St. Paul educators set March 10 strike deadline

February 26, 2020 by

SPFE members hold informational picketing outside Adams Spanish Immersion.

What would 3,600 St. Paul teachers, educational assistants and licensed professionals on strike look like?

Minnesota’s second-largest school district got a preview this morning, when members of the St. Paul Federation of Educators held informational picketing outside many school facilities.

Later in the day, educators delivered notice to the district that unless they make progress in upcoming negotiations, the picket lines will be back March 10 – this time for the first teachers strike here since 1946.

SPFE leaders say they hope the strike deadline will force school administrators to match the urgency educators have been bringing to contract negotiations since talks began last May, when union members began bringing forth 31 proposals to address the needs they see in their classrooms each day.

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Educators are demanding a contract that guarantees their students more mental-health supports, that ensures non-English speaking families can access school services and that reduces special-ed caseloads.

And SPFE members are willing to strike, if necessary, to force the district to address those concerns at the bargaining table.

SPFE members and community supporters line the sidewalk outside Highland Middle School.

In a strike-authorization vote Feb. 20, rank-and-file members signaled strong support for their bargaining team. About two-thirds of all members participate, according to SPFE, and 82% voted “yes.”

“Nobody wants to go on strike,” the union’s executive board wrote in an e-mail to members announcing the vote results. “That is why we’ve spent nearly a year engaging with the district on our student-centered proposals and on wages and benefits for our members.

“However, we refuse to accept the district’s position that our students and educators already have access to all of the supports they need to thrive.”

Teachers strikes have swept across the country over the last two years, as the #RedForEd movement pushes officials to address decades of disinvestment in public schools and the working people who staff them.

Last year alone, 237,400 teachers in North Carolina, West Virginia, Los Angeles, Chicago, Kentucky and Oregon went on strike, fueling a historic surge in major work stoppages. Federal labor statistics released last week show the average annual number of workers participating in major strikes over the last two years – 455,500 – reached a 35-year high.

Long before the #RedForEd wave swept the country, though, St. Paul was the site of the first organized teachers strike in U.S. history, a 30-day work stoppage between Thanksgiving and Christmas of 1946.

The city’s female teachers, members American Federation of Teachers Local 28 (still on SPFE’s union charter today), led the charge not just for pay increases, but a more equitable allocation of school resources and new investments in school facilities. They called it the “Strike for Better Schools.”

Today, it’s a fight for the “Schools St. Paul Students Deserve.”

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

SPFE sets strike vote, parent info session

February 11, 2020 by

SPFE members and community supporters rallied last month in support of the union’s contract campaign.

Members of the St. Paul Federation of Educators representing over 3,600 teachers, educational assistants, licensed professionals and other staff in the St. Paul Public Schools will hold a strike-authorization vote Feb. 20, leaders announced today.

In an e-mail to community supporters, members of the St. Paul Federation of Educators’ negotiating team said the union’s executive board called the strike vote in a unanimous vote last night.

“This decision was not made lightly, but we are certain that a strike vote is necessary if we hope to reach a settlement with the district that respects our students’ needs and honors our educators’ voices,” the e-mail says. “After nearly a year of negotiating, the District still isn’t taking our student-centered proposals seriously and has refused to have any real discussion around educator pay and benefits.”

Before the vote takes place, SPFE will hold an information session for parents to discuss what its bargaining proposals are – and why educators are willing to strike for them. The session will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 15, at the union’s headquarters, located at 23 Empire Dr., St. Paul.

Additionally, SPFE is encouraging members, parents and community supporters to attend the district’s Feb. 18 school board meeting, hoping a last-ditch appeal to board members – many of whom were elected with labor endorsement – will lead to movement at the bargaining table.

Talks between SPPS and SPFE began last May. Union members offered 31 proposals based on the needs identified by educators, parents and other stakeholders. But the district refused to respond to most of them, and the two sides entered mediation in December.

Union proposals look to expand on gains made in recent contract campaigns, which focused on “building the schools St. Paul students deserve.” Educators’ top priorities would increase mental-health supports for their students, reduce special-ed caseloads and expand families’ access to multilingual services.

