Written and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!
Longtime
teachers’ union president Jerry Jordan will hold on to his leadership
post after fending off a challenge from an increasingly vocal and
consequential caucus within the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers... Philadelphia Inquirer
The trend within teacher unions for more militant action bodes well
for WE and caucuses like it. But in Philadelphia at least, it’s delayed
by four years.... Mike Antonucci, Intercepts
March 3, 2020 - 4PM I'm watching a live feed on FB of Nancy Pelosi on the education bill with Randi standing next to her. Standing with them is newly elected Philly union president Jerry Jordan who just defeated the left WE caucus in the election last week. Hmmm. No Alex Caputo-Pearl who led a successful strike as president of the UTLA and was just elected VP after yielding to Cecily Myart-Cruz has been elected president of UTLA, the first biracial Black woman elected to lead the union in its 50-year history. UTLA, the 2nd largest union in the AFT after the UFT. Or Jessy Sharkey, president of the Chicago TU, the third largest local which was leaning Bernie but due to some Warren support did not endorse? (Randi endorsed Warren over the weekend- a political play since Mulgrew is running as a Biden delegate and we know they are on the same page. In other words, I see this as a shot at the left. (I wonder if WE pushed for an endorsement of Bernie as we saw MORE members under the guise of Labor for Bernie do in the UFT?)
I remember at the 2014 AFT convention in LA, a workshop was set up for Alex Caputo-Pearl and then Chicago union president Karen Lewis to discuss progressive unionism and Randi forced them to include Mulgrew and Jerry Jordan as part of the panel. I taped it but never published that very interesting debate. Alex and Karen were bulldozed by Randi.
Since I always look for conspiracy theories I see the Jordan presence as a slam at the left by Randi.
Anyway, here is some info on what happened in Philly where WE (Caucus of Working Educators) ran its 2nd campaign and doubled their vote from last time. I got to know WE people years ago when we hung out with them in LA before they were even a caucus and they were strong social justice people but with a real feel for the members. I liked a lot of them.
WE is affiliated with rising left wing opposition in the AFT through UCORE where elections were won in Baltimore recently - see my report: Why Can't MORE B more like BMORE? - Radical Teachers’ Movement Comes to Baltimore where I contrasted these rising movements with the failures of MORE in NYC. Look at the WE platform as described in the Inquirer story for an explanation.
The progressive group’s platform centered on empowering PFT members to
have more of a say in the operation of their union, and on holding open
contract negotiations with the district. It promised to fight for
higher wages for paraprofessionals, better environmental conditions,
and smaller class sizes. WE members have criticized the current PFT
regime as too bureaucratic and slow to respond to members’ concerns,
and not active enough on issues of social justice.
Last time WE focused on social justice - note the concentration on bread and butter. MORE fundamentally ignores the day to day issues UFT members face. MORE, by the way, ran a fundraiser for WE a few weeks ago. Look at the excellent WE web site: https://www.workingeducators.org/
And it is pretty interesting that WE, which was inspired by MORE in 2015 to form a caucus got almost 40% of the vote in its second run for office while MORE was destroyed in the 2019 UFT elections in its third run for office. [I have lots to say about why but will have to do that another time.] I believe if the undemocratic socialists hadn't blown up MORE we would have been able to push into the one third range by running a strong united front campaign. But that game is over for a long time.
Here is a fairly sympathetic article towards WE in the Inquirer and a more skeptical article by the right wing Mike Antonucci. I land somewhere between the two because Jerry Jordan is a weak union leader and Philly teachers have been slammed and he still got 62% of the vote. The turnout was tremendous - 60%, up from 44% in the last election in 2016, which accounts for the doubling of the WE vote from last time.
Compare that to the meager turnout in UFT elections - half that or less.
Still, 62% is not insignificant but we've always maintained that it is within striking range and if WE keeps organizing and doesn't make the same mistakes as MORE they may be serious contenders in 4 years. Or not, given the methods the UFT-like machines use to maintain control --- see above for Jerry Jordan appearance on the stage with Randi and Pelosi.
