Parents, students support teachers’ walk-in demonstrations across St. Paul

January 30, 2014 by

St. Paul teachers and their supporters join a "walk-in" demonstration at American Indian Magnet school in the city's Dayton's Bluff neighborhood.

On days when the cold or snow delays the start of school, some students trickle into Ryan Long’s classroom at American Indian Magnet school, while others stay home altogether.

Sadly, it’s on these rare occasions that Long and other St. Paul teachers glimpse what it’s like teaching a manageable class size of students.

Ryan Long, a special education teacher at American Indian Magnet, supports his union's push to limit class sizes in the district.

Ryan Long, a special education teacher at American Indian Magnet, supports his union’s push to limit class sizes in the district.

“All of a sudden, you could manage your classroom,” Long said, joining a demonstration outside the school building before the start of classes this morning. “You can get things done.”

Limiting class sizes is among the key proposals Long’s union, the St. Paul Federation of Teachers, has prioritized in ongoing contract negotiations with the St. Paul Public Schools. SPFT members highlighted those priorities during “walk-in” demonstrations before class today at 55 school sites citywide, including American Indian Magnet in Dayton’s Bluff.

Parents, students and neighbors joined teachers at the walk-ins, showing their support for contract proposals the SPFT developed after months of gathering input from community stakeholders.

“We started our negotiation work with families, students and community members. It is only natural to continue that,” SPFT President Mary Cathryn Ricker said. “It’s time to make progress on a contract that ensures the schools St. Paul children deserve.”

[Click here to sign onto a petition supporting the SPFT’s community-driven vision for St. Paul’s schools.]

Negotiations began eight months ago. Along with limits on class size, teachers are pushing for expanded access to pre-Kindergarten; guaranteed staffing of school nurses, social workers, media specialists and other support staff; and a de-emphasis on standardized testing.

Michele Fairbanks, who teaches at the American Indian Magnet and has a daughter in the school, pointed to research by the union indicating some students spend as much as 30 days per school year taking tests.

“One set of tests is fine,” Fairbanks said. “But three or four standardized tests per year is overkill. The tests cost a lot of money, and that takes a lot away from students, from class sizes.”

In September, the district moved the talks into closed-door mediation and out of the public eye – a decision that rankled many teachers.

“The school district makes a big deal of having ‘Strong Schools, Strong Communities,’” American Indian Magnet teacher Jason Bresette said, citing the title of the district’s strategic plan. “But when they closed negotiations, it didn’t feel like they wanted strong community input.”

“Teachers who aren’t on the bargaining committee, parents, community members – we can’t listen or watch because they walked out so early in the process,” Fairbanks added.

Union officers said teachers planned the citywide walk-in to demonstrate their “frustration with the pace of talks, but it is not part of a formal run-up to a strike … or other job action.”

Long, who splits a case load of 45 students with one other special education teacher, believes district administrators and school board members share many of the teachers’ concerns, particularly when it comes to class sizes. But his caseload isn’t getting any more manageable as negotiations drag on.

“I’m supposed to have about 10 to 12 students in my caseload,” Long said. “We run out of chairs sometimes. It’s hard to move around in the classroom.”

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As talks move out of public eye, teachers keep up community outreach

November 20, 2013 by
St. Paul teachers and their supporters deliver a petition to the school board in support of their core bargaining principles.

St. Paul teachers and their supporters deliver a petition to the school board in support of their core bargaining principles.

To prepare for negotiations on a new contract, the St. Paul Federation of Teachers reached out to parents and the general public, using the feedback they received to craft an innovative, community-driven set of guiding principles for their contract talks.

So you can imagine teachers’ frustration when the St. Paul Public Schools asked the state to move their negotiations into closed-door mediation in September.

“We believe the reason they did that was to prevent the large audiences of parents, community members, students and other educators from being able to listen to our discussions,” SPFT organizer Paul Rohlfing said.

The district and union have had two mediation sessions since management walked out of bargaining, with two more scheduled for Nov. 21 and Dec. 11.

Although negotiations have moved behind closed doors, the teachers’ negotiating team has worked hard at keeping members of the community engaged and invested in the contract proposals they helped develop.

At the St. Paul Board of Education’s Nov. 12 meeting, SPFT members presented school board members with a petition signed by 4,000 people who support the union’s community-driven, core bargaining issues: smaller classes, less testing, more pre-kindergarten offerings, better school staffing, more parent engagement and a culturally relevant education.

Teachers, Rohlfing said, volunteered their time to generate signatures on the petition, which is still accepting signatures.

“They canvassed their neighborhoods after school,” Rohlfing said. “People went to PTA and PTO meetings at their school. We had people staffing tables on parent-teacher conference nights and at sporting events.”

