Ann Arbor public school teachers enter sixth month without a new contract
Ann Arbor Public Schools teachers have now gone nearly six months without a contract following their near-unanimous rejection of a tentative agreement.
Anthony Callahan•
Educators Rank-and-File Committee
The Educators Rank-and-File Committee is an international network of educators, students, parents, and workers fighting for workers power in the schools, to stop the capitalist destruction of public education and eliminate COVID-19.
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No to the censorship of anti-war meetings! Against the militarization of the University of Stuttgart!
The university is to be brought into line, critical voices are to be silenced, while the campus is being transformed into a military research facility and recruitment ground for war.
IYSSE•
Committee for Public Education online public meeting
Vote No to AEU-Labor sellout! Build independent rank-and-file committees! Fund education not war!
The Committee for Public Education urges educators and workers to join the meeting to discuss how to develop the fight against the sellout deal between the Australian Education Union and the Victorian state Labor government, and the underlying austerity and war agenda of the federal Labor government.
Committee for Public Education•
Australia: Queensland teachers in arbitration straitjacket, facing long pay freeze
After reluctantly calling a second statewide stoppage in November to head off teachers’ discontent, the QTU leadership shut down further industrial action and effectively joined hands with the state government to refer the dispute to compulsory arbitration.
Mike Head•
Our reporters•
Tom Hall, Mike Ingram•
Our reporters•
Coleman Prince, Nancy Hanover•
Tom Peters•
Nexteer workers: Vote NO! Prepare to walk out! The fight is ours to win!
The Nexteer Workers Rank-and-File Committee issued this statement to 1,300 workers at the Saginaw, Michigan plant voting on a third sellout contract pushed by the UAW bureaucracy.
Nexteer Workers Rank-and-File Committee•
Attend Sunday’s meeting to vote for an immediate Nexteer strike!
After workers voted down a second UAW-backed contract by 73 percent, local union officials called a membership meeting for Sunday. The following is a statement by the Nexteer Workers Rank-and-File Committee.
Nexteer Workers Rank-and-File Committee•
Worker with 35 years at Canadian Coca-Cola distributor terminated following job injury
Days after making a splash in the local Calgary media by unveiling a new $75 million state-of-the-art warehouse facility, Coca-Cola Canada Bottling Limited unceremoniously axed an injured worker with 35 years at the company—essentially crying poor.
Steve Hill•
Nexteer worker on sellout tentative agreement: “Everybody wants a strike because right now we’re in control”
A “no” vote on the new TA and strike by the 1,300 Nexteer workers could spark a mass movement of auto parts workers and galvanize production workers at the Big Three factories.
Barry Grey•
David Harrison•
National Steel Car Rank-and-File Committee•
Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee (UK)•
Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee•
Springfield NDC Workers Rank-and-File Committee•
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the term “rank-and-file” mean and where does it come from?
“Rank-and-file” is originally a military term. It refers to the lower “ranks” of soldiers, who literally stand in lines or “files”. These soldiers have a different set of interests in preserving their lives than the officers or “brass” who prosecute the wars on behalf of the ruling elite.
Rank-and-file committees are of, by and for the rank-and-file workers, who have a different set of interests in preserving their lives than management, the bosses, the politicians, and the trade union apparatus, who send workers to die while defending the profits of the ruling elite.
Is it legal to build rank-and-file committees of educators and other workers to stop the spread of COVID-19?
Yes. The formation of rank-and-file committees is 100% completely legal under the First Amendment to the US Constitution.
The right to freedom of speech means you can say whatever you like about what you agree or disagree with. Freedom of association, also covered under the first amendment, means you have the right to associate with others who share your views, for political ends. You also have the right to petition the government for redress, to make demands on the government and tell them what you want them to do.
Does HIPAA law prevent schools or workplaces from disclosing information about the spread of COVID-19?
No. HIPAA has an exception for disclosures to prevent and control the spread of disease, but the state is deliberately not invoking this exception in order to conceal information from workers, so that they can pretend that what they are doing is safe when it’s not.
Rank-and-file educators have the right to know who’s gotten sick, where, when, and what happened. Rank-and-file committees have to demand this information, and have to share it with other workers as a matter of collective self defense.