often supported by Democratic Party politicians. Don’t think the history of support for phony reforms won’t come back to bite Dems in the upcoming battles. The new left in the party seems to understand the impact of the attacks on teachers, their unions, neighborhood schools and public education which has led to a shift within the party, though I haven’t seen very many signs from our local Dems – yet.

Congratulations to Republican Eric Ulrich for his 2nd place showing in the Public Advocate race with almost 20% of the vote. As a Republican who is a Trump critic, and since 90% of Republicans support Trump, that puts Eric far out of the mainstream of his fellow party members who fundamentally support a lying, racist, cheating con-man, to quote his own former lawyer. Eric despite winning Queens and Staten Island, has a touch road as a Republican in this city.

Eric benefitted from the favorable press he received over being the only supporter of the Amazon deal. His ads talked about supporting unions but since Amazon is blatantly anti-union, squaring that circle seems like a stretch. I found it sort of ironic given how many in Rockaway are horrified at the homeless shelters while also supporting Amazon but aren’t making the connection between the even more outrageous homeless situation in Seattle, home of Amazon, than we have here. Support Amazon here so we can have even more shelters.

The NY Times, which took a pro-Amazon position, has also reported accurately on some of the actions Amazon has taken around the country when asked to pay their fair share of taxes: they renege on their deals and move the jobs. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/03/technology/amazon-new-york-politics. Why any politician would trust Amazon is beyond me. Union opposition has led the way in keeping the anti-union Walmart out of the city. Compare Amazon and Walmart to the pro-union Costco, where so many of us head to like lemmings. Costco is one of the highest rated places to work and the shopping experience reflects that.

The headline in The WAVE was: Locals ‘shocked’ by Ulrich Loss. Those locals must be smok’n something. Jumaane Williams’ margin of victory was 33% against a cast of thousands of Democratic candidates. Other Dem candidates turned their guns on Jumaane, a sign he was a clear favorite. Don’t forget his 47% with little money against Cuomo’s candidate for Lt. Governor in last September’s primary. He is a grad of Brooklyn Tech and Brooklyn College. I voted for Jumaane, whose career I’ve been following for years. Friends who live in central Brooklyn rave about him for his humanity, activism, and practical politics as one of the more effective City Councilmen. Just ask Eric, who was so gracious towards Jumaane – we might see them head to head in November. Lew Simon was outraged at the outcome and went on to attack fellow Democrat Jumaane Williams as not willing to stand up to de Blasio. Lew must have missed this headline in local papers: Jumaane Williams, a thorn for Bill de Blasio? The tenant activist turned Brooklyn councilman has become the public advocate - Bill de Blasio might be concerned.

Next week: Feeling the Bern(ie) at Brooklyn College.

Norm is a constant thorn at his blog at ednotesonline.com.