Rank-and-file union members signaled “overwhelming support” for those priorities – and for calling a strike vote – in petitions circulated throughout the district’s 65-plus buildings, according to union leaders.

 

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St. Paul educators to Chicago educators: ‘Your fight is our fight’

October 25, 2019 by

Union educators in St. Paul are standing in solidarity with the 35,000 teachers and school service workers on strike in Chicago this week.

Yesterday the St. Paul Federation of Educators sent a letter, signed by SPFE President Nick Faber, to two unions representing the striking workers. Faber’s message was simple: Your fight is our fight.

“Your fight for Chicago students – capping class size, a nurse in every school, and adequate mental health and special education supports – is our fight for Saint Paul students,” the letter said. “Your commitment to use your collective power to speak out for the common good in Chicago – creating safe and healthy communities, seeking a moratorium on charter schools, and expanding affordable housing – is our commitment in Saint Paul.”

Click here to view the full letter.

SPFE, Local 28 of the American Federation of Teachers, represents about 3,500 employees in the St. Paul Public Schools. The local has a history of activism, staging the nation’s first teacher strike in 1946.

More recently, educators in St. Paul have modeled a “common-good” approach to bargaining. Before negotiations begin, the union welcomes community members to help develop its contract proposals, a process that results in talks that transcend the usual back and forth over wages and benefits.

In its last round of negotiations, SPFE nearly went on strike over its demands for more school nurses, librarians and social workers, smaller class sizes and expanded preschool and family-engagement programs. And to achieve fully funded schools, the union called on the district to join its members in pressuring tax-exempt large nonprofits and corporate tax dodgers to pay their fair share.

Many of those demands are being echoed in Chicago by thousands of members of the Chicago Teachers Union and Service Employees International Union Local 73 on the picket line this week.

Additionally, striking educators are pushing the Chicago Public Schools to boost funding for bilingual education, and take steps to make affordable housing more accessible to educators and their students, over 16,000 of whom are homeless.

The district is pleading poverty, but Chicago educators aren’t buying it.

“Messages of austerity and scarcity are twin myths used to justify TIF projects and tax breaks for wealthy corporations and normalize the theft of dollars – not only from our public schools, but also from our communities,” Faber wrote in SPFE’s letter.

He added, “We support you, stand by you, and are proud to call you our union family.”

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: , , , , ,

SPFT, district reach agreement, pledge to take on funding shortfalls together

February 12, 2018 by

SPFT President Nick Faber speaks at a press conference in the library at Galtier Community School, where he did his student teaching 31 years ago.

Members of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers will not strike tomorrow, but they aren’t walking away from the fight for fully funded, racially equitable schools.

After 13 hours of mediated talks that began Sunday, union and district negotiators reached tentative agreements on three contracts covering SPFT’s 3,700 members early this morning, averting a strike. Details of the agreements are not yet public.

During a press conference at Galtier Community School this afternoon, union and district leaders said collaboration was key to reaching common ground at the bargaining table – and will remain critical as the two sides carry forward their work to tackle funding shortfalls facing the St. Paul Public Schools.

“We are dedicated to working with our district and whoever else it takes to increase that funding so our kids can have the schools that they deserve,” SPFT President Nick Faber said. “SPFT is extremely excited about that work going forward, and we know we can work in the (spirit of) collaboration that we ended negotiations in … this morning.”

“We are so strong together,” Superintendent Joe Gothard said, adding that whatever approach the district takes to raising revenue, leaders know “we will not be able to do this alone.”

Collaboration could involve lobbying together at the Legislature or partnering in efforts to recruit new students, Gothard and Faber said. It might also mean working jointly on a levy referendum or other potential revenue sources.

The mutual commitment to raising revenue – whatever approach it takes – is a victory for SPFT, which refused to allow scarcity to dictate contract negotiations despite the district’s projected budget shortfall.

Instead, union proposals took aim at creating fully funded schools staffed with nurses, librarians and social workers, with smaller class sizes and expanded preschool and family-engagement programs. To realize its vision, SPFT called on the district to join its members in pressuring tax-exempt large nonprofits and corporate tax dodgers to pay their fair share.

