Union wins in WI struggle/ etc

Chicago Teachers Raise the Bar     The Chicago Teachers Union has done the seemingly impossible. At a time when teachers are pilloried in the press and attacked by Democrats and Republicans alike, Chicago teachers walked out for seven days in a strike that challenged every tenet of the corporate agenda for overhauling education.     Verizon Workers Queasy at Deal     Leaders of the Communications Workers and Electrical Workers (IBEW)announced a tentative agreement with Verizon, but some workers say it's far from what they deserve. They're planning to vote no.   South African Miners Win through Wildcats      South African miners won a dramatic pay increase, following a wave of strikes that spread to many gold and platinum mines. The strikes grew after a massacre by police took 34 lives. The struggle exposures fractures in South African society that won't heal soon. Wisconsin Anti-Union Bill Overturned in Court     Just an hour before teachers in Madison, Wisconsin, rallied in solidarity with Chicago teachers, they learned that their suit to overturn Governor Scott Walker's anti-union bill had won. The mood at the rally was "giddy," said Jim Cavanaugh, who was local central labor council president during last year's uprising. Casino Organizing Puts Union's 'Las Vegas Standard' to the Test   Mario Medina wore a union button for 2.5 hours before his Las Vegas employer, Station Casinos, fired him. He's one of a dozen fired in what the Culinary Union says is the biggest organizing drive underway.  Video: Michigan Unions Battle for Amendments to Defend Democracy, Collective Bargaining    Unions have fought to place two measures on the ballot. One would block emergency managers, the second would enshrine collective bargaining rights. Former Labor Notes writer Paul Abowd explains the union-backed initiatives facing Michigan voters this fall.   New Book from Labor Notes:  The Steward's Toolbox       The Steward's Toolbox: Skills and Strategies for Winning at Work is for activists eager for practical advice. Full of concrete examples of grievance tactics, contract campaigns, and coalition-building, its 55 chapters were written by shop floor leaders experienced in building active, democratic unions.  Their lessons will help you inspire members, make new allies, and kick-start your union. Order it here for $15. Help Push Labor Notes Forward Please consider making a contribution so we can continue to provide the kind of independent news and analysis about the labor movement that you'll find nowhere else.  Push us all forward with your tax-deductible gift today.

Chicago Teachers, the truth

Educators in Chicago made the hard decision to go on strike this Monday, September 10. They did not make this decision lightly as they knew it would cost them both in time away from their jobs but also it could possibly cost them the good will of parents and community members who follow the simplistic reporting on the strike which usually ignores the core reasons for the strike in the first place. This strike strikes a chord with many educators here in Des Moines and its not because we envy the chance to go on strike, which is a right we do not have in this state. The reason this strike will be closely watched by many educators in Des Moines and around the country is because what Chicago’s teachers have decided to stand up to and what they have decided to take a stand for.

This strike is NOT mainly about salaries and benefits, although that is what the enemies of unions would want you to believe, rather it is about striking for better teaching and learning environments in the schools of Chicago. The CTU and Chicago Public Schools were close enough in their negotiations on salary and benefits those issues alone would not have led to a strike. The Chicago Teachers Union is striking because it has decided to take a stand against some of the harmful reform ideas that are being pushed on our schools, especially urban schools.

The Chicago Public Schools,under the direction of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel, wants to start using new teacher evaluation systems that would largely evaluate teachers based on student standardized test scores. This commonly used tool of education “reformers” is harmful to students and strangles teachers because it overemphasizes teaching to a test, rote memorization, test drills, and cutting back on learning that isn’t directly related to the tests. There have been no studies that show tying teacher evaluations to student test scores actually improves student learning. There are plenty of studies that call into question the fairness of evaluating teachers using student test scores. Such studies frequently show that there is little to no real connection between student scores and teacher quality, at the most this reform might create teachers who are better at drilling for a test but not better at actually teaching students so they can learn. Teachers in Des Moines and around the country have been living under this cloud of accountability by sham measures now for many years and many of us have our fingers crossed that the CTU’s stand against this kind of harmful reform succeeds.

Chicago teachers are also striking, in part, to force the school district and the state to provide better teaching and learning environments. Many  of Chicago’s schools are not air conditioned and the CTU is asking the district to provide that in every Chicago school. Furthermore, the Chicago Public Schools and mayor are comfortable with the thought of allowing class sizes of up to 50 students, most of whom would be students living in poverty who have increased needs for individual help. The Chicago teachers are taking a stand for these students and asking for reasonable class sizes. Teachers in Des Moines and around the country are applauding the Chicago teachers for taking a stand for their children who have no one else to speak for them.

