Andrew Lee Nicole Cardoza Andrew Lee Nicole Cardoza

Support workers’ rights for educators.

Hate crime charges serve as a sentencing enhancement when someone acts with bias while committing a crime. This bias must be against members of a protected class – such as a specific race, religion, or sexual orientation – and it must be a motivating factor for the crime (Time). It seems reasonable that a crime is more odious if it occurs solely because the victim is a member of an oppressed community.

​It's Friday! Welcome back to the newsletter. Yesterday, the CDC announced that fully vaccinated people can be indoors and outdoors in most places without a mask (NBC News). This news has prompted many industries to call for a full re-opening of businesses, including public school classrooms across the U.S. (Politico). Today, Andrew shares the perspective of educators – particularly those of color – and how we can support their wellbeing through this transition.

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Thank you to everyone that gives a little when they can to keep this newsletter going! If you can, consider giving $7/month on Patreon. Or you can give one-time on our website or PayPal. You can also support us by joining our curated digital community. This newsletter will continue to be a free resource because of this collective support.
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Nicole

ps – apologies for the incorrect takeaways yesterday! I'm still trying to get the hang of this new platform. They're correct on the web version of our archives.

TAKE ACTION

GET EDUCATED

By Andrew Lee (he/him)

We’re a long way from the early days of the pandemic when the nurses, grocery store clerks, and pharmacists who kept society running were praised as heroes (Newsweek). Instead of celebrating essential workers, some now focus on punishing those workers “too lazy” to return to what are often menial, low-paying jobs (Jacobin).

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Teachers fall into both categories. They’re celebrated and considered essential while at the same time scorned if they don’t want to return to dangerous work conditions. Educators can provide the next generation with the skills and knowledge they’ll need for the rest of their lives. Nearly all of us were raised in part by teachers. Those who have or plan to have children will see them spend a majority of their waking lives under the supervision of teachers. Almost everyone would agree that teachers are crucially important.

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That sentiment is a far cry from actually supporting educators. In March, Los Angeles’ largest teachers union decried plans to reopen schools as “a recipe for propagating structural racism” (Politico). According to the United Teachers of Los Angeles, it was largely wealthy white parents who pushed for school reopenings. This put both education workers and working-class students of color at risk, given that poorer neighborhoods have much higher rates of COVID and school staff were not yet fully vaccinated.
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Right before Philadelphia schools reopened, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers’ Caucus of Working Educators shared photos of classrooms with mouse droppings and mold. This was despite previous assurances by the school district that schools were clean and ready for students (Chalkbeat). “We feel lied to and betrayed seeing the condition of our school,” said one educator. The rush to reopen clearly put both teachers and students at risk in a school district where most students are students of color (National Center for Education Statistics).

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In May 2020, 7 out of 10 teachers reported their lower morale due to the pandemic, though at that point stay-at-home orders in most states were less than two months old (EdSurge). Now, teachers are even closer to the breaking point (NPR). One said the past year was harder than teaching in New York City after 9/11. Another, a Black teacher in Virginia, said that the combination of COVID and ongoing police murders have left her at “points of lowness [she] hadn’t experienced before.”

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At the beginning of this school year, a quarter of teachers said they intended to leave before its end (Rand Corporation). And even before the pandemic, Black teachers in poor work environments were dramatically more likely to leave than their white coworkers (Chalkbeat).
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Teachers are under pressure from parents and administrators alike. They were already dealing with poor salaries and working conditions, resulting in teachers–especially teachers of color–being squeezed out of the profession. This is an outrage for racial justice and a shameful way to treat educators, who are lauded in the abstract but ignored in real life.

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Right-wing propaganda has long claimed that teachers' unions are bad for students and society writ large. And it’s true that there are bad teachers in teachers’ unions. There are bad bus drivers in bus driver unions and bad nurses unions and bad flight attendants in flight attendant unions because that’s how people are. Of course, we should vigorously oppose racist, queerphobic, and patriarchal behavior by those in positions of power in schools, just as we should struggle against their existence in any institution.
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But at a time where teachers are pushed out of the field and schools are reopening in dangerous ways, groups of educators in progressive teachers unions are leading the fight for the wellbeing of their colleagues and students. Organized, progressive teachers are demanding safe, well-resourced classrooms and living wages for those who teach them. Supporting these struggles is how we ensure working-class students of color can succeed academically and educators of color can succeed professionally.
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We need to support teachers’ rights.

Key Takeaways

  • The pandemic squeezed teachers to the breaking point.

  • 25% of educators plan to leave their profession, and Black educators are leaving at higher rates than white ones.

  • Progressive teachers unions have led the fight to ensure school re-openings don’t put students at risk.

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Nicole Cardoza Nicole Cardoza Nicole Cardoza Nicole Cardoza

Support the BAmazon Union.

On Monday, February 8, 5,805 workers at an Amazon facility in Alabama will decide whether they wish to be represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. If they vote yes, they would be the first Amazon warehouse in the United States to unionize (Washington Post). The vote-counting is scheduled to be completed by late March. This Black women-led movement is one of the greatest and most significant unionization efforts in recent history.

Happy Thursday, and welcome back. Today I'm spotlighting the unionization efforts happening at an Amazon facility in Bessemer, AL. Their efforts could have a significant impact on not just Amazon but the many companies that thrive off of low-wage workers.