The groundbreaking approach drew national attention and sparked public debate likely to outlive the next bargaining agreement. “We consider that a win,” Faber said.

“This contract campaign was centered around the myth of scarcity, but our corporate campaign continues on,” he added. “There is a lot of money in this state, we’re just making political decisions not to put it into our classrooms, particularly our classrooms with kids of color in them.”

SPFT’s bargaining team, meanwhile, said the proposed contracts for school and community service professionals, educational assistants and teachers make progress on several of union members’ top priorities.

“We won supports for our students, especially our English Learners and our students who receive Special Education services,” a post on the union’s website read. “We defended our class size language and strengthened the commitment to Restorative Practices.”

Although both sides struck a conciliatory tone at the press conference today, negotiations between SPFT and the district were the most heated in years, with union members voting overwhelmingly Jan. 31 in favor of authorizing a strike. Faber called the strike authorization “an awesome responsibility and an awesome piece of strength” in negotiations.

“Teachers go into this profession to be in a classroom, not out of it,” he said. “So when people are so passionate that they’re willing to walk, that’s an incredible feeling. It did offer us a great deal of leverage and sense of purpose going into those final conversations to make sure we delivered for our members.”

SPFT will hold informational meetings with members about the contract Thursday, and the union expects to hold a ratification vote early next week.

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Dave Zirin: The ‘megaphone of sports’ is more global, powerful than ever

January 31, 2018 by

As the NFL staged its Opening Night Party in St. Paul Monday, protesters shut down streets downtown, calling on Super Bowl sponsors to support local schools and racial equity.

Donald Trump has made politics part of nearly every reporter’s beat. The president’s policy proposals and inflammatory public comments spark reaction and resistance that spill beyond the Beltway, outside the traditional spaces reserved for political debate.

Nowhere, perhaps, has the spillover been more apparent – or uncomfortable – than in the world of sports.

When Colin Kaepernick chose not to stand during the national anthem at a preseason game in 2016, the “take a knee” movement against police brutality in communities of color caught fire. TV networks squirmed over the impact on their ratings, shock jocks lit up sports radio with hot takes, and sports reporters started asking questions that went beyond X’s and O’s.

Dave Zirin has been asking those questions for a long time. A former student at Macalester College, he is the author of “A People’s History of Sports” and other books on how sports and progressive movements intersect. Zirin is at work on a book with Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett, and he writes and podcasts regularly at edgeofsports.com. He offered up his thoughts on what Minnesotans can expect during – and after – Super Bowl week in this interview, which has been edited (albeit lightly) for length (he had lots of good things to say).

UA: Teachers, low-wage workers and progressive groups here are using the Super Bowl spotlight to lift up their own campaigns, and some of their messages are obviously inspired by the way pro athletes have used their platform lately. This isn’t a new phenomenon in sports, but to what degree are we witnessing something historic?

Dave Zirin (photo credit: Jen Maler)

DZ: We’re certainly looking at a massive uptick in what is a historical continuum. Sports has always been this very powerful place. We’re taught that sports is this level playing field, this epitome of America, where anybody who’s good can make it. Yet the reality of sports is it’s a very unlevel playing field. It’s also one of the few places that if you come from a working-class or poor background, you have this immense cultural capital to tell your story – and to speak about what’s happening in the world.

I would argue that events like the Super Bowl become more and more these kind of global political events, almost like an economic Trojan horse in these communities. The spotlight is so bright. We’ve never been at a point where the megaphone of sports is more global and more powerful.

UA: What would you say to local activists looking to divert that spotlight into the streets?

DZ: I would say that they are doing the right kind of work. They are part of a tradition that’s really fired up recently in Olympic host cities, World Cup host countries and Super Bowl host cities, where people use the fact the world is watching this particular space to speak about everyday injustices in that space – and also how those injustices are aggravated by hosting these mega-events. People who are homeless find themselves under attack, sex workers find themselves under attack, union workers who might want to exercise their rights for the next week find themselves under attack. It’s not just about leveraging the spotlight, it’s about mounting a very real defense campaign against what these mega-events bring.

We’re talking about an increased police presence, the privatization of public space. We’re talking about the fact that the city is bending over backward to almost create a Potemkin village for the 1 percent that’s coming in. They seek to create this fake veneer of what the city actually is… And then as soon as those people leave and the media leaves, it all gets torn down. And when it all gets torn down, that’s also when it gets really dangerous for people because there’s this push to try to keep some of what’s been in there, whether you’re talking about stepped up police presence or closed-circuit TV cameras. I’ve been to so many Super Bowl host cities and Olympic or World Cup host cities, and that’s what they always say, that there becomes this mission creep…

UA: Twin Cities corporations spent $52 million to lure the Super Bowl to town, and the NFL won’t pay for much of anything this week as a result. What’s the local cost of this willingness to bend over backwards for the NFL and other pro sports leagues?

DZ: We have to suss through this. The actual cost, tragically, is not something that we’re going to be able to know until weeks, if not months, after the event itself. There should be an economic forensic exam, and the unions should take the lead on that. We can’t expect Democrats to do it for us… When they say they don’t have enough money for schools, for health care – this isn’t a question of having enough money, it’s about priorities.

UA: Are attitudes toward mega-events changing?

DZ: You are seeing changes. Cities are rejecting the Olympics, from Boston to Krakow. Cities have stood up to hosting these games because of the economic costs and political costs. Cities have started demanding concessions from the NFL and from local officials, like offsets so that every dollar that goes to the Super Bowl also goes to our schools, or goes to health care. Until that happens, we’re going to keep having this privatization of public wealth, which is really what the Super Bowl is once all the smoke and glitter clears.

UA: Going back to the player protests, how vital have players’ collective bargaining agreements been to this movement?

DZ: The collective bargaining agreement in the NFL has meant everything to these protests. While I would certainly argue that they have the First Amendment right to protest during the anthem, I really do think a lot of NFL players would have just been fired outright if it wasn’t for the fact that the CBA in the NFL has very specific language about whether players have to stand at attention. To compare and contrast, the NBA, which has much more political foment in it, has different language in their CBA that actually directs players to stand at attention. I think that’s one of the reasons you haven’t seen those kinds of protests in the National Basketball Association. They’re just not protected.

If the NFL had just started firing players left and right, they would have been at dire risk of invalidating the entire collective bargaining agreement. They would have given the union, which is already setting up in the next year for contract negotiations, an unfathomable amount of leverage …

As someone who’s interviewed a lot of these players, something that makes me really angry is that the players who are political also tend to be the players who are most community minded, bighearted and down to earth. There’s something so repellent to me that they’re the ones who are demonized by Trump and by certain members of the NFL ownership community. They’re the ones who really do represent the best – not just among NFL players, but among trade unionists in general.

UA: Trump’s use of the NFL – from tweeting about players who kneel to picking on the league at rallies – is remarkable. Why do you think it strikes such a chord with his supporters?

DZ: Like so much with Trump, while it strikes a chord with his base, it has not expanded his base. The polls I see show as many as three-fourths of people do not agree with how he has dealt with this issue. More people, after Trump got involved, were actually on the side of the players than before because he is so toxic.

But this is rank racism. There’s no other way to say it. These are players who are trying to start a conversation – not about the anthem or patriotism, but about racism and police violence. You think Donald Trump wants to have that conversation? Of course not. So he demonizes and attacks these players for being ‘ungrateful.’ One player said to me that ‘ungrateful’ is like Trump’s n-word, something he reserves for only black athletes. This is a very old script, and it resonates because you tap into envy. As if these ‘ungrateful’ athletes … haven’t worked their entire lives to make their way in the world.

UA: But you see backlash against this script?

DZ: Let’s talk about the No. 1 way we can tell that it didn’t work. When he called players SOB’s and used profanity before a rapturous crowd, where was he? He was in Huntsville, Alabama. What happened in Alabama? Somehow the Republicans lost a Senate race…

UA: Are you the guy no one wants to sit next to at the Super Bowl party?

DZ: No, people like sitting next to me. I always bring out the good food. I clean my house so I give people a nice place to sit. I usually spend the first 30 minutes of the Super Bowl in my own personal protest, live tweeting an episode of the “Facts of Life.” People on Twitter tend to go crazy. I lose a couple hundred followers, but I find it funny. I call it the Tootie Bowl.

UA: Who wins? Who are you rooting for?

DZ: I hate the New England Patriots because they always win and they’re arrogant and they’re obnoxious. But I’m sure you’ve heard people say that when the Patriots win it feels like Trump wins all over again. Slow your roll. They’re not Team Trump. Don’t take it that seriously please.

But I’m rooting for the Eagles, and I’ll pick the Eagles. I’ll never root for the Patriots. Ever.

Filed Under: Labor Voices, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Teachers, allies keep heat on Ecolab, U.S. Bank as Super Bowl party ramps up

January 29, 2018 by

St. Paul teachers and supporters march through the streets of downtown St. Paul to the NFL’s “opening-night party” at Xcel Energy Center.

Hundreds of people whose work keeps the Twin Cities running shut down traffic outside a Super Bowl party in St. Paul tonight.

Teachers, low-wage workers and other activists called out the corporations funding the Super Bowl Host Committee – Ecolab and U.S. Bank, in particular – for prioritizing a high-profile game over local student outcomes and people’s lives.

“During this upcoming week, corporate elites will earn millions of dollars and use Minneapolis and St. Paul as their corporate playground, while we, the workers, continue to face wage theft, poverty wages and increased militarization in our communities,” Donia Caldwell, a member of CTUL’s fast-food worker organizing campaign, said during a post-march rally.

Activists marched through the streets, from Ecolab’s offices in Hamm Plaza to the Xcel Energy Center, site of the Super Bowl’s Opening Night party. As helicopters hovered overhead, marchers took over the busy intersection of Kellogg and West Seventh Street, backing up traffic in all directions.

Most people in the crowd carried signs supporting members of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers, who are scheduled to take a strike-authorization vote Wednesday. Members of the union’s negotiating team have said the two sides are making no progress on teachers’ top priorities, including smaller class sizes, pre-K programming and funding for nurses, librarians and language specialists.

But teachers aren’t just negotiating with the school district. SPFT is reaching out to corporations like Ecolab and U.S. Bank, the beneficiaries of local property-tax breaks, in an effort to recoup some of the funds diverted away from the district’s general fund.

So far the corporations haven’t been receptive to the idea, SPFT President Nick Faber said.

“Ecolab has said no even though they’ve got $2.1 billion of untaxed dollars in offshore accounts. They’ve said no even though they’re going to be gaining $96 million a year through the new GOP tax bill,” Faber said. “Same with U.S. Bank, and they’re going to be getting about $1.1 billion from the new tax plan.

“And what will our students get? They’re going to get a party for millionaires and a game in the town across the river.”

While teachers called for an investment in schools, low-wage workers like Caldwell called on U.S. Bank and Ecolab to “divest” from poverty wages by supporting a $15 minimum wage in St. Paul and funding for enforcement efforts targeting wage theft across the state.

Support for language programs is among SPFT’s core bargaining proposals.
As the NFL staged its Open Night Party in St. Paul Monday, protesters shut down several streets downtown, calling on Super Bowl sponsors to support local schools and racial equity.

Bakery workers organizing Saturday’s Taste of Justice joined the demonstration, too. They pledged to keep shining a light on working conditions and union-busting at Franklin Street Bakery, even as co-owner Wayne Kostroski basks in the glow of his star-studded gala in St. Paul this week.

Bruce Peglow, an officer of Bakery Workers Local 22, called Franklin Street Bakery unsafe – one reason workers are trying to organize a union.

“Several weeks ago there was carbon-monoxide poisoning in the bakery,” Peglow said. “Two of the workers went to Hennepin County Medical Center. One woman, if she’d have been there five more minutes, she would be dead.”

Inside the Xcel Energy Center, Black Lives Matter activists succeeded in dropping a banner supporting the demonstration’s theme: “Divest from violence. Invest in community. Imagine what’s possible.”

