You can take our unions, but not our unity!

For the National Day of blogging “Why Teachers Like Us Need Unions” http://www.edusolidarity.org

DISCLAIMER: This blog was written quickly, right before bedtime, after one of “those” days. Please know that I did not edit my work.

Teaching in Wisconsin, over the past 5 weeks or so, I have witnessed something amazing. Also, I have heard and read many eloquent words about why we need unions and how they are good for our public school systems. I thought that I wouldn’t have anything to add. Everything has already been said so well… and it didn’t seemed to matter – at least to our governor.

I do have some unique experiences however. I have worked in schools in urban areas and suburban areas, in great quality schools and very poor quality schools, in quiet, relatively monocultural neighborhoods, and dangerous neighborhoods where announcements were made at the end of the day that “students should walk straight home without stopping” because bullets were flying in the neighborhood.  I fully understand the desire to fix our failing schools. I am skeptical, however, of politicians trying to change our school systems.

Why do I support unions? I met teachers in Oakland, California who lost their jobs for participating in the political process of trying to improve the school system, especially for urban students of color.

I am only in my fourth year of teaching. To be totally honest, I never much thought that unions were necessary until we’d just about lost ours. I don’t think this is uncommon among younger teachers – and younger workers in general. We had an apathetic belief that unions were no longer necessary – that fights had been won and were no longer relevant. I didn’t know how precarious our rights were.

There are many reasons teachers need to be in unions. See the picture I’ve posted about what collective bargaining means to teachers. Our unions quickly conceded on the issue of contributing to pensions and healthcare. None of us as teachers were happy about that. I remember talking a couple months ago with a coworker about how our Governor-elect wanted us to contribute more to our pensions. Our response was “Well, we’d better get paid more then.” We don’t go into the job for the money, but we do appreciate the decent benefits that offset the lack of pay for the skills, education, and job performance we exhibit.

The most important reason teachers need unions is so that we have a voice in education. This is especially important at this time with increasing charters and other routes to privatization, testing, and absurd accountability measures and unfunded mandates. Even if this bill becomes a law, we will still have our unions. We will not stop unionizing and fighting for what’s right in public education. What’s right is that people who are directly involved – teachers, students, and parents – be the ones who decide how education will look in their community.