ADVICE FROM CHICAGO

There is an opinion piece from In These Times written by Jackson Potter, a Chicago Teachers Union activist who was one of the founders of the dissident CORE caucus that won power in the CTU in 2010. The title is "What Other Unions Can Learn from the Historic Gains We Won in the Chicago Teachers Strike." Potter analyzes the strike and then he offers important advice for unions, including having us work with other unions to achieve broad goals.

Some highlights:
On top of winning new funding streams, our broader social justice demands built upon victories in the recent Los Angeles teacher strike, as well as Boston’s teacher contract campaign that won language on class size restrictions. In no small way, the 2019 CTU strike was connected to a rising movement of teachers nationally that has fundamentally altered the political and labor landscape in the United States. 

When we struck in 2012, the action was largely defensive in nature and came on the heels of Scott Walker’s attack on collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin. This year’s strike represented a move into offense—beyond efforts to stop school closings, vouchers, bankruptcies, pension liquidation or state take-overs. Instead, we’ve added about 750 new positions into our schools, staffing that will dramatically increase investments into our classrooms for the first time in decades.

Later, Jackson offers some advice:
One of the keys to our victory was labor solidarity. Chicago teachers struck alongside the 7,000 school employees in SEIU Local 73, which did not occur in 2012. These school workers also won large-scale victories in their contract, and by standing with us on the picket lines, they showed the power of true collective action.  

The victories in our strike built upon years-long efforts to bring Chicago charter school teachers into the CTU, aligning 11 charter school contracts. This strategic choice led to the first charter school strikes in the nation’s history, and won provisions on class-size and sanctuary schools that set the stage to win them throughout the district.

To win more, we teachers should consider partnering with private sector union struggles. Imagine if we had been able to join forces with the United Auto Workers in their labor struggle with GM, or coordinated with warehouse workers to shut down the region’s supply chains? Such an approach could help build the social power necessary to advance a set of regional worker demands to significantly alter the political and economic landscape for all workers. 

I have been calling for unions to combine our forces since 2005. It is the best way forward.

Potter's conclusion:
Throughout history, social movement struggles have always been protracted. It’s taken three contract cycles for the CTU to turn back nearly 40 years of attacks on our public schools. It’s a shift made possible through strike action coupled with a burgeoning national teachers movement—and taking risks to lift up working-class demands that go far beyond traditional collective bargaining.   

We won't turn things around in NYC in a flash either.  The UFT is still not even close to being part of the national militancy movement of teachers. However, the situation in NYC won't improve at all in NYC without a union or with an even smaller and weaker one. It's up to us to fix our union.