In the post-Sept. 11 universe, it's more important than ever for the United States to assist the world's 'poor and downtrodden' by expanding its commitment to humanitarian assistance and support for democratic values, AFT president Sandra Feldman told members at the union's annual Civil and Human Rights Conference in Washington, D.C., Oct. 26. While the AFT is solidly on record in support of the Bush administration's military response against terrorism, Feldman said, that doesn't mean the union will shrink from its leadership on issues from promoting education reform to expanding access to high-quality health care to improving flawed election processes.

The AFT president said it has been gratifying after years of anti-government rhetoric among politicians to see the country honoring the dedicated public employees and civil servants we all depend on in times of crisis. However, she added, 'We can't assume that these [positive feelings] will translate into sensible public policies that we support.'

Some of the measures Congress has passed in the wake of the attacks have been heavily tilted toward the already well-off, while the labor movement has had to lobby aggressively to get needed assistance to the working families who have been most severely affected. Sensible proposals to improve airline security by turning it over to the federal government, Feldman said, have been derailed by ideologues who worry that such a system will mean more unionized federal employees.

From the federal government on down, the economy has suffered a tremendous blow, and declining revenues will mean tough struggles ahead, she warned.

In remarks to the conference, former Atlanta mayor Maynard Jackson, who heads the Democratic National Committee's Voting Rights Institute, said that the flawed election process in Florida continues to exist and needs to be addressed. There is nothing more important, Jackson noted, than making sure the people's right to vote is not infringed upon. 'The right to vote is a sacred right, there is no democracy without it,' he said.
 

Surgeon General speaks on health issues

Universal access to healthcare is an AFT priority that U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher says would build a strong foundation for our nation's public health infrastructure. A strong infrastructure, Satcher says, is the best defense against such life-and-death issues as HIV/AIDS and bioterrorism--at home and abroad.

Although the global HIV/AIDS crisis was to have been the focus of Satcher's remarks, current events--bioterrorism with anthrax--prompted the nation's leading public health authority to discuss that as well. He noted that when AIDS was first discovered in the United States, little was known about the life-threatening disease, just as little is known today about inhalation anthrax.

As education over the past two decades has slowed the spread of HIV/AIDS in the United States, Satcher said education could also 'help us through this dark period.'

Lauding the AFT for its HIV/AIDS education efforts at home and abroad, Satcher made special note of the union's partnership with the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA) to develop a program for Zimbabwe teachers on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment and on employment rights of those who have the disease.

When the St. Tammany (La.) Federation of Teachers and School Employees started bargaining over their new three-year contract last summer, the 19-member bargaining team 'had to deliver on' three issues, says Elsie Burkhalter, the local's president and chief negotiator: better pay, improved healthcare benefits and planning time for elementary teachers.

And deliver they did. Under the new collective bargaining agreements between the union and the St. Tammany Parish school board, every school district employee represented by the union, including teachers, certified employees, paraprofessionals and school-related personnel, will see an additional $2,000 salary increase over the life of the contracts. Specifically, salaries were increased $1,000 across the board for the 2001-02 school year, $500 for the 2002-03 school year and $500 for the 2003-04 school year.

The union also successfully negotiated a $5 million contribution toward district employees' healthcare. The cash infusion was essential to maintaining the percentage-based healthcare program for district employees under which, for example, the school district pays slightly more than 92 percent of the healthcare cost for individual coverage and 78 percent of the cost for an employee with a spouse and children.

'We were able to solidify healthcare, which is the biggest thing to me,' Burkhalter says, noting that the percentage-based system is particularly beneficial during today's era of skyrocketing health insurance premiums.

Altogether, the St. Tammany local negotiated seven contracts to address specific--and shared--concerns of its 'wall-to-wall' membership, approximately 4,330 employees working at 52 schools and 10 work sites. In addition to successfully negotiating a two-hour minimum allowance of weekly planning time for elementary teachers, the St. Tammany bargaining team won a $50 clothing allowance for food service employees, training for bus owners/operators and attendants on safety techniques for tying down wheelchairs, and a mileage allowance increase from 29 cents to 30 cents.