In the eyes of many teachers around the country this stand has been a long time coming. We are tired of having reforms pushed on us that we know do not improve student learning and attach importance to the wrong things. We are tired of teaching in environments that do not allow us to provide the individualized attention and time we know is necessary, especially for children of poverty. We are tired of being used by so-called reformers whose real intentions are to open up our public schools to corporations and private, for-profit groups who want to make quick bucks off our kids while losing the true spirit of public education in the process. We watch Chicago with fingers crossed that this time someone stands up to the ed “reform” bullies and fights back for our schools and ultimately for the good of our kids.

In Solidarity with the CTU,

Andrew Rasmussen

Des Moines Education Association President

> >Chicago Headed Toward First Teachers Strike in 25 Years

>
>CTU files 10-day strike notice with labor board; strike date has not been
>set
>
>CHICAGO - Today, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) filed a 10-day notice with
>the Illinois Education Labor Relations Board indicating more than 26,000
>public school teachers, clinicians and paraprofessionals may go on strike in
>coming days. The notice is a legal requirement defined by state law. No date
>for a strike has been set by Union leaders. The House of Delegates will meet
>Thursday at
>4:30 p.m. to talk next steps.
>
>Should CTU members call for a work stoppage, this will be the first
>"teachers' strike" in Chicago since 1987. "This is a difficult decision for
>all of us to make," said union President Karen Lewis.
>"But this is the only way to get the Board's attention and show them we are
>serious about getting a fair contract which will give our students the
>resources they deserve."
>
>"CPS seems determined to have a toxic relationship with its employees,"
>Lewis said. "They denied us our 4 percent raises when there was money in the
>budget to honor our agreement; they attempted to ram a poorly thought out
>longer school day down our throats; and, on top of that they want us to
>teach a new curriculum and be ready to be evaluated based on how well our
>students do on a standardized test.
>It has been insult after insult after insult. Enough is enough."
>
>CTU has been in contract negotiations with the Chicago Public Schools
>(CPS) since November 2011. Teachers have been without a contract since June
>of this year after its five-year agreement with the District expired without
>a new agreement in place. Labor leaders have said they are negotiating for
>a "better day, job security and fair compensation for employees."
>
>Labor talks have been productive on some fronts such as winning provisions
>for nursing mothers, ensuring textbooks will be available on day one,
>teachers will have access to functioning computers and counselors and social
>workers will have appropriate, private workspaces to serve students. But
>the bigger issues such as wages, job security and evaluations are on the
>table and the two sides remain far apart. "We will have a contract," Lewis
>said, "and it will come the easy way or the hard way. If our members are on
>the picket-line, we will still be at the negotiating table trying to hammer
>out an equitable agreement. There's a larger picture here."
>
>Teachers, paraprofessionals and school clinicians have been vocal in their
>opposition to CPS' draconian policies. In May, nearly 10,000 of them marched
>in downtown in preparation for a strike authorization vote which drew a 98
>percent approval from CTU membership. Only 1.82 percent of CTU members voted
>against authorizing a strike. Member angst was driven by CPS' overly
>aggressive push for a longer school day without indicating how the District
>would staff and pay for the program. Educators were angry that the Board
>made no commitments to offering students the much needed art, music,
>physical education and world language classes they needed.
>
>In July, and much to CPS' chagrin, a much anticipated "Fact Finder's
>Report" recommended, in part, that CPS's longer school day amounts to a
>19.4% increase on average that teachers will have to work, and he determined
>that CPS cannot expect its employees to work nearly 20% more for free or
>without fair compensation. Accordingly, the Fact-Finder's report recommends
>both a general wage increase and an additional increase due to the length of
>the school day: A general wage increase of 2.25% for School Year 2012 --
>essentially a cost of living increase -- without any changes to existing
>steps and lanes. He also recommends an additional increase of 12.6% to
>compensate teachers for working a longer school day and year representing a
>combined first-year increase of 14.85%, plus existing step and lane
>adjustments. Both the CTU and the Board rejected the findings.
>
>"We have chronic underfunding and misplaced priorities in the system,"
>said high school teacher Jen Johnson. "CPS would rather shut down schools
>rather than give them the resources they need. Thousands of students have
>been displaced by CPS' school actions. Teachers are losing their jobs and
>parents have no choice but to keep their child in an under-resourced
>neighborhood school or ship them off to a poor-performing charter
>operation."
>
>Lewis said members are also concerned about the Board's plan to close over
>100 neighborhood schools and create a half public-half charter school
>district. "This education crisis is real especially if you are Black or
>Brown in Chicago," she explained. "Whenever our students perform well on
>tests, CPS moves the bar higher, tells them they are failures and blames
>their teachers. Now they want to privatize public education and further
>disrupt our neighborhoods. We've seen public housing shut down, public
>health clinics, public libraries and now public schools. There is an attack
>on public institutions, many of which serve, low-income and working-class
>families."
>
>CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
>
>222 MERCHANDISE MART PLAZA, SUITE 400, CHICAGO, IL 60654
>
>T 312-329-9100 | F 312-329-6200

