“At least we’re not the CTA!”

 “At least we’re not Florida!”

In hopes that CFT is becoming more of a fighting union, I attended the first two days of the 2.5-day CFT convention, March 17-19, in San Francisco, skipping Randi Weingarten’s speech on the final day. Sadly, I had to conclude that it’s the same old CFT — and the most militant of CFT leaders sheepishly admit it. In two separate conversations, I was told “At least we’re not the CTA!” 

The convention wasn’t about being a stronger union.. What happened to plans to coordinate contract campaigns across the state? Why were these plans scuttled? Will we collaborate with other unions? Will educators join the CA Nurses’ fight for CalCare? None of this was addressed at the convention, which was nearly devoid of union rhetoric, let alone action.

What the convention was about was politics. Featured speakers Keith Boykin told stories of Harvard Law School and decades of work for neoliberal Democrats; Jane Elliot, billed as an anti-racism activist, made sure that everyone understood that we are not white or black, but all just shades of brown; Gavin Newsom, grinning maniacally, appeared on video, with a rambling, incoherent, and frankly inebriated-seeming word salad; and then CFT president Jeff Freitas spoke. He’s a good speaker. He railed against a long list of social ills, with a refrain of “united for justice, united for education.” Like all of the speakers, he made a lot of the book-banning, racism, and anti-LGBTQ+ movement in Florida.

More and more, the Newsom Democrats and the CFT (if there is a difference), have used the strategy of “at least we aren’t Florida/CTA” in order to distract us, so they can avoid addressing the growing socioeconomic inequality. Educators continue to fall further behind similarly educated workers. Campaigns which culminated in strikes or near-strikes in Oakland, LA, Sacramento, Mt. Diablo, West Contra Costa have already failed to keep up with cost of living. During this period of steep inflation, workers’ wages have increased, but not enough to keep up with rising prices. And to make matters, these modest increases in salary are actually being blamed by the Democrats for inflation, and policies are being devised to put millions out of work!

At the end of his speech, out of nowhere, Freitas asserted that we will get a “50% raise over five years.” How will that happen? He didn’t say. True, Resolution 4, “Wealth Tax to Fund California Schools and Social Services” was passed. The resolution notes that the richest 1% of Californians have a combined wealth of $2 trillion, having increased that wealth by 50% from March, 2020. A tax of just 1% would thus generate $20 billion/year. However, the resolution also stated (without explaining why) that previous efforts to get the CA Legislature to impose a tax on the wealthiest have all failed, despite widespread popularity. The implication seems clear: CFT does not have confidence in its ability to use collective action to convince Newsom and the Legislature to overcome their desire to avoid having anything to do with a wealth tax.

Okay, so CFT is not identical with CTA. Still, the same is true of both unions: after years of maintaining labor peace, rank and file educators are generally so uninvolved and uninformed that union leaders now have a ready excuse for being unable to even try to mobilize members to mount a collective battle. Similarly, CA Democrats have conceded so much ground over the years, and become so reliant on billionaire donations that they no longer favor the interests of workers over the 1%. So we see Newsom traveling to Florida, not for the sake of Floridians, but to keep us paying our union dues, to contribute to him, to fight a battle which doesn’t even exist in California.

We rank and file will need to take matters into our own hands, and unite across the state.

    Dan Plonsey

Berkeley High School, 

         Berkeley Federation of Teachers