DC School Workers Vow to Fight

"Union leaders representing D.C. public school teachers, bus drivers, custodians, teachers aides and other workers testified today that they fear proposed legislation to give Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee the authority to fire nonunion central office employees ‘at will’ would eventually reach them," reported Nikita Stewart in the Washington Post Friday, November 2. "Their fears of 'a slippery slope' have been known for the past two weeks, but the leaders, including the president of the 4,000-member Washington Teachers' Union, addressed the council publicly on the bill for the first time today," Stewart continued. Joining WTU President George Parker in testifying were Metro Council President Jos Williams, AFGE Council 20's George Johnson, Teamsters 639's Tommy Ratliff and WTU Local 6's Nathan Saunders. Although the Principal's union, the Council of School Officers (CSO), did not testify, CSO's Bernard Lucas has stated publicly that the union opposes the Fenty-Rhee bill. "We will not stand by and allow this bill to go into effect without a fight," Williams testified. "We do not want history to say of us - they came for the managers and supervisors and we remained silent; they came for the non-union workers and we remained silent; then they came for the unionized workforce and we were on our own." Council Chairman Vincent Gray said "We know there are also people who perform well. In the course of finding a way to root out ineffectiveness and low performance, it is important also to be fair and objective.”