Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media. Welcome to Dick. It appened here a
Speaker 1: podcast being recorded in the like last hours of Halloween
Speaker 1: in in the the I guess the closing minutes of
Speaker 1: a teacher is in Portland not being on strike. So yeah,
Speaker 1: this is this is a podcast that is often about strikes,
Speaker 1: and here to talk with me about this is Britney Doris,
Speaker 1: who's a fifth grade teacher in Portland public schools, who's
Speaker 1: the union captain for her school and the strike captain
Speaker 1: also for her school. Brittany, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: Hi, glad to be here.
Speaker 1: I'm really glad to talk to you. So all right,
Speaker 1: we are we are in we are in zero hour. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're in the zero hour of the strike. By the
Speaker 1: time this comes out, like I guess, you'll have been
Speaker 1: on strike for like two days. Yeah, I'm assuming this
Speaker 1: comes out Friday. Yeah, So all right. I think the
Speaker 1: place we should start probably for people who are not
Speaker 1: in poor people who haven't been following this. I guess
Speaker 1: we should start with what are the sort of conditions
Speaker 1: that have led to this. I have heard some absolutely
Speaker 1: wild things about what's happening for the schools right now.
Speaker 2: So how did we get here?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, we've been negotiating or bargaining this contract for over
Speaker 2: a year and pushing for circumstances that are just better
Speaker 2: suited for our students. Some of our classrooms that we're
Speaker 2: dealing with situations like rodents and mold and still some
Speaker 2: buildings dealing with lead in their water. Extreme temperatures like
Speaker 2: class sizes are huge, but different depending on where you're
Speaker 2: at in the city. Like, we've just been overcompensating with
Speaker 2: less since the pandemic times, and we're fed up, we're
Speaker 2: not able to do it anymore. And yeah, we're strike ready.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean this is something, this is, this
Speaker 1: is this is I think a pretty interesting set of
Speaker 1: circumstances because my understanding and okay, so don't quote me
Speaker 1: on this. I'm pretty sure that the last time that
Speaker 1: the Portland teachers went on strike was in the like
Speaker 1: actually ended up striking and not just doing this strike
Speaker 1: authorization vote was the was was during the eighties, So
Speaker 1: it has been it has been a really long time.
Speaker 2: It's literal lifetime.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like I was not I was like two
Speaker 1: of my lifetimes effectively, Like I was on a line
Speaker 1: for this.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think we're seeing that shift happened nationwide.
Speaker 2: That education has been continuously public education has been continuously
Speaker 2: chipped away at and eroded over the last few decades,
Speaker 2: and more and more responsibility has put on the been
Speaker 2: put on the backs of teachers, and we are not
Speaker 2: able to function under this workload, under these conditions, and
Speaker 2: without increased support for the educators as well. So I
Speaker 2: think this is the culmination of kind of years and
Speaker 2: years of disinvestment in public education nationwide. And so you're
Speaker 2: seeing a lot more strikes, educational strikes coming up throughout
Speaker 2: the country, and particularly for Portland's history. Like you said,
Speaker 2: it's if Portland public schools have striked in the past,
Speaker 2: it's been literal decades, not in my lifetime, not in
Speaker 2: your lifetime, and just the continued frustration of decades of struggle.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean, as from what I've heard from
Speaker 1: from people in the city. So the line that I
Speaker 1: got was that janitors were being told that the standard
Speaker 1: they were supposed to clean schools too was quote moderately dingy.
Speaker 1: So things seem not good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's rough. There's rodents everywhere. Our custodial workers are
Speaker 2: already worked to the limit and understaffed, and so our
Speaker 2: buildings show. I mean, the school that I work in
Speaker 2: is over one hundred and ten years old, and you
Speaker 2: can tell it's not being up kept and students are suffering.
Speaker 2: The conditions are, like you said, dingy, a moderate level
Speaker 2: of approved dinginess supposedly, and that's gross.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean so I've heard that complains a lot.
Speaker 1: I mean, I like, when I was in school, we
Speaker 1: only had one we had well, I mean, there might
Speaker 1: have been more. There probably were more rats we didn't see.
Speaker 1: We had one drowned rat fall out of a ceiling,
Speaker 1: but that was it. It was. It was. We were
Speaker 1: limited to one rat for four years. And I feel
Speaker 1: I feel like that's the maximum number of rats that
Speaker 1: you should encounter is maybe one because it's kind of funny,
Speaker 1: but yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: And these are class pets, like these aren't no the
Speaker 2: mice and rats that you're using in a science class
Speaker 2: or keeping as the class pet in the corner.
Speaker 1: Like ooh yeah, and the other I guess I guess
Speaker 1: the next thing that I wanted to talk about is
Speaker 1: class sizes, because I know, I mean, this is a
Speaker 1: very people have been like talking about this for ages,
Speaker 1: and it's it's something that's really I feel like it's
Speaker 1: weird negotiating wise because and this is something I see
Speaker 1: all the time. The school dishesh will be like, well,
Speaker 1: like the admin will be oh, well, yeah, of course
Speaker 1: you want like smaller class sizes, and then they just
Speaker 1: won't do it. So, yeah, could you talk about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, here's something that's really burning my biscuit. Our district
Speaker 2: management continues to tell our community and the press that
Speaker 2: our average class size is twenty three students at the
Speaker 2: elementary level. And the problem with that statistic is that
Speaker 2: they are doing a ratio based on the adults in
Speaker 2: the building. So, for example, we have a learning coach.
Speaker 2: Uh huh. We have a learning coach who works with
Speaker 2: children in small groups throughout the building, but she herself
Speaker 2: is not a rostered classroom teach, but she is put
Speaker 2: into that equation so that it looks like our classes
Speaker 2: on average are twenty three when the reality is very different.