Deborah Novosel, a librarian at Mandeville Junior High School and a member of the union's bargaining team, says the pay raise was important--but not just because of the extra money. 'It is a matter of respect for the professionalism and the job that we are doing in St. Tammany Parish,' she says. 'It was a validation of the work that we do.'

Archie Galloway, a district maintenance worker and a member of the union's bargaining team, says, 'We stuck by our guns.' He adds: 'Without the union, it never would have happened--the pay raise or any of it.'

Burkhalter attributes the union's success to a variety of factors, including the relationship the union has fostered within the community and the diversity of the bargaining team, which was representative of all the union's constituency groups.

An aggressive campaign aimed at getting books and other reading materials into the homes of preschool and elementary students is the cornerstone of the Cleveland Teachers Union's Literacy Project. The project is designed to spur the community to support home libraries and to motivate teachers, principals, paraprofessionals and daycare workers to encourage parents to read to their children--preferably for at least 20 minutes every day.

'While we can always improve instruction...we need a broader approach to educating Cleveland's children,' CTU president Richard DeColibus says. Unless educators can make a significant impact on the 'literacy environment' of students 'during the many hours they are not with us in school, improving instruction will show measurable but limited gains in achievement,' points out DeColibus.

The project's 'Books for Children' campaign initially will target students in grades preK-2 in 22 Cleveland schools. The CTU plans to purchase books for students in these schools to take home. The union also will publish a guide aimed at helping community agencies work with schools to help establish libraries in students' homes.

'Any kindergarten teacher in the district can tell you one of our major challenges is that some of our kindergarten students come to us woefully unprepared to learn,' DeColibus says.

The CTU is urging its members to encourage parents to support the literacy project by visiting libraries and museums with their children and making sure they have a quiet place to study and read. The union also is emphasizing how important it is for parents to be aware of and involved in their children's progress in school.

Around the world, 250 million child laborers work in horrible conditions for little or no money. These children, some as young as 4 years old, work on farms where they are exposed to dangerous pesticides, walk the streets as peddlers and prostitutes, and work in factories and coal mines where they endure conditions detrimental to their physical and mental development. Half of them work full time and receive no education at all. These children have no choice; they live in poverty and receive no help from their government. Further, they have no opportunity to improve their conditions, no hope for a better future for their own families.

Education is key to removing these children from abusive and exploitative working conditions and to prevent other young people from enduring the same fate. As an educator, you know the importance of providing all children with a free, quality, accessible education. 'Education is what gives children a chance to succeed in life and become productive members of society,' AFT president Sandra Feldman says. 'It is what allows them to dream and to realize those dreams.'

The AFT's Child Labor Project is cooperating with the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center on a national campaign to promote awareness among teachers and other trade unionists of the plight of these children and of other child labor issues. The campaign includes presentations at AFT locals and AFL-CIO Central Labor Councils, an informational brochure and poster for classrooms and union halls, and a new Web site designed to educate visitors on the conditions of children around the world who work in the agriculture sector.

Through the end of the year, the Child Labor Project will conduct training workshops around the country at AFT locals to prepare teachers to promote awareness of the child labor issues among their students. The workshops will introduce background information, provide educational resources and present child labor units used in classrooms by other AFT teachers.

Informational presentations taking place at AFL-CIO Central Labor Councils aim to promote awareness of the child labor problem within the trade unionist community and urge participants to take action in their local communities.

Visit the campaign's Web site at fieldsofhope.org for more information about the campaign. The site features 'A Day in the Life of a Child Laborer,' 'Child Labor Around the World,' a teacher's page and live chat sessions.

To download a child labor brochure go to www.aft.org/international/child. To obtain information on having a child labor presentation made at your local or Central Labor Council, contact the AFT international affairs department at 202/ 434-4683. Be sure to include your name, address and telephone number when you call.