The Teachers’ Strike of 1970
By Stephen Jay Morris
Sunday, January 06, 2019
©Scientific Morality
Here we go again. History has a nasty habit of repeating itself. The set-up is very similar to the teachers’ strike of 1970 in Los Angeles. Weeks before the strike, the union proposes a new contract with the school district. The school district bureaucrats, who are self-appointed guardians of the taxpayers say, “No! Just renew your old contract and we will be friends.” Management starts out as intransigent and impervious. It then becomes self-conscious, not wanting to look too weak or callous. Management goes to the negotiating table and is slightly flexible. The union gives a deadline to management to settle. The news media sensationalizes the negotiations, using phrases like “Talks have broken off!” “Millions of students will wander the streets without supervision!” It builds the suspense. Then, enter the Right wing pundits, proclaiming how evil the unions are. The day of reckoning arrives and the teachers hit the bricks! The television news media gets on-the-spot interviews with students. They select which interviews to use, which are without fail, those with comments opposing the strike. One student says, “I come to school to get an education, not sit around all day, doing nothing!”
I was a student during the first strike of the United Teachers of Los Angeles (U.T.LA.) in April 1970. The Union had just organized. Right out of the starting gate, they hussled for a new contract. This was during the Republican Nixon presidency, the war in Vietnam, and the shootings at Kent State & Jackson State. Timing is everything. The Union knew there was a lot of dissention in the air and that the public would be sympathetic to the cause.
I wrote about the 1970’s teachers’ strike in my manuscript “Hidden in the Rotunda.” I have taken random excerpts from that unpublished book and present them here:
The following is from Chapter 8 of my book, “Hidden in the Rotunda.”
I remember the night of April 24th; I stayed up late, listening to the Progressive radio station, KPFK FM. It was the only progressive media around. Like today, the only media that was widely available was the corporate media. Oh, sometimes PBS on UHF had some leftish programming, but on the airways, KPFK was the only game in town. The local TV news had reporters waiting, with microphone in hand, for the results of the vote in front of Union Hall. Throughout that night, they gave updates, but didn’t really know anything of substance. This broadcast not only affected me, but also my brothers and sister. A member of my family would rush into my room, asking, “Heard anything?” Then, at around a quarter to eleven, I heard that the talks were breaking down with management! This meant, in laymen’s terms, that they weren’t getting anywhere. Then at midnight I heard, “Negotiations have stalled and the strike is on! The Board of Education is threatening a court injunction to stop the strike!” It was on! On April 25th, the L.A. teachers staged a walk out and they hit the picket lines.
My grandfather was in the garment union for many years. That union improved his life vastly. They provided health care and other fringe benefits. Before that, he was working in a sweatshop as a single-needle operator. All those years of sitting on his ass for 16 hours a day ruined his back for life! He was only 13 years old when he dropped out of school to work in a factory to support his family! He once asked his supervisor if he could have a penny raise, and the supervisor grabbed him by his shirt collar and literally threw him out of his office! After hearing that story, I became a fervent union supporter.
One thing a union supporter would never do was to cross a picket line! That was an anathema to me. It didn’t matter if was a Teamster strike or farm workers grapes boycott, I would never cross a picket line. I wasn’t going to start now!
When the teachers went on strike, there were four types of students. One was the conformist who showed up everyday, ensured that the substitute teacher got their name in the roll book, and sat at their desk all day until it was time to go. The second type was the party teen that took the day off and went to the beach, or to someone’s house to smoke weed. The third was the student of strict parents who would enroll their kid in some private school. And, then there were students like me, who organized a support group and marched with the teachers. We chanted, “The teachers’ demands are our demands!” I detail these activities at length in my book.
Well, the situation is almost the same now. There is a lot of anti-Trump and anti-Republican sentiment. This is the time to strike. The deadline is fast approaching: Thursday, January 10, 2019.
The UTLA has always settled for less. This time, I think it will happen again.