The public outreach will continue, teachers say, throughout negotiations. The union has been releasing videos on its website, breaking down teachers’ contract proposals, where they came from and why they matter. Plans for lawn signs are in the works, Rohlfing said.

“We feel like the most important thing is to get our message directly to parents and community members through those people who they know and trust, the educators who work with their kids,” he added. “These are our public schools; they belong to all of us collectively.”

Tell members of the St. Paul Board of Education it’s time to move forward with negotiations on the teachers’ core bargaining issues. E-mail all board members at once: sb.members@spps.org.

Find videos breaking down the teachers’ core bargaining issues – like the one below about testing – at www.spft.org.

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Cigars, baseball, competitive cocktail mixing and more

May 1, 2013 by
Neighbors of the Lloyd C. Reppe, a polio victim, on St. Paul’s East Side saw “an exhibition of complete coordination, high skill and good fellowship” in May 1953, when 18 members of Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers Local 61 painted the Repp house – and did it in exactly two hours, according to the May 14 edition of The Union Advocate.

Neighbors of the Lloyd C. Reppe, a polio victim, on St. Paul’s East Side saw “an exhibition of complete coordination, high skill and good fellowship” in May 1953, when 18 members of Painters, Decorators and Paperhangers Local 61 painted the Repp house – and did it in exactly two hours, according to the May 14 edition of The Union Advocate.

[The Union Advocate’s “This Month in the Archives” feature offers a look back at what the newspaper was reporting from 5 to 100 years ago. Our digital archives are online, searchable and free to anyone. Click here for access.]

The St. Paul Cigarmakers struck a deal with the St. Paul Saints in May 1913, granting the union the exclusive privilege of selling cigars during baseball games at Lexington Park all season long.

The Minnesota Union Advocate, in its May 23 edition, celebrated the deal as “an advanced step” in efforts to promote “home industry by patronizing local manufactories.”

“In consequence of this step there will not be sold on the base ball grounds a single non-union cigar during the rest of the season,” The Advocate reported. “Union men who patronize the games can get such cigars as they want, made by union labor in clean and sanitary shops and of good and wholesome material.”

Under the terms of the deal, the cigar makers’ union operated vending stands throughout Lexington Park, located at the corner of Lexington Parkway and University Avenue.

The ballpark burned to the ground a year later – no word on whether cigar ash was to blame – but was quickly rebuilt. It housed the Saints, charter members of the minor league American Association, from 1897 through 1956, when the team moved to Midway Stadium.

75 Years Ago: Builders halted housing construction

In a first for the city of St. Paul, an association of 127 homebuilders shut down construction of more than 100 new homes in May 1938, locking out union carpenters and building laborers in an attempt to drive down wages.

The lockout, which began May 16, failed. The reason, according to analysis in The Advocate, was lack of public support.

“From its inception it was obvious that the strike was not popular with the general public,” The Advocate reported June 2.

In order to return to work, homebuilders demanded carpenters accept a cut in hourly wages from $1.25 to $1, and laborers accept a wage cut from 75 cents to 60 cents. Both wage scales had been established in union contracts settled a year earlier.

More, the homebuilders had no interest in negotiating a solution, according to The Advocate.

“On several occasions when the St. Paul Building Trades Council undertook to arrange meetings with the representatives of the Home Builders for the purpose of ironing out any misunderstandings … the association refused.”

Union members returned to work – without a pay cut – May 31.

60 Years Ago: Union bartenders held cocktail contest

Billed by The Advocate as “one of the most unique events in the history of St. Paul trade unionism,” the first citywide Cocktail Mixing Championship drew 18 union bartenders – and hundreds of thirsty spectators – to the Blue Ox Room of the Hotel St. Francis on May 19, 1953.

Co-sponsored by the ice industry, the Libbey Glass Company and Local 287 of the Bartenders Union, the competition awarded gold plaques to the “most original” entries in three categories: gin cocktail, whiskey cocktail and tall drink.

The Advocate reported the results in its May 21 edition:

“When the judges had turned in their score cards it was found that Vincent Gustafson, of Gannon’s, had won with his ‘Apple-blossom Cocktail,’ Reuben Katz, of the Hotel Lowry took a plaque for his ‘Sky Ride,’ a tall drink, and Nick Manson, of the Lexington bar, won the third plaque with his ‘Party Sipper.’”

(Sadly, The Advocate didn’t print recipes.)

The three winning drink formulas were entered in a nationwide contest.

Joan Simpson, a teacher at Webster Magnet Elementary School, was not only adopted by Steelworkers Local 7263, she was made an honorary member of the union.

Joan Simpson, a teacher at Webster Magnet Elementary School, was not only adopted by Steelworkers Local 7263, she was made an honorary member of the union.

