WfJRIlERS ''1N''''1RI 25¢ No. 77 .';;~$X'S23 19 September 1975 • eacners' rl es 0;,): wee • • un fIt)'Strt [NEW YORK ~\q Aft, Big MAC Goes After UFT UFT president Albert Shanker WV Photo SEPTEMBER 15 As we go to press. ne\\s reports speak of a possible settle­ ment of the \:ew York City teachers strike. The rumored agreement looks like an unmitigated disaster for the 80.000 striking members of the United Federa­ tion of TeaL'hers (L;FT). The Board of fduCJ(!l)!1 in a di~plaJ of illct"eJ!blt. arrogance has proposed that hy using the S25 million in unpaid sa/aries accumulat­ ed during the strike and in pef/a/lie.1 imposed Ull striking !eaclw ....\ at a rate of two days pay for each day on strike. it may rehire a fraction of the several thousand tea-.:hers recently laid off! In addition. every penny of the meager funds designated for pay increases has been fm/en for the indefinite future. and union negotiators may trade off a two­ hour per week cut in instruction time against the los~ l)f two preparation periods in most elementary and junior high .,>chools. The resolution of a number of other Board demands lor taking back past contractual gains is not yet clear. but given the hat-in-hand negotiating stance 01 L'I-T President Albert Shanker. the prognosis is not good. The Board of Education has corne up \\ ith a cla,sic di\ide-and-conquer scheme. pitting laid-off teachers against those who will pay the Taylor Law fines and setting the parents and children (whose educational services are being cut) against teachers who will lose their preparation periods. If Shanker rams -:\ WV Photo through such a sellout pact it would be an NYC teachers take over Brooklyn Bridge earlier this month in protest against educational cutbacks and mass layoffs. insult and defeat for the entire labor mowment and a crime against the poor who are imisible. the Governor. the of thousands of teachers of handicapped Ylayor. Big MAC. If there are going to be students, rescind a S400 salary benefit and working people of New York City. changes in the way in which :'I.'ew York Shanker Rams Through Sellout Whatever the fate of the reported City finances its school system. this places that is paid to 45 percent of the teachers. "compromise" (the third in less than a a substantial burden on the parties." weaken seniority rules on layoffs and SEPTE\1BER 16-Earlv this eYen­ ing New York Cit} teachers accepted week). the .\IYC Board of Education has Sel\" York Tillles. 5 September require additional after-school confer­ the worst contract in l: FT histof)' bl already demonstrated its effectiveness as I n a year of massive budget cuts and ences. In return for this tremendous increase in workload and general deteri­ a vote of 10,651 to 6.595. The hea\l a battering ram for the bankers and big disappearing social services. the burden is "no" vote reflected a bitter reaction corporations represented on the M unici­ unsurprisingly one-sided. When negotia­ oration of conditions, the Board offered from thousands of union members pal Assistance Corporation (MAC) tions opened in late July. the Board the teachers ·nothing! who gathered on short notice for the against the trou blesome union whose ultimatistically presented its demands: The ease with which the wage freeze \oting at Madison Square Garden. strikes in the 1960's won it a niche as one lengthen the workweek. reduce prepara­ was imposed on city workers in July I n the settlement, t: FT president of the strongest municipal unions in the tion periods. shorten vacations. return (through the treachery of Victor Got­ Shanker gaYe awa) all the critical country. State Mediator Harold Newman teachers to clerical and monitorial func­ baum and other municipal union bureau­ points in dispute, including se\eral described the transparent reality of the tions, increase class size, cut paid sick crats) only whetted the appetites of MAC hard-won gains of the past (see article). ~:hanker's arguments boiled negotiations: leave. abolish job retention in summer and the city and state administrations. down to scare tactics: continuing the "'There are people at the bargaining table and after-school work, reduce the salaries continued on page 4 strike, he said, would be "gambling with our own futures and that of the union." No-it was the l'FT bu­ reaucraq, b} knuckling under. to Big See page 2 for Chicago and Bay Area MAC and the Board of Education offensive. that has put the future of Teachers' Strikes the union in question. [CHICAGO ) [BAY AREA] College Union Head Jailed on the first day of this three week-old As we go to press, leaders of the Cook walkout, was followed ten days later by a Count~ College Teachers l'nion haH contempt of court ruling against Swenson announced a strike settlement and and a crippling fine of $5,000 a day "l'nt the members back to work levelled against the union, September. 