may-june

COMMEMORATING

MAY - JUNE 2018 CEA ADVISOR 5

HUNDREDS MARK ANNIVERSARY OF BRIDGEPORT TEACHERS STRIKE 40 years later, message still relevant

If you haven’t met Joe Zawawi, there’s a good chance you will. Zawawi, who started out as a What’s your primary focus? JZ: This year we’ve done a lot of ‘blitz’ organizing, where we go into a school district and, working in pairs with a teacher from the district, have conversations with teachers during their prep time about what it’s like to work in their school. These candid talks give us an idea of the challenges our members face and how we, as a union, can support them. So far we’ve had conversations with over 4,000 teachers in more than 125 schools. I have been struck by how willing teachers are to talk with us when we visit their schools, despite the fact that we’re invading their prep time. Teachers understand what we are up against as a professional association and know that the path forward requires solidarity. I think we are learning some powerful lessons from our sisters and brothers in states like West Virginia, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Kentucky. What’s your favorite thing about working for CEA? JZ: There’s a lot that I love about this job. CEA employs some of the smartest, hardest-working people I have ever been around. I love that every day is different. Hundreds of active and retired teachers, some of whom hadn’t seen each other in decades, gathered to commemorate a historic milestone— the Bridgeport teachers strike of 1978—which, for many, has brought to mind the wave of uprisings and walkouts happening across the country today. “How ironic that the timing of this 40th anniversary plays into the Supreme Court case of Janus v. AFSCME , an attack on the very people who are here today and all those we represent,” said CEA President Sheila Cohen. “How ironic, as well, that the timing is seemingly synchronized with what has been happening in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arizona, and soon, North Carolina.” Seeking fair wages and better working conditions, including prep time and smaller class sizes, a total of 274 Bridgeport teachers in 1978 were handcuffed, fined, and jailed, as well as strip-searched, deloused, made to use bathroom stalls without doors, and subject to other degradations. “The Bridgeport strike was a defining moment for our union,” said Southington striker and retired teacher Robert Brown, adding, “I am honored to be in a room full of heroes—not only strikers from 1978 but also every educator here who is still teaching today.” CEA UniServ Rep, is now responsible for statewide organizing and leadership development.

Sandy Petrucelli-Carbone, one of the strikers in 1978, recalled the fear she felt as she answered the judge on the day she was sentenced. “I was scared and shaking.” After packing a small bag and saying goodbye to her students and her family, she was loaded onto a schoolbus and driven to a maximum- security prison in Niantic. En route, she remembers throngs of people gathered in the streets to cheer on the detained teachers. “People everywhere were shouting, ‘We stick together!’” Petrucelli-Carbone was one of dozens of strikers who attended the commemorative dinner in Bridgeport on May 10, recalling their experience with great emotion, pride, and the hope that what they had achieved would not soon be lost or forgotten. Some were seasoned veterans at the time of the strike; for others, it was their first day on the job. Forty years later Applauding the “spirit and courage of those teachers in the face of a truly daunting situation,” CEA Executive Director Donald Williams celebrated the fact that as a result of the strike, the Connecticut legislature passed the 1979 Teacher Collective Bargaining Act, which mandates binding arbitration when teachers and the districts they work for reach a stalemate in contract negotiations.

shoulders of the Bridgeport teachers, some of whom were jailed so that Connecticut teachers then, now, and in the future could belong to unions and work in an environment of professional respect and human dignity.” Other speakers at the commemorative dinner included Bridgeport Education Association President Gary Peluchette, Bridgeport strikers Ronald Remy and James Hodge, and the youngest strike supporter, Melanie Haslam Kolek, whose mother was three months pregnant with her in the fall of 1978. Kolek is now a CEA attorney representing teachers.

“Little did they know 40 years ago, and little do they know now, that when we are attacked, we stand together,” said Cohen. “We stand together strong, and we fight back. The lessons learned in Connecticut 40 years ago have helped embolden educators across this nation to say ‘enough’—enough of professionals having to work multiple jobs in order to make a living wage, enough of professionals having to purchase resources for their classrooms, enough of state governments eviscerating the rights of teachers and making a mockery of their well- deserved pensions and benefits. All of us here today stand upon the The first wave of arrests included Bridgeport Spanish teacher Joe Vincenzi, who was handcuffed to history teacher Andy Figlar. At the commemorative dinner, the two joined hands in solidarity and remembrance. Member engagement is vital to a strong union, says Darien Building Rep Katy Gale. When members are more engaged, she explains, they feel empowered and capable of effecting change. “My local has taken member engagement really seriously,” the fifth-grade Hindley Elementary teacher says. “We have made it a point to meet one-on-one with almost every member and really listen to them and hear about what’s important to them. Now we can move forward and develop a plan to meet everyone’s needs.” Gale describes the one-on-one conversations as “phenomenal,” because they open up the lines of communication and strengthen relationships between members and local Association leaders. She encourages other union leaders, “If you haven’t done it in your local, do it.” With so much competing for teachers’ time and attention, Gale says she makes sure her members know, “The union isn’t me. The union isn’t our CEA President Sheila Cohen. The union is all of us working together.” As a building rep, Gale makes sure teachers are informed about the issues that affect them in their school, district, town, state, and nationally. With an important election coming up this fall, Gale reminds members about the power Building Rep Says Member Engagement Is What Makes Unions Strong Meet this month’s building rep superhero, Darien’s Katy Gale

CEA President Sheila Cohen addressed active and retired teachers at a commemoration of the Bridgeport teachers strike.

Joe Zawawi, CEA Training and Organizational Development Specialist

Mostly, I love being in the schools listening to teachers. Every school has its own unique vibe. What keeps you busy when you’re not in schools? JZ: I help plan CEA’s Summer Conference, New Teacher Conference, and trainings for new local Association presidents. What did you do before CEA? JZ: After receiving my master’s degree in labor studies from UMass Amherst, I worked for AFT Connecticut starting in 1992 as a field representative. In your free time you… JZ: Hang out with the fam. I’ve been married to my wife, Michelle, for 27 years. Our son, John, is a junior at UMass Amherst, and our daughter, Ally, is a junior at Suffield High School. What were you like as a kid? Any funny memories? JZ: Sorry—I was a boring kid! Zawawi at the 2018 March for Our Lives in D.C.

they have to elect pro-public education candidates. “It’s so important for teachers to get out and vote in November because we will be electing the people who represent us and the families of the students we teach,” Gale says. She adds, “We have the power to elect people who can do right by public schools and the communities we live in. That’s on us.” If you are looking for assistance with one-on-ones or training in teacher organizing, contact your local president, CEA UniServ Representative, or CEA Training and Organizational Development Specialist Joe Zawawi.