Solidarity deepens behind bars
Mass arrest of Jersey teachers
By Heather Cottin
Some 228 striking teachers from the Middletown, N.J., school
district walked out of the Monmouth County Jail on Dec. 7 after
spending part of the week incarcerated for defying a court
order to return to work.
Although New Jersey has no laws against teachers striking,
Judge Clarkson S. Fisher Jr., acting on the part of the school
board, began arresting the teachers based on an alphabetical
list. He was almost up to the middle of the alphabet when the
more than 1,000-member union agreed to submit to nonbinding
arbitration. The school board made no such concession.
This was the first mass arrest of U.S. teach ers since 1978,
when 265 striking teachers were arrested in Bridgeport,
Conn.
For the teachers, the straw that broke the camel's back was
the school board's demand that they pay more toward their
medical benefits. This demand would have effectively wiped out
whatever pay increases the teachers had negotiated for this
contract.
But the bosses wanted the teachers to pay their wage
increases back to the district to fund the salaries of other
workers.
"It's become a war," Board of Education Supt. Jack DeTalvo
told a reporter. DeTalvo then got on the phone "to give
instructions to the board's attorney about how to garner the
best coverage on local evening news shows." (Los Angeles Times,
Dec. 8)
The school administrators acted on behalf of a vindictive
Board of Education. Mary Grace Killmer, a calculus teacher for
30 years, watched her principal point her out to the court to
be served a subpoena for her arrest.
But the Middletown teachers stood tall against this
onslaught. They defied court orders and showed by their actions
and solidarity that they deserve to be treated with dignity and
respect.
When art teacher Diana Bajor was jailed, her 12-year-old
daughter Allyson cried as she said goodbye to her mother in a
hallway outside the court. "You have to be good. You have to be
strong," Bajor told the girl as they hugged. (Associated Press,
Dec. 4)
The resolve of the teachers strengthened in jail. So the
Board of Education had to resort to a media campaign, wrapped
in patriotism and calling for sacrifice, in an attempt to
divide community support for the strike.
Unite for quality education
Whenever workers who provide services--like teachers and
nurses, for example--are forced to go out on strike, their
bosses carry out a propaganda campaign to make it seem as
though the workers don't care about the communities they
serve.
All too frequently the media dutifully spread these lies on
behalf of management. These reports don't give much room to
union members' arguments that they are making the sacrifice of
going out on strike in order to provide better quality services
than their bosses allow them to deliver.
This media slant is aimed at dividing service providers from
the support of the communities they work with. That's what the
Board of Education bosses tried to do to the Middletown
teachers. These teachers got hit with a double-barreled blast
of management and media lies.
Middletown Township, a community of 66,000 people, is about
45 miles from New York City. It was the hardest-hit town in the
state of New Jersey by the World Trade Center disaster.
Three-dozen Middletown residents died in the rubble on Sept.
11. Residents are also reeling from the severe capitalist
recession and layoffs at nearby Lucent Technologies.
The Board of Education bosses exploited the tragic Sept. 11
deaths and the economic suffering in order to whip up the
community, portraying the teachers as unpatriotic, selfish and
privileged.
In fact, the loss of wages or benefits by any group of
workers just emboldens the bosses to cut the remuneration of
other sectors of the working class. The defeat of teachers'
unions would only lead to further erosions in the conditions of
workers in both the public and private sectors of the
economy.
However, the teachers not only didn't buckle, their courage
shone. When Judge Fisher asked a disabled 26-year-old special
education teacher whether he could physically go to jail, he
responded, "I would be honored." (Los Angeles Times, Dec.
6)
The Middletown union is a local in the 2.6-million-member
National Education al Association, the largest union in the
country. The union is particularly democratic and militant. It
is comprised of both secretaries and teachers, and has inspired
its membership to sacrifice even their freedom in the struggle
for their dignity and rights.
The teachers have returned to work, but if the board refuses
to accept the intervention by the court-appointed mediator, the
union is prepared to continue the struggle.
"You can quote me on this, we're not done with them," jailed
union President Diane Swaim told reporters from jail. (CNN,
Dec. 7)
There's a basis for real unity in this struggle, but it has
to be explored and strengthened with parent-teacher
associations and other community-based and progressive
organizations. Many teachers are also parents. And many people
in the community are workers. During this period, when the
teachers are back at work, they need to close ranks with the
most progressive elements in the community.
A Middletown science teacher summed up what it will take to
win this battle: "The only way you get respect is if you stand
up for yourself." (Los Angeles Times, Dec. 8)
Reprinted from the Dec. 20, 2001, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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