The Day My Union Died

As I cruise around L.A., his eyes follow me. He's in my face when I stop for a coffee or pull up at an ATM. This blond, 30-something, smiling white dude on the ubiquitous billboards looks like he might have sold sub-prime mortgages and enjoyed it. In his hound's-tooth suit and bow tie, I'm pretty sure he fights tax cuts for the rich, and above his head I read these words:

Hiring dropouts is just good business. Honestly who else would work that cheap?

Below his beaming face, I read:

High School Dropouts make 42% less money.
Stay in school.

But on May 15, 2009, I planned to do just the opposite. I was going to stay out of school for just one day, for the work stoppage. I planned to join my fellow United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) union members; we'd voted to picket outside our respective schools to protest the proposed layoffs of 5,100 of our colleagues, 2,500 of whom are teachers, who have received pink slips for the next school year.

UTLA, the second largest teachers union in the country, called this action weeks in advance. I gave my students plenty of notice. I explained it all to them -- that our strike wasn't about us teachers asking for better health care or more money.

I explained that we were protesting Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Ramon Cortines's decision to hold back as much as $167 of the $554 million dollars of federal stimulus funds the LAUSD received until the 2010-2011 school year instead of spending that money next year.

This is the LAUSD which dumped $400 million on the Belmont Learning Center, a new high school that was built, then demolished, then rebuilt on a toxic waste site. The same LAUSD that dolled out $186 million taxpayer dollars to outside consultants in 2006-2007. The same district that paid $95 million dollars for a new payroll system that caused chaos with teachers' paychecks for two years. This same district that has assured us that our 9th and 11th grade English classes of 20 (mandated by law) will next year be ballooning to 35 to 38. Our classes of 35 will mushroom to 42 or more.

At Venice High School where I teach English, 55% of our students drop out. If LAUSD fires teachers, APs, deans, college counselors, and librarians, and axes arts and vocational programs, those dropout numbers are likely to soar, sending undereducated teens into a national job market that's losing more than 15,000 jobs a day.

So that's what I planned to march in protest of on May 15.

On May 12, a judge granted the LAUSD a restraining order, forbidding UTLA to strike.

When I heard the news, I knew we were in for a fight, and I was ready to stand up for what I know is right. Sure we were threatened with a fine of a thousand dollars and loss of our credentials if we chose to fight against these layoffs, to challenge Cortines' decision to hold on to the stimulus money, but if we weren't willing to stand up for our rights, we'd never have any.

So I was ready for UTLA leadership to come back to ask for our vote, ready to support them in storming into court to appeal the injunction, ready to stand in solidarity with my fellow teachers. And I was eager to see how many others were.

Instead, none of that happened. Our leadership simply caved. They called off the strike.

And my union died.

For as any middle or high school kid could tell you, if you challenge someone to a fight, you'd better show up.

On Friday, May 15, 39 of UTLA's 48,000 members, at least one of whom had been responsible for calling off the strike, defied the court order and were arrested for sitting in an intersection near LAUSD headquarters. That same day hundreds of teachers called in sick. Others marched legally outside their school sites before school, but when the school bell rang, they timidly entered their classrooms so as not to defy the court order.

I taught that day. I taught and felt despair that boomeranged around my school in a thousand directions -- despair for my fellow teachers, the young, energetic ones who are who are being fired and will never return to the LAUSD, despair for my students whose classrooms are too large and growing larger, despair for my fellow union members whose leadership failed us.

I couldn't think about much else that day, and that night I turned on the local TV news to measure the impact of UTLA's actions on the city.

The third story on the local news that night was an LAPD interview of a suspect not guilty of kidnapping.

The fifth story was about how our city's commuter trains soon will be equipped with on-line cameras.

I was falling asleep, but I waited, and finally the 10th story, 48 seconds long, was about 39 teachers sitting in an intersection and being arrested for blocking traffic.

Now Superintendent Cortines -- puffed up with success -- has implied that he'd keep most of the pink-slipped employees in their jobs -- that is if the rest of us agree to accept furlough days. That's a fancy name for working for free.

And tonight, May 19, 2009, the tax-raising propositions that Governor Schwarzenegger begged and bullied us to vote for, went down in a crushing defeat. Surely, he'll now move to what he's been hinting at, that he'll move to cut the school year and teachers' pay by one week.

So come fall when UTLA teachers are complaining about the chaos and exhaustion that accompany their overcrowded classrooms, we union members will have to remember that when it came time to stand up for our students, we stood down.

By not appealing the injunction or striking in the face of it, we have insured that tens of thousands of our students will one day come under the spell of that smiling guy on the billboard -- the man eager to hire what LAUSD produces best -- high school dropouts.

