Union Leaders Agree – Our Strength Is In Fighting for the Public Good
By Julie Carson and Matthew Kogan, Teachers, United Teachers Los Angeles (group affiliation added for identification purposes only; this is not an official communication of UTLA)
The standing room only crowd at the AFT convention’s Social Movement Unionism vs. Corporation “Reform” panel discussion held earlier this month demonstrated that many union members are hungry to fight for an alternate narrative to the “corporate reform” agenda and teacher bashing going on in public education today. Teachers squeezed into every corner of the room – every chair was taken, walls were lined with people standing, every inch of floor space was occupied – as the crowd listened attentively to the officers from various unions across the country describe a different kind of unionism that focuses on the inexorable link between the workplace rights of educators and the broader fight for social justice in our communities.
The panel, hosted by United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) and Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), featured the presidents of these two unions, Alex Caputo-Pearl and Karen Lewis respectively, along with Zeph Capo, Vice President of the Houston Federation of Teachers, Jerry Jordan, President, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, Michael Mulgrew, President, United Federation of Teachers [New York], and Mary Cathryn Ricker, President, St. Paul Federation of Teachers. Each one of these leaders related their union’s success stories about allying with the public to address some community need.
This type of unionism is an opportunity to change the narrative that Union Leaders Agree – Our Strength Is In Fighting for the Public Good: