Oh
There it is yep busted pencils fully let it
Education talk educated educators talking education
We don't want you to die though. Hey happy labor day
Celebrating here here it is
Johnny it's him
owning that blue collar scholar
Label today or title whatever you want to put it through but Johnny, you know a little bit of our own roots in
You know yours in Detroit mine in Pittsburgh you the auto workers me with the steel workers and realizing you know two coming into this labor day
and then both of us as educators and
My first teachers union
1990
in southern Virginia
I got that little pull from the side gone. Have you joined the teachers union yet?
And in southern Virginia in the early 90s
There were no local state affiliated teacher union only a connection to the national union at that time
It was a FT. That's right. No, they're to this day in Virginia that if you want to join out there are no local teachers unions
Because of still looking at these laws think about that right
Creating laws that forbid people from hang this is what I always like to take you hanging out together so that together we can make
Decisions and asks of our employers to do the right thing by us
We're gonna outlaw that and in fact
I know all the listeners and Wisconsin going to be like oh, yeah act 10 man act 10
The crowning kind of like moment of going we are going to literally outlaw what we call collective bargaining
And in fact, I'd say this is one of the reasons act 10 was actually
Put together a lot of the the the kind of
Roundwork that put together busted pencils because it was at that time
Where when that happened in Madison, Wisconsin? I was doing some smaller radio and a colleague in the Madison area asked me to do some commentary
Just kind of came on and was like tell Tim tell me about this collective bargaining
I was like, yeah, I said it's really interesting because your state now has outlawed the ability
For organizations to ask
For better wages and better competition compensation or or better the ability to ask again collective bargaining was no guarantee of raises
But we literally outlawed the ability to ask well and Tim
You know that's that's similar as a Detroit teachers aft
Because the Michigan Educators Association is not the is you can belong to it
But it's not the official union of Detroit public schools. That's the aft the American Federation teachers
Which has grown so much and we couldn't be more excited you can listen back to previous show
We had current president Randy wine garden on
From the aft talking about the exciting growth of the aft not only the union for so many teachers around this country
But also the second largest union for nurses and those I brought they bring that up intentionally because the beginning of the show
I talked a little bit about the history of teacher unions a Margaret Ailey and the feminized labor of teaching
Right and that history
Nursing and teaching our kin and that work right care work in our communities absolutely essential
We saw that during covid like how we did essential workers right and and thinking about that
We often think about unions in those times like you're talking about and certainly important
Discollective bargaining when we talk about wages and we talk about those kinds of things like our schedules
And whatnot
But even more so in a big picture. I love like 10,000 foot view
Right unions aren't perfect
They're not only to ask for things
There are an insurance
That there is like really healthy communication between labor and sometimes the interests of profiteers
Or owners of companies or organizations or political leaders who have power that centralized away from
The masses the stakeholders the people in the trenches those trenches for education being classrooms
Yeah, so they're they're they're a mechanism of practicing democracy within the trade
And that's extended whether you were and so my first experience
Right with with unions besides being a kid and union families right like what what why weren't we reading the newspaper
Well the newspaper was on strike right so the the writers of the free press
We are striking and so we weren't
Supporting the newspaper until they they had a like arrived at
Fair labor conditions for their writers for the photographers for the people who delivered the newspaper all those things
That was similar around food the teamsters like the trucks that bring our foods in the farmers
That that you know grow the crops that's in our health right all of these things collectively
Contribute to a state of well-being in our country and so growing up there were always strikes and boy boycotts
And and we understood solidarity
More than just about when we ask for more money, right? It ought that that's a that's a intentional
Emphasis that like media puts on this that you know, it's it's a political spin out there
I'll say it's propaganda it's anti-union propaganda
Because it isn't every way how we talk about how together in a democracy
We support one another and so it is really interconnected
And that's easy to experience growing up as a kid, but you know my first jobs bagging groceries
Right at a local grocery store you were in a union 15 years old with my writer my working permit
Right, I was part of a union. You got a card like Tim said hanging out you went to union meetings
You had a union rep
Somebody who came through and checked in with all of us kids who were collecting carts
Right bagging groceries carrying them out the cars stuff like that getting nostalgic about you know my my early 90s employment
But it was across the board all these different
Different levels and then as a teacher as a student teacher someone becoming a teacher
The MEA for legal representations should you need it right you are now part of an association
That made sure they had your back and in return in return the only ask
Was do the very best by your profession go out and do good work and part of that
This is the part Tim that blue collar scholars. I want to emphasize
Part of that original back in the day agreement with Margaret Haley in the very first teacher unions
Where to say the UAW said guess what we got your back
You want to organize AFT after hours? We got an office come use our office
We're doing a lot of labor organizing around united auto workers
But we have phones we have offices you can use after hours when we're not Adam
You can use those to organize your union in fact you
If you strike we can't go to work
If we strike please support our strikes and understand the only thing we're asking and this is this is you can get into the archives
I have I'm lucky to have studied this it's like we talk about being blue collar scholars
Right you can go into the archives at the at Wayne State University library all the it is the archive for labor history
And the only ask the actual conversation was teach our children about the importance of unions
And about the importance of working hard in your community, right?
So Tim we get back to that OG agreements a memo of understanding between teachers
And auto workers and all kinds of laborers
Bus defences fully let it education talk a lot more about labor day coming up
You