Barbara Madeloni

What Do We Do Now? First, Gather to Talk

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Barbara Madeloni

I don’t have new words for the dizzying abuses of unions, immigrants, and all working people emanating from the White House in the last three months. Like many people, I’ve been cycling through anger, despair, and dismay.

The dismay is less about Trump than about the weak and ineffective union response. Between overreliance on lawsuits and calls to “fight back” or even strike with no clear plan, unions have not shown up. I keep wondering, where are the leaders?

Faculty Rally Nationwide for Free Speech, Free Tuition, and to Free Detained Students

Faculty-student pairs set up “anti-fascist office hours” at three locations on the Northwestern University campus.

Faculty, students, and staff created anti-fascist art at the University of Hawaii.

American Association of University Professors members combined membership drives with tabling about the critical issues facing higher education on 30 campuses.

And in New York City, 4,000 people rallied to defend higher education from Trump’s attacks, chanting, “ICE took our students, we want them back!”

Organizing to Strike: How 19,000 California Workers Got Ready

Michael McGlenn is a clinical psychologist at the University of California-San Diego. Three years ago, feeling the pinch of dues, he looked into dropping the union. He felt that “the best I could do was see the person in front of me and care for them,” he said, and as far as he could see, the union had nothing to do with what happened in his office.

Teaching Each Other to Strike

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Barbara Madeloni

Recently I heard members of the Newton Teachers Association recount the path to their 11-day January strike. The audience at the Massachusetts Teachers Association winter skills conference gave them a standing ovation.

In the past 20 months, seven MTA locals have voted to strike and six have walked out. They’ve won significant raises for the lowest-paid workers, paid family and medical leave, more social workers, and educator control over planning time.

Massachusetts Teachers Illegal Strike Wave Rolls On

A wildly successful, illegal three-day strike by the Andover Education Association in November has reverberated statewide for educators in Massachusetts.

The lowest-paid instructional assistants got a 60 percent wage jump immediately. Classroom aides on the higher end of the scale got a 37 percent increase.

Members won paid family medical leave, an extra personal day, fewer staff meetings, and the extension of lunch and recess times for elementary students.

Andover is 20 miles north of Boston, and the strike involved 10 schools.

Teacher Unions Push for a Ceasefire, With Education, Agitation, and Resolutions

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Barbara Madeloni

When Becky Pringle, president of the 3-million-member National Education Association (NEA), the largest union in the country, tweeted, “We join our partner organizations along with Jewish and Muslim leaders across the globe in an urgent call for an end to the violence,” it was one more step in the growing movement among union activists demanding a ceasefire in Palestine.

First-Ever Strike for Portland Teachers Tackles Student Needs

The Portland Association of Teachers (PAT) walked out on strike today, closing 81 schools. The 4,500-member union is demanding more counselors, more planning time for teachers, more support for special education students, smaller class sizes, and increased salaries and cost-of-living adjustments.

The union’s demands “are a paradigm shift for the state of Oregon,” said ninth grade teacher Sarah Mykkanen. “We aren’t just reacting to something negative, we are demanding a whole new view of what schools do, of how schools give students what they need.”

Slingshot: Take the High Road

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Barbara Madeloni

When I ran for president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association I ran headlong into attacks about my character, my competency, and the intentions of our reform caucus. We were accused of being divisive, of being controlled by outside forces, and of cheating.

The union’s previous leaders had cut deals with legislators to limit seniority rights, increase the cost of health insurance, and allow student test scores to be included in teacher evaluations.

Undaunted by Fines, Massachusetts Teachers Defy Strike Ban

Two more illegal strikes have hit Massachusetts! On October 14, members of the Haverhill Educators Association voted to strike. Malden educators voted to strike just a few hours later.

After four days out, Haverhill educators won their demands for school safety and commitment for diverse hiring; those in Malden settled their contract with a one-day strike.

Seattle Teachers End Week-Long Strike

Six thousand Seattle educators walked out on strike September 7, which would have been the first day of school. The top issue was the district’s proposal—disguised in social justice language—to end student-teacher ratios for many categories of special education.

Also key were struggles over class size, cuts to services, and wages, especially for substitutes and paraprofessionals, who often work most closely with students with disabilities.

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