15. Exact details are not The city government's actions are a ~et a\ailable, but the pact, imposed clear indication that it intends to ruthless­ under pressure of the sa\'age fiH­ ly curb the power of the public employees month jail sentence meted out to unions. in particular the CCCTU which CCCTl' President Swenson, appears has struck five times in its nine-year to haH produced discontent among history. One trustee of the City College "4. the rank and file. Toda~'s Chicago board openly threatened: Striking Berkeley teachers rally on September 19. Daj~1' Neil'S reported one Southwest "We have good tea(:hers applying for jobs College teacher as saling ''I'll \'ote in this system every day. I don't even against the contract. M~ classes now know if we should be negotiating with teachers who are in violation of a court haH fiH more students in them than order." thn had before we went on strike. --Chicago Tribune. 9 September raise will be eaten the n'toneJ Th~ b~' After Swenson's arrest, Cook County Liberal we lost during the strike. And how in Sherriff Richard Elrod (who achieved this da~ and age can anl trade union notoriety for taking a flying leap at a accept a contract without a cost of demonstrator outside the 1968 Demo­ Ihing clause?" cratic Party convention) gave vent to his vicious anti-labor spleen by complaining Union-Busting CHICAGO, September 12-Norman that the union leader was being pampered Swenson, president of the striking Cook with preferential treatment in jail. County College Teachers Union The I AOO-member CCCTU (AFT (CCCTU), faces five months in jail after his arrest and conviction last Tuesday for defying a strikebreaking back-to-work LAHt'TEtBNICJ in Berkeley court order. The restraining order, issued HIGH SCHOO] BERKELEY, September 12-The popu­ Superior Court on the basis that the city list image of Berkeley's city council is faced a fiscal emergency. "" wearing thin as teachers and firemen, on The militancy of the strike flows from strike for the first time, are directly pitted the Board's decision to cut its "offer" UAW Local 6 against the liberal municipal government from nothing to less than nothing. It now in a fight to defend their living and wants to slash teachers' salaries by 1.2 working conditions and the right of percent, remove al1 limits on class size Demands public employees to strike. The latter is an above third grade, cut back on special explosive issue following more than a programs and reduce teachers' medical . year of militant struggle in the Bay Area, and other fringe benefits. beginning with the near general strike of In an uphill fight against the Board's Campaign to San Francisco municipal workers in budget-cutting intransigence, the March 1974. Like their brothers and teachers' strike shows potential1y fatal sisters across the Bay, Berkeley's public weaknesses. First, the city's school employee unions must takejoint action to employees are organizationally divided. Free Swenson defeat the austerity schemes of the local The teachers are about equal1y split rulers. between the Berkeley Federation of At its regular monthly meeting Taking a hard line, the Berkeley Board Teachers (BFT), affiliated with the on September 14, UAW Local 6 of Education denounced the teachers' American Federation of Teachers (AFT), (International Harvester, Melrose strike as illegal and gave Superintendant and the Berkeley Teachers Association Park, Illinois) unanimously ap­ of Schools Laval Wilson emergency (BT A), affiliated with the National proved a motion calling for labor powers to deal with it. The teachers have Education Association. "Classified" action, including if necessary a faced threats of suspension or firing, workers (including bus drivers, cafeteria general strike, to free the jailed scabbing by substitutes paid over $50 a workers and clericals) belong to two day, and a vicious strikebreaking cam­ additional unions. Although they face president of American Federation New York Times of Teachers Local 1600, The Chicago teachers man the picket paign in the mass media. Despite this the attacks similar to the teachers', the resolution reads, in part: lines. ranks have held firm and grown more classified workers unions have been "Be it resolved, that Local 6 call Local 1600) services the eight two-year militant, while support from the commu­ played off against the BFT and BT A, did on the Chicago labor movement community college campuses whose nity has increased. As of mid-week, some not strike and accepted contracts that and specifically the Chicago 95.000 students come from predominant­ 95 percent of the teachers were striking simply codify the status quo, This was Federation-of Labor to devote i'ts and 89 percent of the students boycotting conditioned by a long and bitter history full resources to freeing Norman ly poor, minority and working-class Swenson, president of the Cook backgrounds.