Meeting the Needs of Our Students' Futures

We started school with the kids on Thursday. I have been teaching for 36 years. I was a student at an urban school, and I have taught in a destitute Georgia school and rural schools in Illinois. I have never seen a more desperate time for my students' futures and more demand for preparation for their careers. What is particularly disconcerting is that we are not only woefully incapable to prepare them properly for the technology they will need in this new work environment, but that even if we did indeed have all the technology needed, it would be obsolete 2 years after they learn this.

Teachers are being cut. Schools are losing funds from their respective states. Administrators are walking are like basset hounds, fearing the next collection of bad financial news while demands are being made on their accountabilities. Where does it end?

The veteran that I am (and I intent to go for another 15 years) has been cynical about the changes proposed because states lose the philosophical fortitude for the long haul of following through on the new "ideas." This is different.

This change is sticking with us. I can tell you we in the western part of Illinois are feeling the urgency to do something substantive. We have no option. It is not about test scores, despite what we are being told by the state, and it never has or should be. It is about the realization that students can no longer say "I can just get a factory job and make good money" like they used to. There is no good option anymore outside of more and more post-secondary education.

What can fix this? I honestly believe that the move to charter/private schools is the exact wrong answer. The opposite is what we need--free education from pre-kindergarten through PhD. The A&R aspect instead of the immediate financial reward philosophy that has overtaken this country must be re-established. Do we have the will to do this? No, we don't in present form, but I think this is our only salvation.

We will miss Tom Wolfe greatly

DAVENPORT — Memorial funeral services to celebrate the life of Thomas A. Wolfe, 72, a resident of Davenport, will be 6 p.m. Monday, August 13, 2012, at the Halligan-McCabe-DeVries Funeral Home, Davenport. His family will greet friends at the funeral home prior to the service from 4 until 6 p.m. Honoring Tom’s wish, the rite of cremation has been accorded, and his cremains will be buried in St. Patrick’s Cemetery in Delmar, Iowa.
Tom passed away unexpectedly Saturday, August 4, 2012, at his home in Davenport. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Café on Vine.
Thomas Anthony Wolfe was born in Maquoketa, Iowa, on December 20, 1940. The son of Raymond Bernard Wolfe (1896-1941) and Gladys McGinn Wolfe (1903-1966), he was the great-grandson of Irish immigrants. The youngest of four, Tommy-as his sisters insisted on calling him-found himself deprived of a father as an infant and set free on not quite 200 acres of Clinton County farmland. As a result, he lived inside his imagination. He became his hero, Jackie Robinson, by throwing balls against the barn and scooping up grounders. He found stacks of freshly mown hay to be occasions for an intense kind of dreaming. “What I remember most about farm life,” he once wrote, “was an aching feeling of loneliness.”
Wolfe graduated from Delmar High School in 1958 and then, with support from an uncle, from St. Ambrose College, in nearby Davenport. He later earned a master’s degree in American history from Western Illinois University. Having decided to forego farm life, Wolfe began his teaching career in Blue Grass, Iowa, before moving down the road to Walcott, where he taught across the hall from Frances Cupp Wolfe, whom he married on August 1, 1964. The couple – a sometimes uneasy mixture of Irish and French ancestry – raised three children in Davenport, Bridget Colleen (b. 1967), Brendan Martin (b. 1971), and Sara Elizabeth (b. 1973). As the names suggest, Wolfe’s Irish side often prevailed, although he lovingly called his wife Françoise. She called him “the old goat,” only sometimes lovingly, and they managed until 1993, when they separated. Divorce followed soon after.
Until his retirement in 1997, Wolfe held court in a room at Walcott Junior High School (later middle school), mostly teaching American history. His great passion was for teaching, which took him back to the farm he never quite left: it was an exercise in imagination. A colleague remembers his closet full of hats. “He would put on a hat and act out various historical characters,” she recalled, and if on one occasion he actually tumbled from a windowsill during a performance, that made it only more memorable for his audience.
Wolfe’s other great passion was the teacher’s union. His wife, Fran, beat him to it, voting to strike on an occasion when he didn’t, and her zeal rubbed off on him. He served two terms as president of the Davenport Education Association, and was a near-annual delegate to assemblies of the state and national unions. For at least a decade, he served as Midwest regional director of the NEA’s Peace and Justice Caucus, and in 2012 the Iowa State Education Association presented him with its highest honor, the Charles F. Martin Award for Association Leadership. He accepted with a generous and very funny speech calling for an end to the bitter and unthinking partisanship of American politics.
Tom is survived by his sister, Margery; his former wife; his close friend, Nancy Porter, of Iowa City; his three children; and his three grandchildren. One imagines he has finally returned to the old Wolfe homestead in Clinton County, to the hay bales and reveries. “As long as I live,” he wrote, “I’ll associate freshly-mown hay with those dreams and yearnings, and I won’t know whether to be happy or sad.”
Online remembrances and condolences may be expressed to the family by visiting Wolfe’s obituary atwww.hmdfuneralhome.com.