Speaker 2: The music teacher doesn't count, the learning coach doesn't count.
Speaker 2: But in the math that the district is like that
Speaker 2: math ain't math in my class is thirty four kids.
Speaker 2: You're telling the public that the average is twenty three,
Speaker 2: and it's just not true. Because you're including adults in
Speaker 2: the building who aren't the host classroom teacher.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which is that's just that's just absurd, Like, I mean,
Speaker 1: you have to know that you're lying in order to
Speaker 1: create that statistic, Like that's a h And I you.
Speaker 2: Know, it is true that there are some classes around
Speaker 2: the district that are small. I had a miracle of
Speaker 2: a class last year that was twenty two kids. That
Speaker 2: coport was just small that you know, they weren't having
Speaker 2: as many babies eleven years ago. I don't know. But
Speaker 2: this year, this year, I have thirty four and the
Speaker 2: year prior so not last year, but the twenty twenty
Speaker 2: two years I had thirty two and thirty four kids
Speaker 2: is unsustainable, especially because I have the twenty two to
Speaker 2: compare it to. I am very aware of how little
Speaker 2: capacity I have for meeting their needs, for teaching, the
Speaker 2: wide range of levels that are in the class, even
Speaker 2: for checking in with kids. I can look out at
Speaker 2: my room at midday and think looking at a kid.
Speaker 2: I don't know if I've talked to you, like, it's
Speaker 2: possible to go so under the radar when there are
Speaker 2: that many children to care for.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean that's a difference of like it's
Speaker 1: like a forty percent class size increase, right, Yeah, good year,
Speaker 1: which is nuts.
Speaker 2: And I can feel and it's having a significant impact
Speaker 2: on just my own well being and mental health this
Speaker 2: year because I know what it looks like to teach
Speaker 2: well and I know that I cannot currently do it
Speaker 2: with this many and it's hard. Last year, I wasn't
Speaker 2: feeling any symptoms of burnout at all. It's feeling really good,
Speaker 2: loving my job still. And this year, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, I cannot keep up with this many kids,
Speaker 2: especially with you know, we've gotten even so as class
Speaker 2: sizes have increased, so have the needs of our students. Right,
Speaker 2: We're dealing with a lot more mental health issues. We're
Speaker 2: dealing with a wide range of neurodiversity that comes with
Speaker 2: different needs. And so it's that's the thirty four now
Speaker 2: is exponentially different than thirty four when we were young.
Speaker 2: It's it's intense and it's unsustainable and I'm living it
Speaker 2: every day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And like, you know, I think on an abstract level,
Speaker 1: like the district knows like that this sucks, right, but
Speaker 1: they just they don't fucking do anything about it.
Speaker 2: It's just right, real, Yeah, and even to the level
Speaker 2: that we're able to bargain it. There are things such
Speaker 2: as like permissive topics that we can or cannot bargain
Speaker 2: and things that we can bargain. And even in the
Speaker 2: strike that we are about to have, they continue to
Speaker 2: push back on the class cap request, saying that it
Speaker 2: is a permissift topic and that it's class caps may
Speaker 2: only be applicable to what are called Title I schools,
Speaker 2: so schools where the population is more impacted by poverty,
Speaker 2: and so they're trying, like even trying to get small
Speaker 2: class sizes or smaller class sizes, knowing that it's a
Speaker 2: district wide issue, may still only be successful for some
Speaker 2: parts of our district. Yeah, and that's that, ain't right, Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, that's absurd.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like, my classroom is incredibly diverse. We are not
Speaker 2: a Title one school. We are known for supposedly being
Speaker 2: in one of the more affluent areas, but even our
Speaker 2: neighborhood school that those demographics have continued to change, and
Speaker 2: we have many students that are experiencing poverty and experiencing
Speaker 2: some of the cultural pieces that go with that, the
Speaker 2: systemic impacts of that. Our students are living through trauma.
Speaker 2: Our students are experiencing it for Our students are experiencing
Speaker 2: racism and sexism and homophobia, and they are jam packed
Speaker 2: sardines in a overheated room with no supports. I'm the
Speaker 2: only adult in the room to support them. I have
Speaker 2: students with disabilities who aren't getting support from our SPED
Speaker 2: team because our SPED team is SPED stance for special education.
Speaker 2: Our special educators are working with some younger grade students
Speaker 2: with even bigger needs. So my fifth graders with disabilities
Speaker 2: are getting completely left in the lurch. And it is
Speaker 2: my single body with all thirty four and we're floundering.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean that's another sort of aspect of
Speaker 1: this that I think is really like, is really grim,
Speaker 1: that all of these issues. It's like, the kids you
Speaker 1: need the most help from the beginning are the people
Speaker 1: who are getting the most hurt by it, and right,
Speaker 1: you know, and those are the people who the education
Speaker 1: system is supposed to be taken care of and just
Speaker 1: cannot because yeah, you know, chronic understaffing, class sizes that
Speaker 1: are too large.
Speaker 2: Right, And it's especially painful. I've been teaching now for
Speaker 2: ten years and I am looking at this class right now.
Speaker 2: I have a student in my class who is a
Speaker 2: little black boy with a disability, and I'm looking at
Speaker 2: him knowing that I am not able to give him
Speaker 2: what he needs. And he is like the statistic that
Speaker 2: school districts want to put on their website, like we
Speaker 2: got you know, our our marginalized populations, We've helped them,
Speaker 2: we fit and like, here is a student that is
Speaker 2: the statistic that you supposedly are fighting for, and he
Speaker 2: is absolutely left out to dry and I am trying
Speaker 2: to do what I can for him, and he comes
Speaker 2: to mind. I picture him as I'll be out there
Speaker 2: on that picket line, like I am out there for
Speaker 2: that kid as well as his thirty three other classmates.
