During this session, we opened discussion on teachers unions and the case of Ocean Hill, Brownsville, NY. A large part of the discussion centered around race and how whiteness is maintained in the structure of education. Our readings exemplified what social justice unionism can accomplish, fostering thought around, “what’s at stake?”. We put social justice unionism in Philadelphia context by focusing on The Caucus of Working Educators (WE), a group of rank and file members of The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT). This upcoming year, 2020, The WE Caucus, is contesting the current PFT leadership for a second time. We heard from two WE members in class who shared their belief in the caucus and their visions for a stronger union. Grass-roots organizing strategy is based on 1:1 conversations and building relationships of trust. We had our class practice organizing conversations to prepare for future phone banking opportunities of calling PFT members to campaign for WE.

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During this session, the class explored the histories of labor unions in the United States, tracing contemporary efforts for unionization to the long histories of labor organizing. We started with a group reflection, inviting students to respond to the question “What does labor mean to you?” on the white board. We then broke out into small groups to discuss case studies on the following labor events: PATCO air traffic controllers strike, grad student unionization, Ocean Hill Brownsville, and fast food workers. Finally, we hosted a group of education labor activists from a number of Philadelphia-based organizations to speak on a panel about their experiences.

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