Philadelphia teachers’ union president Jerry Jordan fends off challengers, but progressives make gains
Longtime teachers’ union president Jerry Jordan will hold on to his leadership post after fending off a challenge from an increasingly vocal and consequential caucus within the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.
The results are especially weighty given the PFT’s outsized role in the city’s political landscape. The union plays a crucial oversight role in the Philadelphia School District’s unfolding asbestos crisis, and it is negotiating the first contract since the union won back the right to strike with the district returning to local control in 2018.
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Jordan’s slate, known as the Collective Bargaining Team, appeared to win 62% of the vote, with the early tally 4,453 to 2,761. Split-ticket votes have not yet been counted, but the early results made clear that most of the union’s 13,000 members favored Jordan’s steady hand, track record, and collaborative working style.
Jordan, who has led the PFT since 2007 and has worked for the union full time since 1987, said he was “delighted” by the results, which came on his 71st birthday.
"Our nearly 13,000 members are passionate, dedicated, and engaged, and working with them daily is one of the great honors of my life,” Jordan said in a statement. “The campaign was spirited, and it allowed us the opportunity to organize around a vision for public education that resonated with our membership.”
Nearly 60% of the PFT’s 13,000 teachers, counselors, nurses, secretaries, and paraprofessional workers cast ballots, up from 46% in 2016, the first time WE opposed Jordan’s leadership.
The Caucus of Working Educators, whose slate was topped by Kathleen Melville, a teacher at the Workshop School, a high school in West Philadelphia, made a stronger showing than it did in 2016, the last time it challenged Jordan’s leadership.
The progressive group’s platform centered on empowering PFT members to have more of a say in the operation of their union, and on holding open contract negotiations with the district. It promised to fight for higher wages for paraprofessionals, better environmental conditions, and smaller class sizes. WE members have criticized the current PFT regime as too bureaucratic and slow to respond to members’ concerns, and not active enough on issues of social justice.
WE, part of a wave of young people turning to organized labor as a way to make change, comes out of a tradition of the rank-and-file educators who have taken over unions in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Baltimore. These are cities where union leaders have taken their members on massive, high-profile strikes — with significant public support — that reminded the country that unions are still a force to be reckoned with.
The Caucus of Working Educators’ campaign is part of a trend of rank-and-file challenges to the union establishment, as legacy unions have languished around the country. Union members — from journalists to UPS package handlers to truck drivers — have challenged veteran leadership, which they accuse of being too complacent and too cozy with management to fight for workers.
Melville, 37, congratulated Jordan and his team and said in a statement that WE looked forward “to continuing to push for a more engaged and empowered PFT membership together.”
The caucus’ stronger showing, she said, made it plain that “Working Educators’ vision has resonated with thousands of educators across the city."
Jordan, in an interview, said WE’s campaign “was a very serious challenge," but said that its platform “was very similar to the platform my caucus had” — focused on working conditions and meaningful wage increases.
WE members’ views will certainly have a place during negotiations, said Jordan, adding that so far only a few bargaining sessions have been held. The PFT president expects that the pace of talks will now accelerate.
So far, Jordan said, the talks have been “very professional.”
On the heels of this story
about a long-time incumbent union president being challenged by some
members of his rank-and-file comes the election for officers of the
Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.
Jerry Jordan has been president of PFT since 2007, but he faced
strongly organized opposition from Kathleen Melville and her Caucus of
Working Educators (WE).
WE wants to reverse PFT’s decline. It claims that membership has shrunk by 40%, from 21,000 to 13,000.
Turnout was high for a union election, with more than half of
eligible members casting ballots. The final results have not yet been
certified, but Jordan emerged as the clear winner, with somewhere between 60-66% of the vote.
The outcome was bittersweet for WE, which more than doubled its vote
totals from four years ago and emerged as a force to be reckoned with.
However, even as the caucus improved turnout, it couldn’t cobble
together something closer to a majority.
