Written by Workers’ Voice
UTLA, the Los Angeles teachers union just held a successful historic 6-day strike that mobilized the entire city. This is the second largest school district in the country, with 32,000 educators represented by UTLA who serve over 600,000 children at over 1,000 schools. This is the first strike of the union in 30 years, and it comes months after the impressive red states wave of teacher strikes last Spring in West Virginia, then Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Arizona.
A Strike for Quality Public  Education
California is the fifth largest economy in the world. Its per-pupil funding in education, however, is ranked 41st out of the 50 states in the US. Led by the Democratic Party for  decades, California spends only $10,291 per student a year versus the national average of $12,292, yet invests $75,560 per-person in prison. Schools have huge classes, are understaffed, and teachers have very low pay relative to the cost of living and housing, which leads to high turnover.
Therefore, when LA school district, led by the billionaire and pro-privatization Austin Beutner, refused to negotiate a fair agreement while sitting on $1.8 billion in reserves, UTLA teachers said enough is enough. Beutner’s goal is to further the expansion of charter schools and to privatize education. UTLA went on strike not mainly for pay, but for better teaching and learning conditions, and to defend quality public education. Through months of preparation, & heavily influenced by the struggle of the Chicago teachers (CTU), they gathered the overwhelming support of parents and communities in LA and across California.
The 6-day strike was a political success in terms of mobilizing workers, creating alliances between teachers, students and community, and raising key political demands around the need to fully fund public education by taxing the rich. UTLA held daily rallies of 60,000 teachers and supporters, most of the schools were shut down with a great participation of teachers at the picket lines, and it gathered the support of over 80% of the community.
Gains and Limits of the New Contract Agreement
On January 22nd, the teachers ratified a Tentative Agreement (TA), putting an end to the strike with some important concrete wins: a 6% raise, enforceable class size limits, hiring of more nurses, counselors, and librarians, and funding for 30 new Community Schools with enriched curriculum, wrap around services, and parent and community engagement. The teachers also won access to an immigrant defense fund, cut standardized tests in half, and eliminated random police searches of students on many campuses. One key economic agreement forced by the strike was Mayor Garcetti’s endorsement of the Schools and Communities First Initiative, a Proposition 13 reform that Californians will vote on in 2020. The reform would close a loophole that currently allows corporations to pay extremely low property taxes, and through this taxation raise an additional $11 billion in state revenue for public education and other needed social services.
UTLA’s demand for a cap on new charters was an incomplete victory (Los Angeles has more charter schools than any other city in the country). LAUSD did agree to send a resolution to the state legislature calling for a cap on new charters in LA. However, this demand would require changing California legislation around charter school growth, a lengthy process considering the state already allows 1250 charters and the cap increases by 100 each year. In addition to a resolution asking the state to cap charters (which we agree is the ultimate goal), the union could have used the strike to educate about the need to pass an immediate moratorium on charter schools by the LAUSD school board, which initially approves the charter petitions . With a moratorium, new charters would have to go through an appeal process at the LA county and state level to gain approval. This would stop or at least delay privatizing forces in LA, while educators statewide continue to build the forces needed to stop privatization statewide.
To some degree, the strike brought more political wins than major economic ones. The new contract falls short in meeting one of the major teachers’ and students’ needs: a significant reduction in class sizes that would improve the quality of education. There’s been a significant amount of criticism from LA teachers that the UTLA leadership squandered their power by settling the contract dispute too early, compromising too much, and declaring a victory before the members had enough time to digest and discuss the agreement or before their votes were cast. Many are disappointed and frustrated that they worked so hard for so long to prepare for the strike, then endured over a week of marching in the pouring rain, only to be offered a settlement that doesn’t fully address overcrowded classrooms, charter schools, or other demands. Despite these criticisms, 81% of the membership approved the contract, which has more significant improvements than any previous UTLA contract.
This one contract could never have created the conditions for the schools students deserve. Overall, it must be taken into account  that this is one of the first battles in California, in an ongoing and growing statewide and national movement for public education. A protracted strike wouldn’t necessarily build the momentum to sustain this movement and spread the momentum to the next battle, but it can teach us how to fight better next time. Because of the way public education funding is structured, no locally negotiated contract can meet our demands, the fight needs to continue statewide and the UTLA leadership, the CACS alliance and the CTA need to continue the mobilization and plan statewide days of actions for it this Spring and Fall.
The most important takeaway is that when teachers and community mobilize, they can make change happen, and can reverse the narrative about public education. The strike showed in practice what we socialists keep saying, that workers have a vision for a better society beyond the bankrupt capitalist system we live in. We do need quality public schools, with smaller class sizes and more teachers. We don’t need billionaires running the schools, or police to control the students, or standardized tests to sort students or set teachers’ pay. We do need more community schools that address the broader inequalities in society. It showed that the mass strike is a powerful economic and political tool to build power and transform consciousness.