Thank you all for your support. This newsletter is made possible by our subscribers. Consider subscribing for $7/month on Patreon. Or you can give one-time on our website or PayPal. You can also support us by joining our curated digital community.

Nicole

Ps – yes, I'm aware of the irony of citing the Washington Post in this article, and I'm glad you are too.

TAKE ACTION

GET EDUCATED

By Nicole Cardoza (she/her)

On Monday, February 8, 5,805 workers at an Amazon facility in Alabama will decide whether they wish to be represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. If they vote yes, they would be the first Amazon warehouse in the United States to unionize (Washington Post). The vote-counting is scheduled to be completed by late March. This Black women-led movement is one of the greatest and most significant unionization efforts in recent history.

This organizing has placed the Bessemer, AL facility in the spotlight. The city, a working-class suburb of Birmingham, was once a powerful industrial city called “Marvel City” (Alabama Pioneers). But after steel mills exited the area decades ago, unemployment rates rose. 28% of the population (which is 72% Black) lives under the poverty line (Census.gov). The mayor said it was the largest single investment in the city’s 130-year history (CBS 42). And the jobs, which pay twice as much as the state’s minimum wage, could offer a much-needed boost (NPR).

But, according to a video by More Perfect Union, a media company covering labor issues, employees say that conditions inside are like a sweatshop, and employees are treated “worse than robots (More Perfect Union video). Employees shared more details on conditions to Michael Sainato in his article for The American Prospect: 
 

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'They work you to death,' said Sara Marie Thrasher, who worked as a 'stower,' an employee who stocks items in warehouses before they’re ordered by customers, at Amazon BHM1 [facility] in October and November 2020, before she claimed she was fired via email without warning. 'It’s crowded. Sometimes you can’t even find a station. We would get reprimanded if our stowing time was above 20 seconds or higher, with rates needing to be done in 8 seconds per item' (The American Prospect).

 

These stories reflect thousands of others that employees have shared at Amazon factories across the globe. And many of these stories are not new; here’s reporting on the issue from 2013. But conditions for many workers, including those in Bessemer, have deteriorated since the start of the pandemic. The Bessemer facilities opened in March 2020, and rules started to change quickly as the pandemic worsened. Una Massey, a former level five area manager at the facilities, tells the Guardian that rules changed rapidly weren’t adequately communicated to staff, causing more terminations and leaving the team short-staffed (The Guardian). Massey also stated that a supervisory group called Space Force designed to ensure social distancing would give final warnings to associates that were less than six feet from one another. “But that was so unfair to the associates,” she states, “because there weren’t even enough seats in the lunchroom”  (The Guardian).

In response, Amazon has gone on the offensive. The organization now forces employees to attend anti-union meetings during their shifts (Business Insider) and have plastered anti-union fliers everywhere, including bathroom stalls (Washington Post). Employees are receiving text messages and being targeted with sponsored ads on Facebook linking to the organization’s anti-union website (The Guardian). The organization is also pressing for the upcoming vote to be held in-person instead of through mail ballots, even though we’re still in a pandemic (Washington Post).

Last June, the company was celebrated for making broad statements in support of Black lives (Business Insider). But those words fail to justify their actions. Their gross profitization on the oppression of Black and brown communities is a clear example of racial capitalism, a term coined by Cedric J. Robertson, describing the process of extracting social and economic value from nonwhite communities (Harvard Law). This isn’t just reflected in Amazon’s treatment of its employees, but other aspects of its business: the racial discrimination of its AI and the partnership between their Ring and local law enforcement (The Forge). It also makes an egregious impact on the environment, which we know disproportionately affects communities of color. A September 2019 report released by the organization outlined that, in 2018, it emitted 44.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents into the atmosphere – roughly equal to the annual emissions of Norway (Wired).

On Tuesday, February 2, CEO Jeff Bezos announced that he’s stepping down and will be replaced by cloud executive Andy Jassy (CNBC). This news came hours after the story broke that the company will pay $61.7M in fines after stealing a percentage of drivers’ tips (TechCrunch). Since the start of the pandemic, Bezos’ net worth has increased by $70 billion. Progressive International estimated that if Bezos gave every Amazon worker a $105,000 bonus, he’d still be as rich as he was at the start of COVID-19 (Twitter). 


It’s important to remember that even with a new CEO, it’s likely that Amazon’s predatory capitalism will continue to grow. For NPR, RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum notes that this movement isn’t just a labor struggle, but a civil rights struggle, too (NPR). Supporting this initiative isn’t just a way to honor those bold organizers’ work but stand for more equitable working conditions for all laborers, especially those most vulnerable to racial capitalism. The outcome of this upcoming vote could define the future of Amazon and the labor decisions of thousands of other organizations.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • An Amazon facility in Bessemer, AL is planning to vote next week on unionizing.

  • If completed, this will be the first unionization against Amazon

  • Amazon's inadequate treatment of employees is one form of racial capitalism

RELATED ISSUES

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT

Thank you for all your financial contributions! If you haven't already, consider making a monthly donation to this work. These funds will help me operationalize this work for greatest impact.

Subscribe on Patreon | Give one-time on PayPal | Venmo @nicoleacardoza

Read More