Speaker 2: But just like quint essential picture of who I'm fighting
Speaker 2: for and who is getting left behind?
Speaker 1: Yeah, which which which I don't know? Like there there's
Speaker 1: there's I think there's something really grim in the way
Speaker 1: and this is this is a you know, this this
Speaker 1: goes back to what you were talking about with the
Speaker 1: way that they're just straight up lying about the average
Speaker 1: the average class size, where it's it really seems like
Speaker 1: these things have you know, the the actual process of
Speaker 1: education is being degraded into just this this sort of
Speaker 1: metric chasing game. And you know, as long as you
Speaker 1: have metrics that look good, you know, like the district
Speaker 1: is like, wow, okay, it's fine that, like, our students
Speaker 1: aren't equality of education they need. It's fine that they're
Speaker 1: in these buildings that are literally falling apart. It's fine that,
Speaker 1: you know, kids aren't getting what they need. Like, as
Speaker 1: long as the metrics look good and right.
Speaker 2: That's something something that gets me when we talk about
Speaker 2: those metrics. Knowing our superintendent gets a bonus if academically
Speaker 2: marginalized populations like our black and brown students, if they
Speaker 2: increase their performance on standardized tests, he gets a bonus. Now,
Speaker 2: what I have a problem with is that those standardized
Speaker 2: tests that we take every spring, there are some students
Speaker 2: that are so impacted by the school system that they
Speaker 2: may have attendance issues, they may not be there consistently
Speaker 2: in the spring to take those tests. So something I'm
Speaker 2: picturing a couple of my students who were impacted by poverty,
Speaker 2: were kids of color and were significantly absent due to
Speaker 2: what the circumstances of their life. Those students were not
Speaker 2: able to take that test in the spring. That means
Speaker 2: those students, those black and brown students, that data wasn't
Speaker 2: in those metrics. So even the metrics that are being
Speaker 2: used to measure whether or not we are successfully supporting
Speaker 2: our students of color are inaccurate because our most impacted
Speaker 2: students aren't able to take that assessment. Like his data,
Speaker 2: our superintendent's data is going to look better when some
Speaker 2: of the students who might tank that data because they
Speaker 2: are unsupported by the school system aren't there to be
Speaker 2: in the data because they're unsupported by the school system.
Speaker 2: It falls apart.
Speaker 1: And this is one of these things where it's like,
Speaker 1: the only way to change this is do is do
Speaker 1: union actions because like the school district's not going to
Speaker 1: do it, like their metrics look fine, right and right,
Speaker 1: you know, the government is not going to do it
Speaker 1: because they're not going to they don't want to spend
Speaker 1: more money. So this is this is the only way
Speaker 1: to actually.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think we finally, I think have made
Speaker 2: a point. We are I mean, our union actions already
Speaker 2: have been building up a visible presence. We have massive
Speaker 2: community support from our not only our parent communities, but
Speaker 2: the greater Portland area. Business is coming out and support
Speaker 2: people joining us at like we had a massive march
Speaker 2: this Saturday where we took over the Burnside Bridge. And
Speaker 2: as our union actions build, we know that we are
Speaker 2: out there, we are not alone, and that we are
Speaker 2: feeling the support from the community and we are becoming
Speaker 2: a more visible presence, and especially in Portland, we are
Speaker 2: a massive union. Other unions around the state are looking
Speaker 2: at us and watching how this goes. And we can
Speaker 2: tell that the district management is scared. They are starting
Speaker 2: to send out emails to families that are meant to
Speaker 2: intimidate and panic and cause chaos. And we're seeing these
Speaker 2: defensive moves that are a reaction.
Speaker 1: Do you know who else is a hack and a fraud?
Speaker 1: Who did who didn't figure out a way to do
Speaker 1: an ad pivot here? It's the it's the products and
Speaker 1: services that support this podcast.
Speaker 2: Yeah, speaking of businesses that support.
Speaker 1: Us and we're back. Yeah. So you know, okay, So
Speaker 1: that that those are Those are two other dynamics that
Speaker 1: I I sort of I wanted to get into. I
Speaker 1: guess first I want to talk about what the what
Speaker 1: the community support has looked like, what fourthmore the unionses
Speaker 1: look like and you know, how how you've been engaging
Speaker 1: with parents, because I mean that that's it's been a
Speaker 1: big thing. So I'm from Chicago and so we have
Speaker 1: like a I mean not that long, like for the
Speaker 1: last about decade, the Chicago Teachers Union's been on strike
Speaker 1: a bunch of times, and it's yeah, like it really
Speaker 1: and the support of that and the engagement of that
Speaker 1: really is one of the few things us in making
Speaker 1: Chicago a better place. So I wanted to ask what
Speaker 1: that's looked like in Portland because this is basically the
Speaker 1: first time for y'all right.
Speaker 2: And I know historically in Oregon we felt the support
Speaker 2: from our community, such as the Red for Ed movement
Speaker 2: a few years ago when we were really pushing for
Speaker 2: statewide reform and change in education policy. And here in
Speaker 2: Portland ever since, the seeds of our uprising were being
Speaker 2: planted knowing that we are on a collision course towards
Speaker 2: a strike based on how poorly the district management is
Speaker 2: bargaining with us, and so we started to build in
Speaker 2: that communication and enlist the support of our parent communities
Speaker 2: pretty early on by having info sessions, by talking about
Speaker 2: you know, the community's wants and desires for their students,
Speaker 2: connecting with our schools, ptas, connecting with local businesses, especially
Speaker 2: as in the last month or so that we felt okay,
Speaker 2: this is happening. We are about to strike. We need
Speaker 2: to connect with our communities in our school areas and
Speaker 2: see who's out there and if they have our back.