Filed Under: Organizing, Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

Here’s how labor activists plan to celebrate Super Bowl week

January 26, 2018 by

Today marks the kickoff of Super Bowl events in the Twin Cities, and organizers plan a 10-day run of concerts, parties, conventions and other events leading up to the big game Feb. 4 at U.S. Bank Stadium.

What you won’t find listed on the Super Bowl Host Committee’s online calendar are several opportunities to support working people organizing for dignity, respect on the job and quality public services.

“Minnesota’s Super Bowl shouldn’t just be about entertaining the rich and the powerful,” said bakery worker Travis Reinhart, whose union-busting employer will host a star-studded celebrity fundraiser in St. Paul next Saturday.

Already, the St. Paul Federation of Teachers is promoting a social media campaign targeting two of the Super Bowl committee’s biggest corporate sponsors: Ecolab and U.S. Bank. Teachers are in a difficult round of contract negotiations with the St. Paul school district, which is facing a multi-million dollar budget shortfall.

“Money has been stolen from our schools over the last 20 years … and that money has been going into tax breaks for corporations,” SPFT President Nick Faber said.

Kirinda Anderson, a parent active in union-led efforts to address the district’s racial disparities, called on Ecolab and U.S. bank to “step up and be better partners with the schools and the students … and to support public education in the same way they’ve supported this game.”

Here’s a rundown of events you won’t find on the Super Bowl committee’s website:

• The Pre-Game: Our lives over their game. Monday, Jan. 29, 6 to 8:30 p.m. Hamm Plaza, St. Paul.

Unions and worker groups are teaming up with racial-justice, climate-defense and immigrant-rights organizations to plan a march and rally outside the NFL’s Super Bowl Opening Night party in St. Paul.

Activists like Antonia Sanchez, a member of the Twin Cities low-wage worker center CTUL, are calling on the corporations sponsoring Super Bowl week to do more in their community than hold a round-the-clock party for ultra-rich.

“The millionaires are just going to get richer, and we’re not going to get anything out of it,” Sanchez said at a press conference announcing the groups’ Super Bowl plans. “These corporations are grinding us all down.

“We want to demand that these corporations … support raising the minimum wage in St. Paul to $15 an hour. We want them to support ending wage theft in Minneapolis and St. Paul.”

• Super Bowl Protest: Tackle Corporate Greed! Friday, Feb. 2, 4:30 p.m. Home Depot, 1520 New Brighton Blvd, Minneapolis.

Home Depot co-founder Arthur Blank owns the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, making Super Bowl week the perfect time for janitors who clean Home Depot stores in the Twin Cities to renew their demand that the retailer adopt a responsible contractor policy.

CTUL, which is organizing janitors who clean Home Depot, has negotiated policies with Best Buy, Target and other retailers, paving the way for 500 retail cleaning workers to form a union last year.

Most people working in retail cleaning are immigrants, and CTUL is teaming up with immigrant-rights group Navigate MN to demand Home Depot use its lobbying clout to support so-called Dreamers’ protected status, pass a clean immigration reform bill and end immigration raids dividing families across the country.

• Super Bowl Breakfast: Support $15 and Workers’ Rights! Saturday, Feb. 3, 7 a.m. Hilton Minneapolis, 1001 Marquette Ave.

As the Super Bowl Committee and its corporate sponsors hold a breakfast inside the hotel to honor the NFL’s “positive legacy” of community service, worker groups will gather outside for a “people’s breakfast to honor the worker leaders and community members in Minneapolis and St. Paul who fight for living wages rights on the job for themselves, their families and their communities.”

The event will call attention to the need to fund enforcement of Minneapolis’ new minimum-wage ordinance, and lift up the campaign for a $15 minimum wage – without a tip penalty – in St. Paul.

• A Taste of Justice. Saturday, Feb. 3, 5 p.m. St. Paul Labor Center, 353 W. 7th St.

Workers at Franklin Street Bakery have been trying to organize a union for over two years, looking to improve wages and working conditions in the Minneapolis facility. Their campaign has drawn a stifling – and sometimes illegal – response from management, which recently sent a labor lawyer to intimidate one worker in his own home, according to a report from Bakery Workers Local 22.