American Plutocracy

Worker justice is unattainable if the worker has no rights within the workplace.  This seems so obvious when you stare at these words, but it seems that this concept escapes the majority of this country.  A strong voice with legal backing allows the 99% to bargain with the plutocracy when essential livelihood is at stake.  What happens when those rights are taken?  The greed of the plutocracy gets out of control, and poverty rises at a rate that is shocking.  That is what is happening in the United States, in Europe, and now it has creeped into a part of the world that seemed to be immune to such behavior:  Asia.

We Americans want a nice transformation to the ways of not living in fear of losing our house, our job, our comfort because of an economic collapse at the behest of our plutocracy.  The collapse of the 1920's was due to the manipulation of the Wall Street crowd who were reacting to the Teddy Roosevelt administration's handling of monopolies/trusts.  Franklin Roosevelt, a very wealthy man, came in and saw the direction this country was in, putting societal principles over the habits of the rich, turned this country around.  The rich were outraged, trying to cause a revolt against the American government by contacting General Smedley Bradley.  Bradley testified to Congress about the "Business Plot" and was ridiculed by the press.  Sound familiar?  The committee found evidence that he was indeed telling the truth, but no charges were filed.  Sound familiar?  The plutocracy has been plotting for years to obtain a stranglehold on this country and the world.  It is all falling into place.  They even have a television network that propagandizes their viewpoints to the under educated and have newspapers throughout the world to support these viewpoints.  This is all to our detriment.

Wars are fought in hopes of spreading their abilities to increase their wealth on the backs of the defeated.  The whole concept of Friedmanian economics is based upon this idea.  It was tried in Chile, and again in Iraq.  Create chaos to bring in a new financial system that favors the rich.  How is there a way to stop this?

The concept of the nice transformation is in danger.  As our rights get taken away by legislations such as The Patriot Act, we have been pretty silent on the losses of the First Amendment rights.  While Americans have been killed without a trial via the use of drone planes, we have lost our Sixth Amendment rights.  Some countries fight back.  France is always having strikes by workers.  Now Asian countries are experiencing riots in factories in which workers are being abused.  Here is an article about Suzuki in India.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/05/us-maruti-unrest-idUSBRE8740QM20120805

The last line in this article encapsulates the result of the plutocracy's rule:  "There is ill-will, there is bad feeling, there is hatred," she said. "If there is no justice and no transparency, there will be no peace... This will happen again."


I am not advocating for the American public to riot in the streets, but I am asking the American public to turn off the cable TV, put down the beer, and find a spine.  We are being crushed.  We are losing our rights.  We are losing our justice.  Let's get it back.  Stand up for yourself and not allow this plutocracy to beat us.

New Midwest Director Elected at 2012 RA

The Peace & Justice Caucus conducted its annual elections at this summer’s NEA Representative Assembly in Washington, D.C.   When I know the names of all the newly elected members, I’ll have them posted on this website, but the only significant changes were at the regional level.  The new director in the Midwest is Danielle Dickert from Caledonia, Wisconsin.