Speaker 2: And it's been really profound in grassroots organizing between the
Speaker 2: parents and the ptas in tandem with our unions and
Speaker 2: from businesses around our school areas. We attended an event
Speaker 2: called Strike School to prepare and one of our missions
Speaker 2: was to check in with businesses and neighbors in the
Speaker 2: areas of our schools where we plan to be picketing
Speaker 2: and seeing, you know, where can we go to use
Speaker 2: a bathroom, where can we go to use a parking lot,
Speaker 2: and just making those connections, some of which already existed.
Speaker 2: Even though Portland hasn't had to strike, We've been very
Speaker 2: connected to our communities because the educators live in these communities.
Speaker 2: This is my community. Unlike some of the big wigs
Speaker 2: in the big pink building of management, like they are
Speaker 2: coming in and out in a few years. We're from here,
Speaker 2: we are here to stay, we are here to make
Speaker 2: those connections. So it was very easy to call upon
Speaker 2: those connections because we are the community. You know, we
Speaker 2: have a lot of union members that are parents. We
Speaker 2: have a lot of union members that are married to
Speaker 2: business owners in the area. We've Yeah, it's been it's
Speaker 2: been obvious who lives here, who's fighting for these kids
Speaker 2: because this is our community.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, I mean, Portland's been a place where,
Speaker 1: I think, kind of beneath the notice of a lot
Speaker 1: of the national press, it's been one of the places
Speaker 1: where the most union organizing is happening and where the
Speaker 1: most strikes have been happening. And yeah, I was wondering,
Speaker 1: I mean, to what extent have y'all been influenced by
Speaker 1: I mean both the sort of the just profusion of
Speaker 1: like local strikes and then also the kind of the
Speaker 1: bigger national strikes.
Speaker 2: Something really beautiful about living in Portland is that there
Speaker 2: is quite a bit of cross union solidarity. And like
Speaker 2: in the educational realm, we have a coalition of all
Speaker 2: of our unions that come together the certified teachers like
Speaker 2: my union PAT as well as SEIU, the union that
Speaker 2: represents our custodial staff, as well as PFSP our para educators,
Speaker 2: our nutritional staff, the bus drivers union, like, all of
Speaker 2: those unions come together and support each other. And in fact,
Speaker 2: in the educational realm of Portland, multiple unions are on
Speaker 2: the verge of striking in that they are having unsuccessful
Speaker 2: bargaining attempts. But then also with like the ups workers,
Speaker 2: with Kaiser pharmacies and the medical field, like, there is
Speaker 2: labor action all around Portland and there's definitely a built
Speaker 2: in solidarity network from unionity to union. Our union siblings
Speaker 2: are with us. We have been with them throughout the years.
Speaker 2: I think we do a really good job as a
Speaker 2: major city of wrapping around each other's unions and supporting
Speaker 2: big actions. And you know, Portland, when we do get
Speaker 2: national press, it is for how rambunctious our little city
Speaker 2: can be. And this is some of that good trouble
Speaker 2: that that John Lewis would want us to get in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean this is something that you can
Speaker 1: I mean, so I was in Portland for like three
Speaker 1: weeks pretty like recently, and I mean you would just
Speaker 1: run like I was. I was at a hospital for long,
Speaker 1: long story about that, but I was at a hospital
Speaker 1: and like the first person we talked to is like
Speaker 1: as a receptionist was like the union rep from the
Speaker 1: receptionist union, and then like we're talking to the nurses,
Speaker 1: and the nurses are like, oh, yeah, we just won
Speaker 1: our We just won our thing, not having to go
Speaker 1: on strike because management caved. It's it's a really sort
Speaker 1: of incredible place to be in terms of like just
Speaker 1: just the energy and just like the amount of stuff
Speaker 1: that's happening there. It's really sort of incredible, very active.
Speaker 1: I guess the other side of this is that this
Speaker 1: we've also seen a lot of sort of management retaliation
Speaker 1: and crackdown attempts. And yeah, I was wondering if you
Speaker 1: talk about what management's been doing, because yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really ramped up in the last week or
Speaker 2: so as it is clear that we are on our
Speaker 2: way to strike, especially when we ninety nine percent of
Speaker 2: the membership voted yes to a strike authorization. That sent
Speaker 2: a pretty clear message and I think it made district
Speaker 2: management panic a little. And we've received numerous emails to
Speaker 2: the parent community. They have for example, they are training
Speaker 2: tomorrow Thursday, the day of our strike beginning, or when
Speaker 2: on Wednesday, the day that the strike begins, they are
Speaker 2: training our para professionals and eas in how to deliver
Speaker 2: virtual phonics instruction. One of their moves was to cause
Speaker 2: panic in the families by sending emails home that say,
Speaker 2: your student, based on their test scores, is a struggling reader.
Speaker 2: Here's the plan should there be a school closure, that
Speaker 2: we're going to provide virtual learning opportunities. So immediately you've
Speaker 2: got parents in a panic emailing their teacher like by
Speaker 2: students struggling, why didn't I know? And in many cases
Speaker 2: that was inaccurate. A second grade teacher at my school,
Speaker 2: every parent in her class got that email, and sure
Speaker 2: she has some struggling readers, but it is not every student.
Speaker 2: Why did every student's family get that email? To cause panic,
Speaker 2: to cause fear, to cause intimidation, And so they also
Speaker 2: send out a big email trying that the technology team
Speaker 2: was coming into the buildings to collect all the chromebooks.
