After a 16-day strike, Detroit teachers are back at work having resisted vicious attacks on their pay and benefits. Union members voted on Sept. 13 to approve a tentative contract, which includes pay increases in 2007 and 2008. School management had sought a 5.5 percent cut in wages. The final vote on the contract will come via mail-in ballots.
The teachers staged spirited rallies and pickets throughout the strike and defied a court order to return to work, despite the state government’s threats of fines. Politicians and media outlets also attempted to scapegoat the teachers for school district problems, but the teachers remained undeterred and unified.
The raises to come in 2007 and 2008 will be the first since 2003. The district also agreed to speed up repayment of five days’ wages that the teachers loaned to the district in 2004 to help ease a budget crisis. Pay increases for seniority are also restored under the contract, legal assistance to teachers is maintained, and notice given before layoffs will remain at 60 days. The district had attempted to eliminate legal assistance to teachers targeted in lawsuits and to cut layoff notices to 10 days.
The new contract does include significant increases in healthcare payments for some teachers, cuts in sick days and preparation time, and other cuts in non-wage items. These major concessions are less than what the district wanted.
Throughout the strike, Detroit teachers stated repeatedly that their compensation was only part of the issue. Time and again, they called attention to deteriorating school buildings, shortages in books and other basic supplies, and racist inequalities in funding between urban and suburban districts.
The teachers’ struggle succeeded in fending off the school district’s most severe anti-worker demands. But the struggle for just working conditions and equal education will continue.
Click here to read about how Detroit teachers defied a court order.
Click here to read about the beginning of the strike.
