The teachers and counselors who keep our schools running are fed up. In the buildup to our union’s contract negotiations, it became clear that management had no respect for the people who make education possible. While the top two bosses handed themselves outrageous raises of 14 percent and 26 percent, they had the audacity to offer the rest of us—a workforce dedicated to students, families, and communities— a measly 1 percent. Given that 45 percent of teachers in the district are Latin, this is a clear, racist attack that won’t go unanswered. Progressive Labor Party (PLP) members have been organizing and encouraging others to fight back. Even more so, teachers need to fight for communist revolution, which goes beyond winning a decent pay increase.

Under capitalism, education serves the bosses only

Management’s message was loud and clear: we’re not valued as professionals. We’re treated as disposable labor, just like workers in any other capitalist corporation, whether it’s Amazon, Starbucks, or any other profit-driven exploiter. Education may be wrapped in talk of “mission” and “values,” but beneath it lies the same old class structure—bosses on top, workers at the bottom, and exploitation holding the whole system together.

Last spring, 15 strong and vocal union members attended a board meeting to call out management for failing to put money where it matters—into classrooms and students. Yet, we left for the summer with no contract in place. 

Taking action against management

Management came back at the start of the new school year with a nonsense offer that moved many union members into action. Teachers created and disseminated a Google Slide presentation exposing the exploitation we are facing in comparison to neighboring districts. This drove people to organize a protest at a fancy fundraiser event the management was hosting. People who paid up to $1000 per plate to enter the event had to walk right past a protest of 60 teachers, counselors and students telling the truth about what was really going on in the organization. That action helped spark a historic NO vote of the weak contract proposal, shaking management to its core.

This fall, we came back stronger. With more time to organize and more members fired up, we planned to pack the next board meeting with teachers, counselors, students, and families. But management, terrified of the growing power of organized workers, cancelled the board meeting the day before.

They thought they could silence us—but we refused to back down. Instead, 60 people rallied for hours outside the home office, chanting, giving speeches, and getting honks and cheers from community members passing by. The rally showed our power and our growing unity. A comrade from PLP gave a spirited speech, connecting our fight to the broader struggle of the working class. A link was made between the fight for “fair” contracts and education to the fight against deportations and ICE raids that terrorize our students and families.

We are learning that our power comes not from negotiation tables or polite appeals to “fairness,” but from collective action and standing shoulder to shoulder with students, parents, and workers everywhere. Our slogan rings truer every day: Students’ learning conditions are teachers’ working conditions!

We’re organizing not just for better wages or benefits, but for the kind of education and society our students truly deserve. But under capitalism, education will always serve the needs of the bosses, not the people. Every “budget shortfall” and “tight contract” is just another way to protect profits and control workers.

That’s why our struggle can’t stop at the bargaining table. We need a revolution for a communist world where education is built on cooperation, not competition, where no one profits off our labor, and where workers run society for human need, not capitalist greed.

We’ll keep organizing. We’ll keep fighting. And as our movement grows, so will our understanding that every contract fight is a class fight. We will continue to use this fight as a step toward building the power we need to win a world free from exploitation.
Workers and students, unite! Fight for the world we deserve!