Speaker 2: Our students are one to one with chromebooks. They're pretty
Speaker 2: integral to our curriculum delivery and our instruction. And they
Speaker 2: started pulling them out in the middle of the workday,
Speaker 2: in the middle of the teaching day from some of
Speaker 2: our youngest students, which was a visible thing in front
Speaker 2: of students me to collect them. It was unplanned, We
Speaker 2: had no warning. That again seemed to be kind of
Speaker 2: a panic move. We are trying to sew fear and
Speaker 2: intimidation and we're taking your chromebooks and we're putting kids
Speaker 2: back in COVID times.
Speaker 1: That's just a terrible also, just like a terrible thing
Speaker 1: to do to a bunch of kids, right, like what, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're just coming to their room, just taking their stuff
Speaker 1: in front of everyone, like what right.
Speaker 2: Especially in those younger grades, with no warning and like, oh,
Speaker 2: we were supposed to have our tech time on Friday,
Speaker 2: like we had our routine and well, oh this this
Speaker 2: guy's coming in and taking all the chromebooks. Sorry kids, Yeah,
Speaker 2: not really having a ready answer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like it's one of those things where it's
Speaker 1: like you can you can really tell, like who actually
Speaker 1: cares about the kids here, because it's just like yeah.
Speaker 2: And you know, management is trying to put out the
Speaker 2: message that teachers don't care about your kids. That's why
Speaker 2: they're willing to stop school and put your kids back
Speaker 2: at home again. It's bad, like the pandemic time, those
Speaker 2: those nasty teachers want your kids out of school. And
Speaker 2: you know, our point being that our students haven't been
Speaker 2: getting the learning that they deserve because of the current conditions. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that we've been under serving them already. We are walking
Speaker 2: out not because we don't care, but because we care
Speaker 2: so passionately that we aren't willing to stand for these
Speaker 2: subpar conditions any longer.
Speaker 1: And this is the thing, I don't like, I've seen
Speaker 1: a lot of teacher strikes in my city. I've seen
Speaker 1: a lot of teacher strikes Nashurally, I don't think I've
Speaker 1: ever seen and you know, and this isn't to say
Speaker 1: that I like, I don't think it would be justified
Speaker 1: for teachers to go on strike, like just because they're underpaid.
Speaker 1: Like everyone like has the right and possibly the obligation
Speaker 1: to go on strike for better conditions. But like that's
Speaker 1: not ever ever, I have never, at any point ever
Speaker 1: seen a teachers you to go on strike for reasons
Speaker 1: that words mostly about like mostly about improving things for
Speaker 1: their kids. It's it's wow, because you see this every
Speaker 1: like they do this in Chicago too. It's like every
Speaker 1: single time there's a strike, it's like, ah, the teachers
Speaker 1: like they hate they hate your kids. Is that they're
Speaker 1: like these like privilege overpaid people real like and it's
Speaker 1: like you guys, like you should you should like look
Speaker 1: at the admin salary sometime, like.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, yeah, it's it's clear that there's a disconnect.
Speaker 2: And as soon as there's a change in the weather,
Speaker 2: teachers go from being the hero to being the villain.
Speaker 2: And the fact that we are willing to go out
Speaker 2: on the streets and fight for our kids in the
Speaker 2: rain and the cold of Oregon winter, no, we're the villains.
Speaker 2: We are putting them all back in their COVID boxes
Speaker 2: like yeah, that ain't it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that really sucks, Like no, it's it's.
Speaker 2: Just, thankfully, the negative kind of vitriol that we see
Speaker 2: mostly online where the trolls live, it does seem to
Speaker 2: be like loud minority. As with any form of tolling
Speaker 2: or counter you know, we do hear from community members
Speaker 2: that have more legitimate concerns, but they are I'm really supportive.
Speaker 2: I'm a little worried about this one aspect, but I'm
Speaker 2: with you guys, you know, and that's valid. I told
Speaker 2: my students as we were getting ready to go home
Speaker 2: for the long weekend quote unquote, you know that it
Speaker 2: is okay to feel a variety of emotions like I'm sad,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna miss you guys. I don't know when I'll
Speaker 2: get to see you again, and that makes me anxious
Speaker 2: and I'm excited to go fight for you guys to
Speaker 2: get us what we deserve. Like, so even letting the
Speaker 2: children know this is totally normal, and that's my same
Speaker 2: message to the adults, like it's totally okay if you've
Speaker 2: got some mixed emotions. Yeah, and we're going to be
Speaker 2: out there fighting for the kids. I hope you're not
Speaker 2: mad at me for very long, but I'm gonna do
Speaker 2: it anyway.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And that's another thing that's kind of like weird
Speaker 1: about this is like the way the negotiations have gone.
Speaker 1: It's like this is happening, like because a lot of
Speaker 1: strikes happen at the beginning of the school year, right,
Speaker 1: and so it pushes back the but this is but
Speaker 1: this is like okay, So like you've gotten in, you've
Speaker 1: met the kids, you're like teaching them to developing your relationship,
Speaker 1: and then management is just like, no, this is the
Speaker 1: moment we're going to force everyone.
Speaker 2: Yeah that just sucks, Like yeah, and I don't think
Speaker 2: there's ever a great time to strike, but we definitely
Speaker 2: hope to be the least impactful. You know. We want
Speaker 2: to make sure that our families have what they need.
