Solidarity isn't just a nice word that gets used often in union anthems and Labor Day speeches. It's at the very heart of the labor movement and responsible for all the positive improvements that organized labor has brought to workers over the decades.

Most AFT members know at least a little about their local union and its role in negotiating contracts, filing grievances and the usual "union" business. When things get tough, unions are more likely to succeed when their members stick together; a protest or strike is solidarity in action. While the local union is a vital element of the labor movement--and one that's obviously critical to the well-being of AFT members--it's a small building block that helps make up the larger labor movement.

The AFT, like 65 other national and international unions in this country, is part of the AFL-CIO. As such, all of the AFT's state federations and its hundreds of local unions are also affiliated with the AFL-CIO. What you may not know is that there is probably an AFL-CIO central labor council, or CLC, in your city or county. CLCs function on the same principle that fosters local unionism: using the collective voice of all affiliated unions in an area to advocate for labor, human, civil and worker rights. While a local union of educators can have a significant impact on some issues, when educators join with the rest of organized labor in their area--whether blue-collar workers like painters or electricians or white-collar professionals like engineers or journalists--their collective voice grows even louder and stronger.

As one of the largest member unions of the AFL-CIO, the AFT naturally has a strong presence on many CLCs, typically through local elected union leaders who serve on the council. And PSRPs, from unions large and small alike, are obviously among those who represent AFT affiliates on their labor councils. So what does this all this solidarity mean to the average AFT member working in a school or college? Let's look at a few examples.
 

Virginia

In Hampton, Va., the unions representing teachers and support staff are not allowed to bargain contracts, so they have to lobby their elected officials to get decent wages and working conditions. When the local school board started talking about raises for teachers without including PSRPs, custodian Ron Davis was not happy. A member of the Hampton Federation of Teachers and new CLC delegate, Davis spoke at a school board meeting about the vital work of custodians and other school employees and garnered union support from a variety of leaders to speak on PSRPs' behalf. Speaking as labor leaders and parents of public school students, a number of other Hampton-area union leaders turned out for the same meeting. In the end, the school board approved 5 percent raises for all school employees.

"We wanted them to know we're a viable part of the system," Davis says. "We're the first ones in the school and the last ones to leave."

Davis didn't stop at achieving decent raises. As a custodian, he saw the problems with inadequate wiring in the many "temporary" trailers that serve as classrooms. He discussed the problem at a CLC meeting, and leaders of the electricians union volunteered to come in and fix the wiring in as many trailers as they could. "Anything that one group can do for another, we generally volunteer our services," says Davis, who wasn't surprised by the electricians' offer. "We help them out and support them--whatever we can do."
 

Michigan

In labor strongholds like Detroit, local unions have a long history of working together. But that doesn't mean those relations are always trouble free. More than a dozen unions represent workers in the school system, and as the district has been reorganized, "reformed" and hurt by inadequate funding in recent years, it has become tough to maintain union solidarity. Ruby Newbold, president of the Detroit Association of Educational Office Employees and an AFT vice president, heads the coalition of education unions in the city. "It has been getting tougher for us because management has put this fear out there so each local now is cutting deals and making sure their positions are protected," says Newbold, whose own union had 90 members laid off last school year. "We have to maintain our dignity as trade unionists and also get our members back to work."

When the unions organized rallies to protest job cuts and proposals to privatize jobs, the CLC helped with planning and turning out members for the events. In addition, the local council's community services committee helped Newbold's union put together an agency fair for the laid-off workers so they could find out about unemployment and other services from city agency representatives who came right to the union hall. "All that clout really helps in a time like this," Newbold says.
 

Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is another strong union city where educators in the public schools have been under steady attack in recent years. The most recent version in Philadelphia is privatization of dozens of schools, many of them being turned over to the for-profit Edison Schools Inc. "With all this mess going on, education issues come up quite often now" at CLC meetings, says Dorothea Bell of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. Vice chair of the AFT's PSRP program and policy council, Bell has served on her local CLC for almost 20 years. Three local unions, affiliated with different national unions, are facing the same threat from the privatization plan. "We're all under one umbrella," Bell says. "Everybody supports everybody else." As in Detroit, the local CLC helped organize rallies, worked with community groups to rally support for the school employees, and played a part in efforts that ultimately helped improve what had been an even more widespread plan to privatize the school system.
 

Texas

In Victoria, Texas, a place where unions struggle to survive let alone gain publicity, the Victoria Federation of Teachers and other local unions last year organized the first Labor Day picnic the city had seen in more than 100 years. Last year's gathering attracted the media and featured a speech by the state AFL-CIO president. This year's event promises to be even bigger, says VFT president None Gonzalez, in part because politicians want to be there during an election year. "You could just sense our members' pride being there, being involved and seeing the AFT presence last year," says Gonzalez, who is also a PSRP program and policy council member. While no one union can boast huge numbers, she says, "when all of us get together, we realize that it's a place to start and keep building."
 

New Hampshire

In New Hampshire, a small AFT contingent in the state was one of the first to step forward and offer financial support to workers at a mill that closed and couldn't meet its payroll. Their collective efforts inspired several other larger unions to follow suit, says Jackie Faulhaber of the Rochester Federation of Teachers, the only PSRP who serves on the state AFL-CIO executive board. "We've tried to have an impact despite our small numbers," she says. "It is a two-way street," with other unions, for example, helping put AFT leaders in the state in contact with important political leaders to help with legislative issues.

Besides such local issues, which often involve an immediate crisis, political action is a natural area for coordinated efforts by central labor councils. Unions can share resources for printing and distributing fliers, registering voters, running phone banks and knocking on doors. Back in Victoria, Texas, local unions have for years been trying--unsuccessfully--to unseat a conservative member of Congress. But they did elect one of their endorsed candidates to the school board. "It takes all of us, especially out here, to make a difference," Gonzalez says. "We can't leave anything to chance."
 

Minnesota

Bond issues can be another election challenge where unions working together can spell the difference between victory and defeat. A couple of years ago, AFT leaders and members in Minneapolis were engaged in a very tough campaign to pass a crucial bond issue to support schools. The central labor council not only supplied financial support and members to knock on voters' doors but also provided food for the victory party, says Rosemary Weitzel, a member of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers' paraprofessional chapter who serves on the CLC.

PSRPs who have a visible presence on central labor councils can also offer their union brothers and sisters some informal education. Within the labor movement, just as with the general public, not enough people know what PSRPs do and why their jobs are important. Some AFT PSRP leaders have used their CLCs as a way to spread that word. "I have found that many of them never thought beyond the 'instructors' [in schools and colleges], forgetting that the backbone or support system of any school is the unrecognized PSRPs," says Debby Dodd of the United Classified Workers Union in Washington state and a program and policy council member who serves on her county CLC.

Finally, there's value in good old-fashioned networking with other labor leaders. "It's good to be able to put a face with another union person," says Newbold, who has served on her CLC since 1989. It's also good to share stories about your struggles, she adds, because it can sometimes make you feel that, as tough as things might be with your own union, others are dealing with the same challenges.