She is a delightfully bright and energetic young lady who will be a welcome addition to our caucus, and I am very glad to have her take over from me.  She is very busy now, so I have promised to give her time to ease her way into the job; ergo, you may hear from me again from time to time.  In the meantime, feel free to drop Dani a line and give her your ideas for improving our badly needed caucus.

Thanks again,

Tom Wolfe

Marines Aim to Counter Teachers' Opposition to Recruiting Students

Staff Sgt. James McFalin, a senior Marine Corps drill sergeant, gets a few laughs as
he talks about recruit training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego,
Calif., last week. Educators from the Los Angeles and Sacramento
areas spent four days at the base to experience some of what recruits go through.

by Tony Perry, and Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times (MCT) 

The bellowing from the drill instructors began as soon as the newcomers arrived.
"GET OFF THE BUS!" barked one D.I.

It's a ritual reenacted countless times since 1923, when young men first began coming to boot camp to see if they were tough enough to be Marines.

But last week's group was not composed of frightened young recruits.

Instead they were high school teachers, guidance counselors and administrators from school districts in the Los Angeles and Sacramento areas. All had accepted the Marine Corps' invitation to spend four days at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, watching the training and talking to recruits, enlisted Marines and senior officers.

“Afghanistan taught us an invaluable lesson . . . It has been and always will be impossible to solve political problems using force. We should have helped the people of Afghanistan in improving their life, but it was a gross mistake to send troops into the country.”

– Retired Red Army General Boris Gromov.


The success at the 2012 RA in DC is reflected by the Peace and Justice Caucus community on the passage of  NBI 81 which states we will advertise International DAY OF PEACE on September 21.  Peace Iowa is co sponsoring an event at the Coralville Public Library the entire month of September.  This event is called Windows to Mirrors, a reflection of the war in Afghanistan, and displays paintings and murals by Afghan children.  Everyone is invited to view works of art and learn about the organizations sponsoring the event the entire month of September.  Docents will be available and there is always need for more(training 9AM, Saturday, September 1). Iowa NEA Peace and Justice Caucus is one of the sponsors.  See www.windowsandmirrors.org for more information.


Thanks to all who attended summer conference!  Nancy

I am running for my first political office.  I turned 60 last week and have been evaluating where I am with my life up to this point.  I have written a number of blogs and have commentated on a number of issues for many years now.  While I should be looking to retire and going into another direction in my career, I find myself unable now to do this because of the financial conditions of our nation, of the state of Illinois, and of my household.  When I coached, I was often irritated by the ignorant comments of those in the stands since they did not really understand the game, the strategy, the rules of the game, and the conditions on the court/field.  I think it is time to get out of the stands and into the sausage-making process that is developing policy.

While I am running to become part of a small cog of a large political process, I find I have a lot of research and understanding to get to before I want to become an effective member of this Board.  So, I have been talking to a lot of conservatives, particularly now that the ACA has been upheld and their hairs are on fire.  This has been a very interesting week.

So, here are the arguments I've been hearing and why I am very concerned.  They truly believe that people in poverty deserve it.  I have always thought this was an exaggeration by the Left about the extremists on the Right, but I am finding this is not the case.  They truly believe that laziness is the driving force to this horrible state in humanity.  When Alan Grayson went onto the floor of the House and did his presentation of the GOP health care plan (http://www.vxv.com/video/mJoiG6IAUg2n/alan-grayson-on-the-gop-health-care-plan-don-t-get-sick-and-if-you-do-get-sick-die-quickly.html), he was not kidding.  I think it's safe to say that these guys are not pro-life, they are pro-wealth--period.  Let's not kid ourselves here.  If we want justice for all Americans, we need to come to this realization:  we are not dealing with pro-life people.  We are not dealing with moralists.  We are not dealing with problem solvers.  We are dealing with the ugliest form of political force.  I have railed against money and its ugly influence on our lives when dealing with religion, health care, and peace.  I think it is safe to say that it permeates every aspect of our decisions.

The challenge I have, should I get elected, is to make sure that I stand up for the right choices when weighing all of the factors separately.  We can't get things done if the money is not there.  However, I can not in good conscience agree to a decision between a moral choice and a financial choice if the financial choice means crushing the moral choice (e.g. the many times we hear about an insurance company deny a young patient treatment because it hurts the bottom line).  I hope I never become so cynical in choices that I end up doing something so horrible.