Speaker 2: We want to make sure that our staff have what
Speaker 2: they need. We didn't want to go too long. We
Speaker 2: don't want to be striking in the middle of winter
Speaker 2: or during a break when students are already out. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's there's never a great time. And I feel I
Speaker 2: feel really confident that our bargaining unit has really worked
Speaker 2: to make this the least detrimental to our students as possible, Yeah,
Speaker 2: while still maintaining the validity of a strike, of a
Speaker 2: big collective action.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think this is this is something that
Speaker 1: care workers struggle with a lot, Right. It's like one
Speaker 1: of the reasons that it's it's hard for teachers to strike,
Speaker 1: that it's hard for healthcare workers to strike is because like, yeah,
Speaker 1: like you don't do this job unless you care about
Speaker 1: the people that you're like it's your job to care for,
Speaker 1: Like you don't, you wouldn't know, Like no one will
Speaker 1: put up with these conditions if they didn't care, right,
Speaker 1: And you know, and that's I think there's this really
Speaker 1: grim way in which just becomes this sort of trap
Speaker 1: of like this is it becomes this and you see this,
Speaker 1: like this is the thing I've been I've been talking
Speaker 1: to like people who like abortion workers, and they talk
Speaker 1: about this too, where it's like there's this this kind
Speaker 1: of trap you get in because it's like you know
Speaker 1: that you are the only person providing the service that
Speaker 1: these people really need, and your bosses use that to
Speaker 1: underpay you use it to you know, have unacceptable conditions,
Speaker 1: and it sucks that. It's like, you know, the the
Speaker 1: foundational elements of an actual any kind of society that's
Speaker 1: actually good, like the fact that people care and love
Speaker 1: like love each other and care for each other is
Speaker 1: being used as a weapon really shitty conditions.
Speaker 2: It's weaponizing our passion and our care for our kids.
Speaker 2: And that's also something that tells you that it's serious.
Speaker 2: If if teachers who know that our students rely on us,
Speaker 2: we love our students so deeply, if we are at
Speaker 2: the point where we're finally striking it's been bad for
Speaker 2: a while. Yeah, yeah, and you were kind of mentioning
Speaker 2: this earlier, but teachers are so many things to our students,
Speaker 2: like I am their teacher. In some cases am a
Speaker 2: care provider. In some cases, I'm a therapist. In some cases,
Speaker 2: I'm their nutrition expert. Like they are coming to us
Speaker 2: for everything in some cases, and so to be willing
Speaker 2: to say I have to leave now to get us
Speaker 2: what we deserve, I'm going to make sure you're okay.
Speaker 2: It's so hard, it's so hard to say goodbye to
Speaker 2: these kids, and it's so necessary. Yeah, and that's that
Speaker 2: tells you that we that it is also that important
Speaker 2: that we have gotten to this point where we need to. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and the students do seem pretty I mean I have
Speaker 2: the benefit of being at fifth grade, but the students
Speaker 2: do seem to understand pretty well. Some of them are
Speaker 2: incredibly activated little unionists, little union fighters as well. We
Speaker 2: had some of the fifth graders sent letters to the
Speaker 2: Oregonian and to the to the school board and to
Speaker 2: the superintendent. And they're very eloquent. They I mean, they've
Speaker 2: been living the conditions. They are the voice and it
Speaker 2: is they are trying to shout loudly, and you know,
Speaker 2: we're trying to amplify that. Like I am striking for them.
Speaker 2: I will benefit, but this is for them to have
Speaker 2: a better outcome.
Speaker 1: You know what, other services are provided by a bunch
Speaker 1: of workers who are not getting paid enough and are
Speaker 1: probably understaffed legally. I don't know if I'm allowed to
Speaker 1: say that, but they haven't done the crackdown on us yet,
Speaker 1: so I can say whatever I want. Damn it. It's
Speaker 1: products and services that support this podcast and we are back.
Speaker 2: So there wasn't.
Speaker 1: There's a thing I've been noticing. So I've been interviewing
Speaker 1: a lot of I've been interviewing a lot of service
Speaker 1: workers in the last god, like I guess like two
Speaker 1: years now. Jeez, I've been doing this for a long
Speaker 1: time now. But one of the things that I've been
Speaker 1: noticing is a lot of people. And this comes back
Speaker 1: to something that you were talking about, which is that
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of service workers, I mean
Speaker 1: people who are just beached as people who are you know,
Speaker 1: people who are just doing effectively random service jobs are
Speaker 1: being pushed more and more into having to care for
Speaker 1: people because the rest of the sort of whatever social
Speaker 1: safety nets the US used to have have just completely imploded.
Speaker 1: And I think I want to get your opinion in
Speaker 1: this way, it looks to me like ground zero for
Speaker 1: this was the education system of right, all of the
Speaker 1: responsibility of you know this, these massive increases in poverty
Speaker 1: and its extagnating wages and police violence and like our
Speaker 1: completely dysfunctional mental healthcare system that all of this. The
Speaker 1: first people this was pushed on was y'all.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Now, we're that first line of defense for the
Speaker 2: public good. And when you are gutting education, you are
Speaker 2: gutting the first safety net of the public good. And
Speaker 2: you know, the students will tell you that they are
Speaker 2: our future and we are the net that's supposed to
Speaker 2: catch them. And we've been underfunded and undersupported and under
Speaker 2: resourced and in many ways like privatized, where some of
Speaker 2: what will be the future populace are getting what they
Speaker 2: need and everyone else is left behind. And you can
Speaker 2: see it in retrospect. You can see how public education
Speaker 2: has been deteriorating or forcibly deteriorated by some of those
Speaker 2: interests that are trying to privatize or have privatization yep
Speaker 2: in their mission. And the ultimate outcome of that is
Speaker 2: a deteriorated United States. Like the populace is suffering because
Speaker 2: of it, Like I wonder why democracy is starting to
Speaker 2: fall apart when yeah, follow the dominoes backwards. Public education
Speaker 2: has been underfunded and undersourced for decades now, so our
Speaker 2: generation of workers are trying to repair the damage we
Speaker 2: witnessed and experienced and stop it from getting worse as
Speaker 2: it gets worse around us.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And this is one of those things where this
Speaker 1: is kind of like there's been this kind of unholy
Speaker 1: alliance between like that I guess I call it like
Speaker 1: the sort of the charter school private school alliance between
Speaker 1: the sort of like Obama, Arnie Duncan, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: Paul vallis like technically liberal like neoliberal reformers, who were
Speaker 1: you know, trying to destroy teachers' unions, trying to like
Speaker 1: trying to force everyone in the charter schools, trying to
Speaker 1: sort of like I just and just just just blasting
Speaker 1: holes in the education system of every single city they
Speaker 1: end up in. But it's just it's just interesting thing too,
Speaker 1: where like you have these people on the one hand,
Speaker 1: and they're the sort of like vaguely liberal wing of it,
Speaker 1: and then simultaneously you have this sort of like absolutely ferocious,
Speaker 1: like frothing right wing like evangelical shoe shape. Yeah, It's
Speaker 1: like someone I saw a well, I get they were
Speaker 1: going through their direction, but I saw I saw a
Speaker 1: funny defiction of that. They called it like fish hook theory,
Speaker 1: where like you have this stuff in the middle, and
Speaker 1: then the far right people sort of bend back around
Speaker 1: into the middle because they found this one thing they
Speaker 1: agree on, which is that they hate teachers, right.