Bakery owner Wayne Kostroski holds a hunger-relief event – “Taste of the NFL” – with celebrity chefs, NFL players and wealthy executives each year during Super Bowl week. Last year, bakery workers countered with a fundraiser of their own, and this year they plan to do it again, only blocks away.

“While helping food shelves is a good thing, Wayne pays many workers as little as $11 an hour, forcing us to use food shelves,” Reinhart said. “I know I’ve been there. The Taste of the NFL’s slogan is ‘kick hunger.’ We have a simple answer for Wayne: Kicking hunger starts at home.”

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St. Paul Federation of Teachers schedules strike vote

January 24, 2018 by

SPFT members called on corporations like Securian to pay their fair share toward the schools St. Paul children deserve during a march through St. Paul’s skyways last month.

Frustrated by the St. Paul Public Schools’ refusal to take up their top priorities in contract negotiations, members of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers will take a strike authorization vote Jan. 31, the union announced today.

Members of three bargaining units in negotiations with the district will participate in voting next Wednesday. SPFT represents over 3,400 teachers, educational assistants and community service professionals working in 65-plus St. Paul school district buildings.

“Our members are incredibly disappointed that the school district has so far refused to work with us, but as educators, we remain committed to creating the schools Saint Paul children deserves,” said SPFT President Nick Faber, an elementary science specialist.

SPFT members took an ambitious and groundbreaking approach into negotiations with the district that began last summer.

Union members proposed partnering with the district to seek new revenue from large non-profits and corporations that enjoy property-tax exemptions in St. Paul. The district has so far refused that partnership, leaving SPFT members to meet independently with Ecolab, Allina Health, Macalaster College and other potential targets.

Additionally, union negotiators say they continue to wait for management’s response to proposals that would strengthen St. Paul schools and address the district’s racial disparities, from lowering class sizes to staffing each school with a nurse and librarian.

Rather than respond, district negotiators have pushed for teachers to work longer hours with more students at no additional pay. And the union alleges negotiators “continue to dismiss the contributions of our Educational Assistants and School and Community Service Professionals in SPPS.”

Members of SPFT’s executive board voted Monday to call the strike vote. Mediated talks with the district will continue this week.

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Union coat drive will help St. Paul’s homeless youth keep warm

January 11, 2018 by

St. Paul RLF President Bobby Kasper presents coats and hoodies to St. Paul Project REACH staff (L to R) Cindy McGowan, Tracey Jackson, Karla Stewart, Beth O’Keefe and Ka Zoua Kong.

Union members in the East Metro raised over $3,100 to buy winter coats for students in the St. Paul Public Schools struggling with homelessness. Jackets and hoodies donated by a union screen printer nearly doubled the total haul for area children in need.

The coats and hoodies, dropped off at SPPS’ Project REACH offices Monday, aren’t likely to stay in boxes and shopping bags long. Home school liaison Karla Stewart said the need for winter gear is high across the district, from pre-K classrooms to high schools.

“If students don’t know how they’re going to stay warm on their way home – or if they’ll be able to stay warm when they get there – it’s really hard to focus during school hours,” Stewart said.

Project REACH provides education services and related support to homeless youth in the St. Paul school district. The district estimates 2,000 of its students struggle with homelessness annually.

Union members raise funds to purchase coats each winter as part of the Jean Jones Coats Initiative, named for a now-retired St. Paul teacher. The initiative is coordinated by the St. Paul Labor Studies and Resource Center, the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation’s nonprofit arm.

The coat drive received a boost this year from Union House, the buy-American retail outlet and screen-printing shop in Wyoming, Minn. Owner Max Anderson donated eight boxes stuffed with puffy jackets and hoodies.

“Union members nearly doubled their contribution to the Jean Jones coat drive this year, and Max Anderson’s generosity put us well over the top,” St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Bobby Kasper said. “I’m proud of the generosity our local labor movement continues to show the most vulnerable members of our community, year after year.”

