University Council for Education Administration Review, 2019; 60(2), 20-22
When I think about the recent successes of the demonstrations in West Virginia (twice), Arizona, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Colorado, North Carolina, and more recently Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago and Oakland, I feel both a sense of encouragement and caution.
For me, examining anything objectively or without bias is an impossibility, as we are all impacted by our prior experiences and base of information we have. That said, though I am a union president of a large local in southern New Jersey, and an affiliate of one of the most powerful state teacher unions in the country, the New Jersey Education Association, I was a Black man living in America and impacted by all the realities it entails long before being elected to my current post. Further, the way I see teachers unions is through the lens of an activist: socialist Black man first, and then as a Camden resident where the average household income is $24,000 and 80% of our children grow up at or below economic poverty levels. Where, without hyperbole, things most Americans take for granted such as a warm meal, access to quality healthcare, a roof over our heads, for too many of my neighbors and everyone in like economically distressed communities, are not givens. Third, I interpret teacher unions through the perspective of someone who, before my presidency, had no interest in teacher unionism, despite being an avid supporter of union ideals: collective struggle for collective progress; for the one to thrive, everyone must thrive. It only was after reading Weiner’s (2012) The Future of our Schools: Teacher Unions and Social Justice that I was provided a framework and vocabulary to describe what I viewed as an apparent disconnect from our union leadership and the wishes of the membership. Our local union belonged to the members—not the leadership. Local teachers unions were perfectly positioned to take up social justice causes that can improve lives of all citizens, not just causes that benefit educators. Local teachers unions had to be honest about their failure to address racial issues in both the past and the present. Further, Weiner’s work made me more aware of the broad shortcomings in true teacher union activism and partnership with other non-educators and community members experiencing similar occupational and civic exploitation and marginalization.
That stated, I am encouraged that rank-and-file educators including support staff are beginning to say, essentially, “F*** it, we’ve had enough and aren’t going to wait for the higher ups, whether it be milquetoast lawmakers or acquiescing local leaders, to grow a spine and fight for us.” Rank-and-file union members realize that no fight for professional and democratic liberation or freedom will be directed or initiated by those occupying positions of comfort. To be sure, I am asserting, unequivocally, that one’s place of comfort and one’s willingness and sense of urgency to struggle for genuine and meaningful activism are inversely proportional; that the more comfortable one is, the less impetus one has for upsetting the source of the comfort. The everyday educators and school staff participating in such contemporary demonstrations understand there likely would be very little substantive help coming from national leaders in the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association, but more likely empty lip service, if that at all. (These two organizations’ early support for Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy in 2016, despite widespread concerns from educators, exposed a stark differentiation in values; Karni, 2015; Moser, 2015).
Moreover, before any fight, win or lose, participants must be willing to risk losing something in hopes of gaining something more significant. Here I would suggest that not being part of such a traditionally tightly structured, hierarchical teachers union among red, right-to-work states helped fuel recent educator activism and participation in a way that likely would be discouraged within traditional corporate union mechanics. Such expressions of unity and power by the masses, the educational proletariat, and not a central figure, challenge if not threaten autocratic leaders’ conceptions of their utility. The current wave of educator strikes and civil disobedience illustrates that masses of local educators understand that activated power rests in their own collective unity, not in that of a union president or hierarchical union structure (O’Neal, 2018). Essentially, this current collective of educators were, and still are, tired of being treated with disdain; compensated poorly; taken for granted by lawmakers in their localities; as well as pilloried by national education think tanks, billionaire philanthropists, and education privatizers. And in return, today’s educators throughout the country are willing to risk it all, together, for all to benefit, and that alone is a beautiful thing.
At the same time, my caution “light” flashes in my mind that we properly contextualize what we are witnessing. We ought not rush to generalize these events in both red and blue states, right-to-work and heavily unionized regions in America and take away that for teachers unions to fight for better wages and working conditions, and fairer treatment from politicians, striking and storming state houses is the template for success in our respective resistance efforts. Context, time, and environment matter. In blue New Jersey, for instance, teachers are paid relatively well. Despite paying more toward our health benefits and pensions than ever before, comparatively speaking, New Jersey teachers get paid pretty well, with the median salary at $66,000 and average educator salary at $76,000—both well above the median and average salaries 22 • UCEA Review • Summer 2019 www.ucea.org of working Americans, including educators. Thus, complaints about salary and healthcare in one of the highest taxed states would come across to our state’s residents as extraordinarily tone deaf. And in Camden where I live and work, where the average teacher salary is $65,000, though we are currently in negotiations for a new contract, us taking to the streets in protest for a higher salary, in the midst of such stark economic poverty, would be not only tone-deaf, but also insensitive to the needs and struggles of our local constituency (Benson, 2017).
This is where voids of teacher union ally-ship are so apparent. Why aren’t teacher unions, writ large, where power is traditionally hierarchical meaningfully standing shoulder to shoulder with movements that impact other marginalized populations like #BlackLivesMatter? Dreamers for DACA? And other loosely organized groups experiencing exploitation in low-wage jobs, folks experiencing housing insecurity as a means to fight for the common good and justice and in the process, change the narrative of greedy, self-serving teachers unions, and expanding our power base in the process?
The supposed fragmentation of interests among advocacy groups weakens all of our standings. The success of future educator-led demonstrations relies on each educator having each other’s backs, and here in New Jersey, and my local, our success will never be absent our unity with our surrounding community. Perhaps what we can learn from these other states and cities where educators are revolting is that our strength depends on our willingness to risk our comfort and unite with others who are experiencing struggle and supporting one another in it, and through it, for the betterment of all—the essence of unionism to begin with.