25 Years Ago: Teachers ‘adopted’ by local unions

The St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly rolled out an “Adopt-a-Teacher” initiative in May 1988, lining up unions to sponsor St. Paul teachers to promote labor studies in their classroom.

Remedial reading teacher Mike LaBerge was adopted by Local 7201 of the Communications Workers of America – an experience that gave him a “fresh outlook” on the a labor movement, The Advocate reported June 6, 1988.

“LaBerge has attended one meeting of Local 7201 and plans to continue meeting with the local during the summer to develop lesson plans for the fall,” The Advocate reported.

The Trades and Labor Assembly spearheaded several initiatives to make labor studies a bigger part of public education, including a draft “labor curriculum” for students from kindergarten through 12th grade.

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In contract talks, teachers look to build ‘schools St. Paul children deserve’

April 24, 2013 by
Mary Cathryn Ricker, president of Local 28, urges members to get involved in the upcoming contract campaign.

Mary Cathryn Ricker, president of Local 28, urges members to get involved in the upcoming contract campaign.

Buoyed by broad-based community support, St. Paul teachers kicked off their contract campaign with a public celebration April 20, pledging to use negotiations with the district to build “the schools St. Paul children deserve.”

Negotiators for the St. Paul Public Schools and the St. Paul Federation of Teachers Local 28 will open talks this spring on a new contract that will extend through 2015.

At the Hallie Q. Brown Community Center, St. Paul teachers Kathy Bravel (left) and Laurel Kuhner Berker sign forms pledging to volunteer in support of SPFT’s contract campaign.

At the Hallie Q. Brown Community Center, St. Paul teachers Kathy Bravel (left) and Laurel Kuhner Berker sign forms pledging to volunteer in support of SPFT’s contract campaign.

At the Saturday-morning campaign kickoff, teachers unveiled a 30-page document – assembled with input from teachers, parents and community members – laying out the goals, priorities and values that will guide their negotiating team.

Mary Cathryn Ricker, president of Local 28, said the union began holding listening sessions with the public last fall. The union used feedback garnered during those meetings, along with the results of a survey sent to members over the winter, to draft the guiding document.

Priorities St. Paul teachers will bring to the negotiating table include several aimed at improving education outcomes – like greater access to preschool, culturally relevant coursework and smaller class sizes.

Other priorities address professional development and teacher evaluation that emphasizes “teaching, not testing.”

The April 20 kickoff event drew support from Gov. Mark Dayton, progressive groups like Take Action Minnesota and leaders in the labor movement, including St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Bobby Kasper.

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: , , ,

Labor 2012 Endorsed: Small business owner DeGree sees through GOP rhetoric

November 2, 2012 by

Tom DeGree is the labor-endorsed candidate for House District 39B.

Tom DeGree, the labor-endorsed candidate for House District 39B (map), is a small business owner, and his first campaign for public office has a distinctly entrepreneurial feel.

DeGree knows the numbers, from his campaign budget to the number of successful voter contacts volunteers have made during phone banks and door-knocks. The campaign has a dynamic website, and DeGree is reaching out to voters via social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

But most importantly, DeGree knows what consumers – the voters of District 39B – want, and it isn’t more of the same.

“People in this district are independent minded,” Degree said. “They don’t really see clearly down one part path, liberal or conservative. They are just sick of the gridlock, especially what happened with the state shutdown.”

DeGree brings a unique perspective to his campaign, as both a union member and a small business owner. So he knows firsthand that the policies pushed by Republicans in the Legislature the last two years – including his opponent, Kathy Lohmer – aren’t serving either side well.

As a teacher in the St. Paul Public Schools, DeGree has seen the effects of stagnant state funding for education – and the $2.4 billion school shift that forced districts to borrow money to meet their costs.

“The fiscally responsible Republicans charged up credit card debt with school loans,” DeGree said.

As a co-owner of Wilde Roast Café in Minneapolis, with a staff of 70 employees, DeGree also knows Republicans in the Legislature, by cutting state support for local governments, are effectively raising property taxes on small businesses.

“Property taxes are going up, I know this,” DeGree said. “The things they have done are not lowering taxes and creating jobs, even though Republicans claim they are.”

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Vote No Way: Union members rally against voter restriction, anti-marriage amendments

October 1, 2012 by

Members of AFSCME Council 5 join the “Vote No” rally in Rice Park.

More than 100 people joined a union-backed rally yesterday in Rice Park downtown St. Paul, voicing their support for statewide campaigns to vote “no” on constitutional amendments that would restrict Minnesotans’ freedoms and hurt their quality of life.

The state’s largest labor federation, the 300,000-member Minnesota AFL-CIO, opposes both constitutional amendments on the Nov. 6 ballot. One would limit the right to marry; the other would institute identification requirements limiting Minnesotans’ ability to vote.

