Chicago Strike Lessons: Teacher Activists Explain How it was Done
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Chicago's students and teachers returned to their classrooms last Wednesday, having taught us all some valuable lessons. I spent some time this summer with a couple of teacher activists from the big city, Xian Barrett and Adam Heenan, and they were clear about what was giving them strength. This strike action was not a whim. It was carefully built from the ground up. Today we will take a look at what we can learn from their experience.
In many cities across the country, our unions have practically taken the strike off the table. It is not considered possible, because leaders fear the public will not be supportive. This is easy to understand, because the public has been fed a barrage of anti-union messages for the past few decades. Teacher unions, the largest organized block of workers left, have been the focus of special scorn.
Chicago's students and teachers returned to their classrooms last Wednesday, having taught us all some valuable lessons. I spent some time this summer with a couple of teacher activists from the big city, Xian Barrett and Adam Heenan, and they were clear about what was giving them strength. This strike action was not a whim. It was carefully built from the ground up. Today we will take a look at what we can learn from their experience.
In many cities across the country, our unions have practically taken the strike off the table. It is not considered possible, because leaders fear the public will not be supportive. This is easy to understand, because the public has been fed a barrage of anti-union messages for the past few decades. Teacher unions, the largest organized block of workers left, have been the focus of special scorn.