WE is similar to other opposition caucuses throughout American Federation of Teachers affiliates in that it wants a more muscular approach to collective bargaining and a social justice focus.
The caucus has received credit for demanding open contract
negotiations, instead of the closed-door bargaining between district and
union officers that is standard practice throughout the U.S.
But a closer look reveals that WE’s call for openness extends only to
more members of the PFT. The caucus wants one member from each school
to be present at the table, not the public.
The trend within teacher unions for more militant action bodes well
for WE and caucuses like it. But in Philadelphia at least, it’s delayed
by four years.
Mike's last comment is ridiculous. What does he mean that the public should be at the table? Unions are not public agencies. Let the city bring in the public if it wants.
From WE Caucus, MORE's sister group in Philly. Their first election attempt was enough to scare Randi to intervene to prop up the old leadership. I remember sitting around a table in a bar in Chicago with some of these folks a few years ago and they were basically asking what is a caucus and how do you form one. This past summer we got to meet with them and other progressive caucuses in Newark.
Here’s a question we have been asked more than once since this election started:
Why did we decide to run for PFT leadership?
We didn’t do it for the money, or the recognition, or the office on Chestnut street. We did it because we want the PFT to be stronger, and this work was the best way to make that happen.
To be clear, we organized to win this election -- and we're
excited to get the results. But our campaign was about so much more
than just asking for votes. We believe that the true power of our union
lies with the rank and file, so we seized this unprecedented opportunity
to connect with educators across the district. Whether it was in
schools, on the phone, or online, we got people talking and we listened
to what they had to say. Here’s just a few things we learned:
Teachers want direct influence at the bargaining table. Educators
told us that they want to fight for back pay owed to them after years
of frozen salaries. We included that in our platform, which jump started
an overdue citywide conversation about what the rank and file wants our
leadership to fight for.
Schools are like islands -- but they don’t have to be. We
visited every school in the district, and hosted events at half of
them. Educators who had never met before suddenly got a chance to sit
down, share ideas, and build a common vision for Philadelphia’s schools.
Our union infrastructure can be so much stronger. We
visited an alarming number of buildings that had no active building
committee, and sometimes not even a building representative. This can
easily be turned around with basic union training and support.
These lessons directly influenced our election campaign as
well as our plans for the future. Here’s a preview of the next phases of
our work:
A One PFT Campaign to help increase unity among members both within and across buildings.
A series of Building Power Trainings that will help rank and file members chart a course to activate and strengthen their school building committees.
A Summer Organizing Institute to provide
educators with a crash course version of everything we have learned over
the last year, in Philadelphia and from unions around the country. And
the return of our Summer Reading Groups as well!
So where’s the election results? We will share them as soon as they are made official on Wednesday, 2/24. After that, the Caucus of Working Educators will be moving forward with our work -- no matter the results of the vote.
If you’re not yet a member, join us today and support the work. Watch your inbox for announcements about upcoming events. And by all means, come celebrate with us on Saturday, February 27th at our Election Party -- for everything we have accomplished together, and everything that we will achieve in the future.
This wonderful video is just another reason why MORE's love our colleagues in Philly in Caucus of Working Educators, a social justice caucus challenging the Randi-supported leadership of the union. In a very short time as a caucus, which grew out of connection to our local NYCORE, they have built a caucus with wide outreach. We will know just how far they have reached after the election next month. The current leadership has been stewards of the almost total destruction of the public school system in Philly. The result might not be different but WE will put up a fight like in Chicago.
Members of the Caucus of Working Educators of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT) answer the question "Who are WE?" For more information http://www.workingeducators.org/
WE members attended and spoke at the MORE October 24 conference. The 2 year old caucus is challenging the current union leadership in Philadelphia and might have a real chance to knock off yet another pro-Randi AFT local.