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Teachers to large nonprofits: ‘We all have a stake’ in St. Paul schools

December 18, 2017 by

St. Paul teachers marched through the city’s skyway system earlier this month to draw attention to their campaign for fully funded schools.

Tom Stinson, a school nurse at Harding Senior High, sat across a table from two representatives of Allina Health last month and painted an unsettling picture.

“Our kids will usually go to the nurse in their school eight times before they access any health care outside the school,” Stinson said. “They don’t get to the doctor’s office for various reasons, like lack of transportation or co-payments. We have kids that come in every day with serious health needs.”

Harding is lucky enough to have a full-time nurse, but that isn’t the case for all public schools in St. Paul. It’s just one example, Stinson and other educators say, of the challenges the district faces in serving a diverse population, plagued by systemic racism and high rates of poverty.

So where does Allina come into the picture?

The not-for-profit health care provider owns United Hospital and 23 other properties in St. Paul, with an estimated market value of $178 million. Allina operates like a large corporation, paying its CEO over $1 million and stacking its board of directors with executives from Piper Jaffray, Buffalo Wild Wings and other businesses. Allina’s net income was $199 million in 2015, and it maintained an investment portfolio worth over $1 billion.

Despite the corporate sheen, Allina’s property-tax burden on those 24 buildings in St. Paul looks the same as any shoestring nonprofit’s. The same can be said for property owned by HealthPartners, Health East and private colleges like Macalester, St. Thomas and St. Catherine.

The abundance of large nonprofits in St. Paul – combined with development deals that shield large corporations like US Bank and Wells Fargo from property taxes – restricts the revenue St. Paul’s school district can collect. But rather than throw their hands up in frustration, Stinson and other members of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers are reaching out to corporations and large non-profits to discuss ways they could voluntarily pay the city and the district for services they expect, from police and fire to public schools.

“Schools and nonprofits are able to attract top talent to Minnesota in part because of the reputation of our public school systems,” said Erica Schatzlein, a teacher at Nokomis Montessori who took part in the union’s meeting with St. Kate’s. “People want to work in a community that is also a good place to raise a family.

“We all have a stake in the next generation of Minnesotans, and we are all responsible for nurturing and supporting them. These large nonprofits and schools are currently not doing their part to support our public schools students, even though they’re using our schools to help in recruiting talent, and they’ll be looking to hire our students as they grow up.”

SPFT’s conversations with large nonprofits and corporations are taking place against the backdrop of ongoing contract talks with the district. A sense of scarcity looms over negotiations, with the district facing a projected budget shortfall of $27 million.

Teachers have offered 10 proposals in bargaining, developed after meetings with parents and community stakeholders. They include a scaled-back reliance on testing, expanded access to preschool, smaller class sizes and increased family engagement – all elements, teachers say, that go into creating the racially equitable schools St. Paul students deserve.

But in a nod to the district’s budget shortfall, teachers’ first proposal was that the union and district collaborate on efforts to seek funding from corporations and major nonprofits. So far, the district has refused – a decision Stinson called “disappointing but not surprising.”

Several non-profits and corporations already support charitable initiatives in the St. Paul schools. Among nonprofits, Allina led the way with a contribution of $60,300 over a two-year period ending June 30, while Ecolab doled out 80 grants of $2,400 to St. Paul teachers who submitted applications to the company.

Still, the amounts add up to a fraction of what the organizations would otherwise be paying in taxes. And teachers note that supporting pet initiatives skirts the democratic process school districts use to prioritize spending.

“Are they doing anything legally wrong? No,” Stinson acknowledged. “But they’re dodging their responsibility as corporate citizens who reside in the city. If they would just pay their fair share like everyone else, everybody would be praising them.”

Julia Shepherd, a Harding teacher and Macalester alum, walked away from a meeting with college president David Rosenberg feeling hopeful, noting that Rosenberg is “deeply devoted to matters of racial equity.”

“I reminded President Rosenberg that this fall I received an email from Macalester asking me to contribute as an alum to their Annual Fund,” Shepherd said. “The subject line read, ‘We live our values.’

“That’s why I was there.”

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