Labor Notes, Newsletter
April 20, 2018
Arizona educators voted overwhelmingly in favor of a walkout, following three days of balloting this week. Last night, they announced they'll begin walkouts next Thursday, with school walk-ins Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to build momentum.
Two weeks ago Arizona Educators United, a grassroots movement of educators working in parallel to the union, unveiled its list of demands, which included a 20 percent raise for all Arizona teachers. Multimillionaire Republican Governor Doug Ducey initially responded by digging in his heels, saying he would follow this year’s meager 1 percent raise with another 1 percent raise next year.
Just two days later, under ever-mounting pressure from teachers and the public, Ducey folded, announcing a plan to grant a 20 percent raise by 2020. But many teachers pointed out that the raise was unaccounted for in the budget, and wanted a dedicated source of funding to win more than an empty promise. Teachers also noted that their demand was to raise the wages of all school workers, as well as win more funding for schools for much-needed repairs, new textbooks, and smaller class sizes, all unaddressed in the governor's proposal.
Now they're set to walk out on Thursday, the latest in the wave of strikes by teachers that kicked off in West Virginia earlier this year.
Stay tuned to labornotes.org and the next issue of our magazine for more coverage.