Rally emcee Sue Scott, a member of SAG-AFTRA and a performer on public radio’s “A Prairie Home Companion,” called the amendments a calculated attempt to drive a wedge between Minnesotans. She urged union members not just to vote “no,” but to “vote no way!”

Other speakers included St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, AFSCME Council 5 Executive Director Eliot Seide and SEIU Healthcare Minnesota Vice President Tee McClenty, who said defeating the amendments – particularly voter restriction – will not happen unless unions get the facts out to their members.

The voter restriction amendment, if passed, will require state and local government to implement a costly new system for conducting elections – at a cost to taxpayers of more than $50 million.

“It may seem like common sense,” McClenty said, “but it’s an extreme makeover of a successful voting system.”

Bill Moore, president of the Minnesota State Retiree Council, AFL-CIO, called the photo ID requirement an assault on voting rights that would move the state backwards.

“I have a right to be presumed to be the person I say I am,” he said, adding that photo ID requirements “presume I am guilty of voter impersonation until proven innocent. It’s backward.”

Although “Vote No!” was the slogan of the day, some in the Rice Park crowd added a caveat, asking St. Paul voters to vote “yes” on a levy referendum for the St. Paul Public Schools. The levy question will appear on the opposite side of the ballot as the constitutional amendments.

“We’re asking people to vote ‘no’ twice on the front, and vote ‘yes’ on the back,” said Sue Snyder, a member of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers.

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Author sees reason for hope in Wisconsin recall campaign

May 8, 2012 by

John Nichols’ book “Uprising” provides an insider account of the union protests that swept across Wisconsin last year.

Progressive writer John Nichols energized and entertained during a May 2 lecture at the Carpenters Union Hall in St. Paul, providing a first-hand, insider’s account of union protests that swept across Wisconsin last year, sparking a renewed interest in grassroots democracy and progressive activism nationwide.

Nichols, a Wisconsin-based writer for The Nation magazine and author of the new book “Uprising,” appeared in St. Paul as part of The Friends of the St. Paul Public Library’s annual labor-history series, “Untold Stories.”

(That series continues tonight at 7 p.m. with “Czechs & Paychecks: Working-class History of West 7th,” a panel discussion at the CSPS Hall, 383 Michigan Street; and tomorrow with a post-show discussion following the Guthrie Theater’s presentation of “Are You Now or Have You Ever Been,” a play about Langston Hughes’ appearance at the McCarthy hearings. Click here for more information.)

Nichols brought a roomful of about 30 people back to the winter of 2011, when Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Republican majorities in the State Legislature outraged union members across the state with plans to strip teachers, nurses and other public employees of most of their collective-bargaining rights.

The governor’s plan was mean to address a budget “crisis” the Republicans created by handing out $140 million in tax breaks to corporations after sweeping into power during the 2010 elections. The so-called “budget-repair bill” eliminated public employees’ ability to deduct dues out of their paychecks, forced them to hold elections every year to “reconstitute” their unions and stripped them of their ability to negotiate for health insurance and pension benefits.

According to Nichols, Democratic lawmakers and many union leaders responded by throwing up their hands and warning union members to brace themselves for bad news.

But one local union of graduate-level teaching assistants from the University of Wisconsin decided to fight back. The union’s decision to protest inside the State Capitol, crowding the hallway outside Walker’s office, was a “light-bulb moment” for angry public employees across the state, Nichols said.

“Suddenly, everybody watching the TV news saw people protesting,” Nichols said. “And if you have an ongoing protest, it’s something people can join.”

And join they did. Emboldened by the demonstrators, Democratic state senators fled the state, preventing a vote on the union bill and forcing Walker and Republican lawmakers to face the public backlash and outrage it had created. Students and workers occupied the Capitol for 18 consecutive days, “assembling and petitioning for the redress of grievances, as they had been taught to do in school,” Nichols said.

“People weren’t waiting for politicians to solve their problems. They were demanding their basic rights, demanding their basic freedoms. That’s what Wisconsinites did.”

Although Walker’s attacks on public workers and their unions eventually passed into law, protests outside the Capitol drew hundreds of thousands of people, sowing the seeds of grassroots democracy that have now grown into a political effort to recall Walker, his lieutenant governor and four of his closest allies in the Legislature.

More than 1 million Wisconsinites signed onto the Walker recall, the highest percentage of a state’s population ever to petition for removal of a leader. The state is holding a primary election today to determine Walker’s opponent in the June 5 recall election.

Nichols said he remains hopeful the recall will succeed, pointing to Walker’s sliding poll numbers. “We will be told again and again that we’ve been defeated, that we have to accept what we are told, that we can’t win this fight,” he said. Then Nichols offered the advice of Wisconsin’s former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold: “This fight isn’t over until we win it.”

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