Speaker 2: And you know, the public enemy.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, and I think it's it's interesting too that
Speaker 1: like schools are specifically the place that when when the
Speaker 1: rights tried wanted to do their push back against racial justice,
Speaker 1: it was like they went to schools. They've been doing
Speaker 1: this with like LGBTQ stuff too, is you know, this
Speaker 1: is like the rights whole game. I mean, since like
Speaker 1: desegregation has been trying to push people into private schools
Speaker 1: and privatizing the education system, and I don't know, it
Speaker 1: strikes me it's interesting that that, you know, there's been
Speaker 1: for a really long time, and I think y'all, like
Speaker 1: y'all the like Chicago teachers Unions has this has really
Speaker 1: been sort of the forefront of the fight against that
Speaker 1: of like it seems it seems like we're finally in
Speaker 1: a period with these people who have run this country
Speaker 1: into the ground for the past like fifty years are
Speaker 1: finally starting to sort of like face the consequences and
Speaker 1: like have to deal with the people that they've been
Speaker 1: just destroying for so long.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we are seeing it from the in side as
Speaker 2: it happens, Like I am experiencing as an elder millennial
Speaker 2: growing up in the nineties in the public education system,
Speaker 2: knowing now as an adult what I was not being
Speaker 2: taught or what was being left out or censored just
Speaker 2: due to systemic patterns that now we teach in a
Speaker 2: different way to make sure that that doesn't continue. And
Speaker 2: then we're seeing legislation in places like Florida and Tennessee.
Speaker 2: They're like stop doing that, stop fixing the problem, and
Speaker 2: you can't put it back in the box. Like we
Speaker 2: see from the inside as things are are falling apart
Speaker 2: and people are being left out, and so we're inside
Speaker 2: public education screaming, knock it off. You did bad by us.
Speaker 2: We won't let you do bad by the next generation
Speaker 2: and the next generation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think like the other aspect of that,
Speaker 1: like is is the way that like school boards are
Speaker 1: being used to sort of like to take control of
Speaker 1: districts and like push all of this sort of just horrific,
Speaker 1: like queer politics stuff, and I don't know, like that
Speaker 1: that's a personal one for me because like my school,
Speaker 1: like I mean, I guess we technically had stuff, but
Speaker 1: like I don't know, like the resources available to all
Speaker 1: the queer kids that like that was like me and
Speaker 1: like everyone I grew up with were like just terrible.
Speaker 1: And you know, I got to see the consequences.
Speaker 2: Of that, right bare minimum if any.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and like you know, like in a in a
Speaker 1: really really like frothing right wing like really justconservative environment,
Speaker 1: and like, I don't know, it's it really seems like
Speaker 1: it's for a lot of people, it's gotten way better
Speaker 1: and all of these you know, like one of the
Speaker 1: assaults that we're seeing is like who just want to
Speaker 1: bring this stuff back right to.
Speaker 2: The quote unquote good old days before all of us
Speaker 2: queer folks were coming out, And yeah, like put everybody
Speaker 2: back in the closet, hide all of the racism that
Speaker 2: you've unraveled and exposed, put it all back in the
Speaker 2: b put a bow back on the box. We want
Speaker 2: America to look the way it used to. Yeah, And
Speaker 2: that's that's a lie, and that benefited very specific populations
Speaker 2: and we won't continue to play that game. And I
Speaker 2: think that's another reason, like you said that you're seeing
Speaker 2: the gutting of public education, is that it's scary. Public
Speaker 2: education is about truth and teaching critical thinking, and that
Speaker 2: is not good for people in power when their power
Speaker 2: has been achieved on the backs of marginalized groups and
Speaker 2: by historically underserving people and pushing people into the dirt.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like it turns out that when your entire
Speaker 1: state is based on doing a rolling genocide across the
Speaker 1: entire continent, you probably don't want to tell people that
Speaker 1: that's like it's a bad idea.
Speaker 2: Yeah, cats out of the bag America.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask to sort of what role has
Speaker 1: I guess, just twenty twenty in general, and I mean
Speaker 1: the pandemic too, but like I don't know, like I
Speaker 1: want to, I guess, like get a sense of what
Speaker 1: impact like the uprising has had on all of this,
Speaker 1: because it is, like I do think it is notable
Speaker 1: that you know, it's like three years after the uprising,
Speaker 1: it's we have the first strike in.