Comments

[vpapabear46]

Danzinger is right to criticize the current UTLA Leadership for its failure to make an effective attack on the anti-public education policies that dominate our state. But he is wrong about the effectiveness of a one-day strike. Even if the proposed one-day strike had been legal it would not have "convinced" Cortines and the Board that UTLA opposes their lay-offs and negative budget; Ray already knew that. All a one-day strike would have done was cost every participating teacher 1/2 of one percent of their salary. The real problem is not in Los Angeles, it is with the ultimate school board in Sacramento. The current UTLA Leadership should have been pushing, for the past two years as economic strom clouds gathered, for a statewide strike led by the CTA and CFT, UTLA's two statewide affiliates. Current state policies are destroying not only the LAUSD, but K-12 education, and California's once great system of a low cost university education for all those who want one. California needs to modify Prop. 13, and re-establish a tax policy that will make it posssible for the state to pay for the public services our citizens demand. Strikes are not easy to organize or on those who take part, I know, I was on strike against the LAUSD in 1970 and 1989. A one-day strike is NOT a strike; it is a feel good activity that has absolutely no effect on public policy.

John Perez

[Dennis Danziger - Huffpost Blogger]

Hi Mr. Perez, And we, UTLA, didn't strike, even for one day, and within days of our non-action, the state canceled most summer school class which particularly hurt poor elementary school kids who without summer classes, will do what? Sit home and play video games. In addition the loss of summer school, means fewer teaching jobs. It's a $34 million cut. Most of which would go to pay teacher salaries. You say "a one-day strike is NOT a strike...a­nd has absolutely no effect on public policy." I'd say doing nothing gives the governor and the District the power to do anything they want, anytime they want because they know they'll meet know resistance from the union.

[avalonsensei]

So instead, we did nothing, and things got......w­orse. You know, if we are going down in flames, at least we could have made one last stand. Let there be no doubt of the collusion between the forces that be (L.A. Times, Jason Song, School Board) to malign the members of our profession and to systematically dismantle public education. We are rapidly losing our right to protest injustices and grave errors in judgement. "Ray" decides he will cut thousands of teachers and threatens to resign if he doesn't get his way. At least he has an option. What options do our students have? None. So in these negotiations, the teachers can't strike, but "Ray" can threaten to quit. Sorry, I fully concur with Danziger on this one.

[lavendarpearls]

I have been a union member since I was 15 years old. My entire family are union activistis. Through out my life time I have been in out of various union depending on my employer. Here at LAUSD the UTLA House of Representatives voted against the one-day strike because it is illegal, contractual language exists between LAUSD & UTLA prohibiting a strike, and under California's EDD codes if you walk off the job it is viewed as a self termination. The employer, LAUSD, or anyone else has the option of letting you go or allowing you to return to your position. If LAUSD did not take back those who would have striked you would not be able to collect unemployment benefits because you walked off the job.

Also keep in mind that California's deficit goes back to when Gov Deukmejian was in office. If I operated in the red like our Golden State I would be put in jail. There is no money and the teachers who received a registered letter stating that in June 2009 their employment is terminated do not have a clear teaching credential. The Teaching Commission relaxed their standards and has allowed individuals to work in our schools without a credential, take classes in the District's BTSA Program working toward their credental, and receive a salary and full benefits.

UTLA President has refused with this present LAUSD Superintendent and the last two: Roy Romer and David Brewer -- why?

[Dennis Danziger - Huffpost Blogger]

When a union...in this case UTLA...enc­ourages a strike...t­akes a strike vote...get­s a 75% approval..­.they'd better darn well strike else they lose all face and credibilit­y...which is exactly what happened..­...The union reps at my school told us what the consequences were if we walked out...We knew what was on the line...We knew we could be fine or fired. And do you seriously think if a major portion of the 20,000+ teachers who voted to stage a strike, walked off the job for one day, the LAUSD would fire 20,000 teachers? Really? Then what? Close half the schools?

UTLA's collapse was the single wimpiest, ill-thought out collapse I've ever seen a union do. Now, UTLA will be stuck with whatever LAUSD and our governor demand because the powers to be know UTLA doesn't have the courage to walk...not even for a day.....An­d re: BTSA and those credential programs. I went through one. They're a joke.

[Stuart Goldurs]

Every penny must go the schools!

http://www.examiner.com/x-3311-LA-Public-Education-Examiner~y2009m5d20-LAUSD-and-the-election

[Dennis Danziger - Huffpost Blogger]

I read your blog. You've got it right and have far more experience in the district than I do. And yeah, where is all that lottery money?

[demockracy]

Sad to say, the common meme is that the teachers deserve this. It's not the corporate oligarchy that's behind the recent Great Recession, no, it's the unions that are at fault. Either them, or the gay married Hispanic illegal aliens.

As for the media, the other commonplace is the "fact" of liberal bias. Most U.S. papers have a "Business" section. If liberal bias is real, where is the "Labor" page in the paper?