NOTE: DeRay Mckesson used to work for TFA before becoming one of the spokespersons for #BlackLivesMatter. Is this political naivete or a slick attempt to further legitimize ed privateers' policies of racist miseducation while reaping profits from public funds?-- SEA
Dear Mr. DeRay Mckesson,
As the social justice caucus within the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, we were surprised to see that you are coming to Philadelphia to speak alongside leaders of Teach for America (TFA). The Caucus of Working Educators (WE) is committed to racial justice in our schools and society, and we stand in solidarity with the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
We see Teach for America as working in opposition to the goals of publicly funded education for all students in Philadelphia and to the goal of increasing the number of teachers of color and teachers who are committed to building relationships with communities over the long term, which we see as an integral component of culturally responsive teaching. We view the hiring of cadres of racial, cultural, and geographical outsiders with very little teaching preparation as part of a larger neoliberal effort to privatize education and replace unionized teachers (many of whom are teachers of color) with young, inexperienced teachers (most of whom are white and do not intend to stay in the teaching profession and commit to the long-term improvement of their teaching practice).
This practice of displacing African American teachers, in particular, is already underway. While Philadelphia’s teaching force increased by 13 percent from 2001-2011, the percentage of Black teachers dropped by 19 percent. This has contributed to Philadelphia having the greatest disparity between the race and ethnicity of the student body and those who teach them. Only 31 percent of Philadelphia teachers are of color compared to 86 percent of the student body they are teaching. This is unacceptable.
TFA has ties and parallels with the charter school movement, which we see as undercutting public education. The mass charterization of public neighborhood schools has led to the outsourcing of public school management to private operators. Just weeks ago Philadelphia Public Schools announced yet another wave of school closures and conversions of public schools into charter schools affecting upwards of 5000 students. This is in addition to the 23 public schools that were closed in Philadelphia in 2013.
The decision to turn a district school into a charter is often made by the highest levels of administration without consulting with the school community, including parents, teachers, students, and leaders. Your support of Teach for America represents a support of these same kinds of outsourced and contracted paradigms for educating our children. Rather than hiring experienced professionals that will stay in the profession for a long period of time, Teach for America hires individuals with little or no experience in classroom settings via external channels such as private universities and corporately sponsored recruitment. Teach for America and charter schools both represent a failure of public leadership to lead and create change in our public schools, and prioritize outsourcing teaching and school governance over public responsibility to realize every student’s right to a fully funded, culturally relevant, education in their neighborhood.
Instead, TFA contributes to the dangerous and misleading discourse that claims poverty and structural inequality have little to no impact on educational outcomes. This irresponsible explanation provides Democrats and Republicans alike with a pretext to continue vicious budget cuts to public services and institutions under the guise that “personal responsibility” and “grit” are the main factors in determining a child’s success or failure.
We live and work in state that has the largest funding disparity between wealthy and poor districts and in a city whose externally appointed school governance commission is proposing to continue to close down schools that primarily serve low-income African American families. In Philadelphia where 79 percent of the city’s students are Black and Latino, $9,299 is spent per pupil compared to the $17, 261 spent just across the city line in Lower Merion where 91 percent of the students are white. This is the civil rights crisis of our generation.
In this context, we believe that it is essential that those who are committed to racial justice take a critical stance against organizations that aim to further privatize education and/or replace fully prepared unionized teachers with underprepared novices who are likely to leave the teaching profession in two to three years.
The Black Lives Matter movement has served as an inspiration and instruction on how to confront racism and inequality throughout our country. Part of that inspiration is the way that the movement has looked at the connections between police violence and racism and other inequalities faced by African Americans. We consider the attacks on public education to be a part of the “state-sanctioned violence” that the movement has done so much to highlight over the last year. We do not believe that the white billionaires that bankroll Teach for America and the corporate education “reform” movement are any more interested in the education of poor and working class Black and Latino children than we believe they are interested in ending police violence in Black and Brown communities. If they were, these crises would no longer exist.
We are glad that you are visiting Philadelphia, and we hope that you will use your platform to engage in a critical dialogue about whether TFA supports – or as we believe undercuts – the goals of a fully funded education for every student in Philadelphia with teachers who know their community and are committed to staying for the long haul.
