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Wildcat Strike for the Central Falls 100
NOTE: Central Falls is acknowledged as the smallest and poorest city in Rhode Island. All 100 of the teachers and other educators at the high school have been fired--74 classroom teachers, plus reading specialists, guidance counselors, physical education teachers, the school psychologist, the principal and three assistant principals. Arne Duncan says that education officials are "showing courage and doing the right thing for kids."
Longtime educator Horace (Rog) Lucido calls for the six million educators across the U. S. to stand up in support of these teachers: wildcat strikes.
Rich Gibson Comment: The March 4 strikes and job actions, demos etc can be the beginning of what Rog suggests here.
Today at University of California San Diego an official administration sponsored teachin which was meant to deflect and demolish action against the apartheid institution that supports campus racists at all levels (2% black enrollment, administrative refusal to take action vs active racists on campus etc) was wrecked by a long, long student demonstration that looked like a prelude to M4.
While CFA, CTA, and AFT are doing all they can to wreck the M4 actions, it is not working.
Students in the lead are finding their own methods as, at every level of education, the vast majority of faculty have not only betrayed students with their daily practices, but those same faculty have participated in the construction of their own oppression--stupidly: Merit pay logically follows high stakes exams.
Now, it is time for faculty to catch up, spread the word about M4, take some real risks in helping lead job actions, assisting in delivering harsh measures to Quisling labor bosses.
M4 has moved from the UC system into the California State University system and community colleges--and around the country.
Workers all over the previously industrialized world are beginning to fight back, as with the general strike in Greece. Many of those movements, maybe most of them, are initiated by students.
by Horace (Rog) Lucido
It was the summer of 1962 and I was seventeen and working as a summer replacement for those steelworkers who were on vacation. I was just out of high school and the world of work was new to me. I was working in the five-stand. It was a huge machine that squashed flat plate steel into thinner rolls at the US steel plant in Pittsburg, California. I turned around suddenly to hear a foreman yell at a worker for moving too slowly and in a fit of anger told him to get the hell out and go home. Head down, the diminutive worker headed out of the five-stand area towards the front of the plant. Word quickly spread among the other workers of what had happened to their union 'brother.' In what seemed like a flash, but was more like an hour the head roller slowly shut down the line as the foreman screamed orders to get back to work. All to no avail.
The other 10 or so workers, including myself--even though I did not quite understand, began to head to the front office. In doing so they gathered other workers along the way--all the other workers--in the sheet metal part of the plant. All of whom initiated what was then called a 'wildcat' strike. Although forbidden by their contract these steelworkers were yelling, screaming and cussing about the unjust dismissal of their fellow union 'brother.' As the leaders of the group went into the front office most others and I stood outside. As a neophyte I listened to the passionate exchanges that were taking place between these men. The bottom line was that they were not going to go back to work until their 'brother' was back at their side on the line. At that time there were three shifts at the five-stand. As my dad and uncles who worked at the plant later told me, all the shifts refused to work until the worker returned. Within two days he had came back with no reduction in pay and the foreman was reprimanded.
What I learned about camaraderie and mutual support of a fellow worker--a union brother-- was burned into my being. I then remembered the many years of union strikes my father endured to fight for better working conditions and more just benefits and hourly salaries At those hard times when he would work two or three other jobs to make ends meet while on strike.
As I watched the ABC newscast tonight I saw 100 of my fellow teachers from Rhode Island being fired from their teaching and counseling positions. Arne Duncan was quoted as approving of this action. He approved of it! I saw their pain and that of their students. There was no due process for each individual, just a mass firing. The foreman just yelling at them to go home. I immediately recalled what I had experienced over 48 years ago. Although I have taught for over 38 years and am now retired, my soul screamed for justice. There were my teaching brothers and sisters stark and alone.
I think what would happen if the other 6 million teachers, public, private, charter, university and retired refused to teach until these 100 were reinstated? How can we stand by and watch this abomination happen? Where is our outrage and our courage?
What teachers are experiencing here is just the beginning. It happened during WWII when Chamberlain appeased Hitler by sacrificing Czechoslovakia. What followed was the Blitzkrieg of Poland and WWII was on its way. We are on the verge of war. The first to be sacrificed en masse are the Central Falls 100. Needless to say there have been a myriad of other individuals whose similar plight was hidden from our eyes. There is no stopping this beast unless we band together and say, "No More!"
I encourage all of you who are in earshot of this message to gather, organize and strike a 'wildcat' strike until they are reinstated. Can NEA and AFT recognize how critical of an event this is? We are fighting for all teachers across this country who now leave to school each morning in trepidation and fear for their positions and the subjugation of their calling to the monster 'foremen' of power and control over the lives of schools, teachers and students.
Rog (Horace) Lucido, Physics Instructor, Ret.
Program Evaluator
Heald College Mathematics Adjunct
Educational Consultant
Educators and Parents Against Testing Abuse (EPATA)
Assessment Reform Network Central Valley Coordinator
— Horace Lucido
EPATA
2010-02-24
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
Pages: 380
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