HealthNow Office Workers and Teachers Rally
• Concessions Are Not Solutions
HealthNow Office Workers and Teachers Rally
Concessions Are Not Solutions
On April 27, despite threats of storms and tornados, Buffalo teachers and office workers from Blue Cross Blue Shield’s Healthnow organized spirited picket lines. Back to back demonstrations of more than 200 opposed attacks against teachers and workers. Both rallies spoke to the fact that teachers and workers have already faced cuts and made concessions yet are being called on to give yet more in a situation where their rights are not being met. What stood out is the fact that Concessions Are Not Solutions. The demands being made on the workers and teachers will solve no problem and will in fact make the situation far worse.
The office workers from Healthnow were in the midst of negotiating their contract when Blue Cross Blue Shield locked them out. Negotiators literally got phone calls while negotiating not to report to work! The union representative from the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) brought out that workers three years ago made concessions on their pensions, only to find themselves again being asked to sacrifice more. Rally participants gave a resounding NO! On April 29, 96 percent of the workers voted down the contract. They instead are calling basically for a stand-pat contract and demanding that Blue Cross Blue Shield end the lock out now.
OPEIU also raised that Blue Cross is not bargaining in good faith, refusing to respond to union offers while also posting their offers on the company website before the union even receives it. The lockout and refusal to bargain are indicative of the fact that the old post-WW II arrangements between labor and the monopolies no longer hold. The monopolies, as well as state governments, are simply dictating terms and unilaterally taking action against the workers. This is a problem workers everywhere are contending with and one that will require breaking new ground, in terms of tactics and organizing for rights. It is the independent views and agenda of the working class that must become central in the political and economic affairs of the city and the country. This is the challenge facing workers as they contend with the struggle for their rights and the rights of all.
The office workers were joined by various other unions and other organizations, which stood together with them to demand that the rights of workers be respected and that there is one fight being waged by all, for the rights of all.
The rally by teachers opposed yet more attacks on their working conditions, with the city threatening to transfer 400 teachers from what are called “failing” schools, while refusing to negotiate a contract that provides the teaching conditions required. Organized by the Buffalo Teachers Federation (BTF), the teachers rallied at City Hall to show the School Board meeting at the time, that they will fight for the rights of students and teachers.
Conditions for teachers are the learning conditions for students. Buffalo teachers and students already contend with the violence of poverty, with Buffalo perennially the second or third poorest city in the country, after Detroit and Cleveland. What is needed is to provide conditions for teachers to teach and students to learn, and as teachers brought out, to stop using the students and teachers as pawns to justify yet more attacks on them.
Buffalo schools have seen repeated layoffs of teachers and staff, including librarians and nurses, wage freezes and refusals to provide negotiated step increases. All of these attacks have not improved the schools, but have instead made the situation worse for students and teachers alike.
In addition, federal and state governments are setting the schools up for failure by refusing to provide the funding required and using arbitrary tests that show nothing about educational quality. But using the tests, schools are designated as “failing,” so as to impose yet more attacks on teachers and students, such as the wholesale transfer of 400 teachers.
There is no doubt that Buffalo Public Schools are not providing the education required of our youth, especially for African Americans and Latinos, who are forced out at record rates. An estimated 75 percent of African American and Latino males do not graduate. High school. This is a failure of government, first of all, which has responsibility to provide the right to education, including conditions where teachers can teach and students can learn. As the rally brought to the fore, education is a right and by fighting for that right, solutions are being found.
OPEIU Workers Protest Lock Out by Blue Cross, Blue Shield
Buffalo Teachers Say "Let Teachers Teach and Students Learn"
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