Tasks Ahead for Rank-and-File Organizers in the Teachers Unions
One of the reasons UTLA was able to prepare and organize for such an impressive strike is because Union Power, a caucus of rank-and-file organizers affiliated to the U-CORE network, took office several years ago and prepared for a strong contract fight. They did so because they believe unions need to stop relying on supporting Democratic Party politicians and School Board officers in their elections in exchange for future favors. Unions should instead activate the political potential of workers themselves to change society, educating and organizing members to take collective action. Union Power showed once again that table bargaining does not move the dial towards workers: only collective action in the form of a mass strike gets the goods.
The new UTLA leadership however made a significant mistake towards the end of the strike, by allowing a very short ratification vote timeline, especially given the length of the Tentative Agreement of 40-plus pages. They should have allowed a second day for the ranks to study the contract as was done in Chicago during their 2012 strike. Union democracy is not just an empty slogan, it needs to be applied at the most critical moments like this one, to allow for real debate and assessment of strength at the sites, and if desired for a “no” campaign to get organized.
The Union Power caucus and all the other rank and file organizers building caucuses in their teachers unions have a lot to reflect on, and figure out to continue the struggle. First, the strike strategy needs to be popularized everywhere, because many union locals still rely on passive conciliation tactics and traditional politics when it comes to contract negotiations. Second, it is also important reflect on the strike ratification vote and democratic mechanisms during the bargaining process, especially at its most decisive moments. Third, a democratic leadership must openly recognize and discuss their mistakes with rank and file members, because they build relations of trust and accountability. Finally, it is also necessary to make clear to teachers that the shared frustrations regarding the limited class size wins should be the propeller to continue the fight for funding statewide.
Teachers in California can become the engine of a greater social and political change for all working class people by leading and mobilizing their local unions and state affiliates to unite and fight in the streets and strike like West Virginia did, and take on the demands of other sectors. But in order to accomplish that goal, the most active and conscious teachers need to get well-organized inside the unions, core caucuses of rank and file activists need to grow and develop a clear program of reform and a vision of struggle for public education and beyond. Therefore, the UTLA strike and any upcoming the big actions and mobilizations need to translate in a real and rapid growth of caucuses of core organizers connected to the California Educators Rising Network. A growth both in numbers and quality for the UTLA strike experience is very rich in concrete lessons of militant organizing.
Next Steps: Let’s Continue The Struggle Statewide and Create Cross-Sector Alliances
So how will we get the schools our students deserve, not only in Los Angeles but everywhere? Our struggle is far from over, and we must broaden it in two directions: build a statewide public education movement, and unite the different struggles of working people in our state and nationally.
First, in order to get the money for all those unmet demands, we need to take the struggle statewide, as the California Alliance for Community Schools and the California Educators Rising rank and file network are proposing. The money is there in the pockets of corporations and billionaires that pay very low taxes, and we need to get it through collective direct action to implement progressive taxation.
As mentioned above, in 2020 an important initiative will be in the ballot, the California Schools and Local Communities Funding Act (CSLCFA). It would modify California’s commercial property tax loophole in Prop 13 and “restore $11 billion for schools, community colleges and other vital community services, including emergency responder services, parks, libraries, health clinics, trauma centers, affordable housing, homeless services, and roads.”[1] Traditional campaigning will not be be sufficient to defeat the impending counter-attack by billionaires. To pass, this initiative must be grounded in mass movements that demonstrate its importance to the broadest layers of society. The teachers strikes in California and the Red States are strong examples of how to change public opinion and force both Democrats and Republicans alike to deliver material reforms. This is why we need to build for and organize statewide days of action, including mass sickouts, walkouts, rallies, and mobilizations to support the initiative and other needed reforms.
Second, we know that the political program of this movement cannot be based on improving education alone. Nearly all social issues intersect and influence education. Student academic underachievement is linked to poverty, unaffordable housing, homelessness, and the growing public health and immigration crisis. For Black and Brown students, education comes second to surviving the terror of an ICE raid or the constant harassment and indiscriminate killing by police. The struggle for public education needs to build bridges with other public workers and social services. It must bridge with the struggle against mass incarceration and deportations, and for a legal path to citizenship for all. The UTLA strike showed that our class is strongest when we’re united, when other sectors join in the strike, bring their demands, and educate other workers.
The only viable strategy to put an end to the crisis of public education, but also the housing and environmental crisis, is to build our own class power to get the resources we need through socialist measures, measures that put people over profit, and return the control of the economy to the working class. Let’s build for statewide actions and strikes in the public sector with this broad viewpoint, and build the necessary bridges and alliances within our class to truly fight back against capitalism! A better world is possible if we go out the door and fight for it.
 
[1] https://schoolsandcommunitiesfirst.org/