Teachers Rally in Nashville, TN, March 5, 2011

[Steve Plonk]

Democracy should not end when we go to work or school. Democracy should be expanded, cultivated, and protected in all areas of our lives – especially in the workplace. Recently, the Tennessee State Legislature has introduced measures that seek to destroy the rights of teachers, police, firefighters, and other hardworking public sector employees to organize in the workplace. This legislation attempts to outlaw collective bargaining, which means taking away one of the most basic and fundamental rights of workers: the right to use collective action to achieve better working conditions.

That is why Chattanooga Organized for Action, alongside our friends in State Wide Organizing for Community eMpowerment, Tennessee Citizen Action, the United Campus Workers – Communication Workers of America, the Tennessee Education Association, the Hamilton County Democratic Party, and other labor organizations, student groups, and community organizations are taking a stand!

Join us as we travel to Nashville this Saturday to Rally for Teachers!

If you can’t drive, then show up and catch a ride! We should have plenty of seats for everyone!

Wear Red for Higher Ed! Bring signs! Use shoe polish or window markers to write messages on your cars!

Just make sure to come out and represent your city and county in the ongoing struggle to protect workers, preserve democracy and ensure justice!

Where: Sears near Rave Motion Pictures
5402 South Terrace
Chattanooga, Tennessee

Leaving: 9 AM we meet
9:30 AM we load up cars, vans and buses

Return: Back to Chattanooga by 6 PM

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From the Chattanooga Organized for Action Facebook Page

[Steve Plonk]

"TEACHERS RALLY DRAWS THOUSANDS TO CAPITOL"
March 5, 2011
Tennessee teachers and workers march from Bicentennial Mall to Legislative Plaza today in protest of several Tennessee General Assembly bills, including some that would strip away collective bargaining rights. / Sanford Myers/The TennesseanTwitter
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Written by
Jenny Upchurch Filed Under
News
News Government - State
More than 3,000 people marched on downtown Nashville to protest legislation that would end collective bargain for teachers in Tennessee.

Democratic lawmakers, union representatives and education activists denounced the Republican-sponsored bills as a political attack to destroy the Democratic Party's fund-raising and voter base.

"This is not about budgets. This is a political ballgame. They want to silence the votes of teachers," said Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association. The Arizona math teacher flew in for Tennessee's rally as he has for others in Wisconsin and the Northwest.


House Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Turner of Nashville warned that Republicans won't stop with dismantling teachers' unions and bargaining rights. "They'll be coming after police officers, firefighters, construction workers and service workers."


Turner said Democratic lawmakers hope they can temper the bills by allying with moderate Republicans.


Leaders in the state House of Representatives are considering an amendment that would give local school boards the option of deciding whether to negotiate contracts with their teachers.


The change is being bandied about amid a delay last week in the bill's progress through the legislature. At the request of Gov. Bill Haslam, the Senate has held up a vote on the bill for nearly a week while House leaders work on a compromise that would keep the bill from getting bottled up.


A few hundred supporters of the bill gathered opposite the teachers today to demand the bills pass. Both groups Saturday urged Republican Gov. Bill Haslam, who has remained neutral on the bill, to come out on their side of the debate.


"He has the power to stop this madness now," Turner said to loud shouts of approval at the teachers' rally. "Gov. Haslam, if you're listening, please stop this terrorism against our teachers."


At the tea party rally, Raymond Baker of Franklin called out Haslam and House Speaker Beth Harwell, R-Nashville, for not standing more firmly behind eliminating teachers' collective bargaining rights.


"Bill Haslam, where are you?" he said from the steps below the governor's offices in the Capitol. "These people probably voted for you ... they're standing in the rain trying to tell you something."


Haslam spokesman David Smith said in an e-mail the governor wants to focus on his own education priorities that include making teacher tenure more difficult to obtain and lifting a cap on charter schools, because they "will bring the greatest impact to Tennessee classrooms."


Al Mance, executive director of the Tennessee Education Association, said the rally was intended to send a message to those behind the bills that teachers are in opposition.


He said TEA members will keep lobbying legislators and will reach out to local officials and families to rally opposition.


The collective bargaining bill is scheduled for a hearing in a House subcommittee Wednesday and a full Senate vote Thursday.


The Associated Press contributed to this report.