Speaker 2: Right, so long. I think as a result of living
Speaker 2: through pandemic times, people really had an opportunity to reflect
Speaker 2: on what their lives were like, what they were living
Speaker 2: through that was unjust. I think a lot of inequities
Speaker 2: were revealed through having to shift our entire worlds, and
Speaker 2: things that had previously gone hidden or unnoticed or unexposed
Speaker 2: came to light and people said no more. I we
Speaker 2: have learned to do things a different way. We will
Speaker 2: not go back to the broken ways. And so it
Speaker 2: makes sense to me that we are at this boiling
Speaker 2: point in repairing and trying to rebuild and reform after
Speaker 2: a global change. And you see it in the kids too.
Speaker 2: I mean they say about my generation as a millennial,
Speaker 2: that we've lived through numerous large scale traumas, and the
Speaker 2: kids of today have now as well. Like the students
Speaker 2: I'm currently teaching were second graders when the pandemic hits,
Speaker 2: and they are forever changed. They were seeing, you know,
Speaker 2: the Black Lives Matter movement come alive on their television
Speaker 2: screens and in their cities. They grew up in civic
Speaker 2: action and global turmoil, and they are active. Even if
Speaker 2: I wasn't teaching current events in the way that I do,
Speaker 2: the students are bringing it to the room. Like the
Speaker 2: conversations are happening.
Speaker 1: Yea, which is it's such an interesting like that generation.
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be really interesting because I don't
Speaker 1: know I'm from this. I'm on exactly the borderline with
Speaker 1: everyone trying to figure out whether I'm a millennial or
Speaker 1: a zumer. But like my like my first memory is
Speaker 1: nine to eleven. Yeah, so like you know, it's I
Speaker 1: feel like I got a kind of millennial experience, which
Speaker 1: is I got nine to eleven, two thousand and eight,
Speaker 1: twenty six well two thousand and eight, then like the
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen uprisings I guess was a bit off, but
Speaker 1: I got like thirteen up risings, and then like I
Speaker 1: get out of college or I get into college and
Speaker 1: it's twenty sixteen.
Speaker 2: It's just like a mess. Yeah, it's hot mess.
Speaker 1: It's this real Like I I I like, I became
Speaker 1: conscious the moments that history returned to the world. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I don't know, Like, I think it's an interesting
Speaker 1: thing with like with these kids who've grown up, who
Speaker 1: are you know? I mean like, yeah, like their first
Speaker 1: memories are going to be like the pandemic and like
Speaker 1: twenty twenty that I don't know, Like I I don't
Speaker 1: know I'm interested in where these people are going to go.
Speaker 1: But also I think this is you know, this all
Speaker 1: of this ties back into just the importance of what
Speaker 1: you and all of your coworkers do, which is that
Speaker 1: you're the people who are you know, like it, you're
Speaker 1: the people who are producing, like the kids who are
Speaker 1: going to who are I mean, hopefully they won't have
Speaker 1: to be fighting the same fights that we are right now.
Speaker 1: Statistically they probably will, but yeah, like and you're the
Speaker 1: people who are sort of mediating their understanding of like
Speaker 1: what is happening in this world around them that's you know,
Speaker 1: increasingly terrifying and complex.
Speaker 2: Right, trying not to give ten year olds an existential crisis,
Speaker 2: but yeah, coming into like they are at that developmental
Speaker 2: age where they are starting to have that existential crisis
Speaker 2: of Wow, our planet is out of luck, our educational
Speaker 2: system is rotten, our democracy is falling apart, like they
Speaker 2: are witnessing turmoil in every country like that it is.
Speaker 2: You know, they say that the youth's humor is very
Speaker 2: nihilistic and dark, and it's just getting darker. Like thankfully,
Speaker 2: they give me so much hope and light in you know,
Speaker 2: a world where sometimes I don't even know want to
Speaker 2: be a part of the future, because the future looks grim.
Speaker 2: They are a light even in all of that darkness.
Speaker 2: And you know, I think they're really resilient. I wish
Speaker 2: they didn't have to be. I have my own big
Speaker 2: existential dread. And the kids are angry. The kids are
Speaker 2: are upset, But the kids are all right. Maybe, yeah,
Speaker 2: if we can continue to support them.
Speaker 1: And I think this is something that goes for everyone's
Speaker 1: like it. So insofar as we have obligations to anyone
Speaker 1: on earth, like the thing, the thing that we owe
Speaker 1: these kids is to try to make sure they don't
Speaker 1: have to go through the same shit that we did,
Speaker 1: because like that stiff sucked.
Speaker 2: Yeah. One of my teaching philosophies is the bee who
Speaker 2: you needed when you were younger? And I didn't even
Speaker 2: know some of the things I needed. But looking back,
Speaker 2: like now, as a queer adult living in a major
Speaker 2: city who grew up in a small town in Montana
Speaker 2: in the binding is I'm very, yeah, very aware of
Speaker 2: some of the things that I should have had as
Speaker 2: a young person, and that I am glad to be
Speaker 2: there for my students in that way. Even the difference
Speaker 2: working with some people who've been teaching for longer. You
Speaker 2: see the difference in educational philosophy from run generation to
Speaker 2: the next and the bee who you needed when you
Speaker 2: were younger. I'm very open to being neuro affirming, supporting
Speaker 2: our students that are on the spectrum or students with
Speaker 2: ADHD are students with anxiety disorders in a way that
Speaker 2: even the teachers of our generation when when I was
Speaker 2: a child, yeah, aren't necessarily on the site like we're
Speaker 2: getting better, we're making education less damaging to I think
Speaker 2: that's one of the reasons sometimes we lose public opinion
Speaker 2: is people have negative memories of school. School has been harmful,
Speaker 2: and we're like, no, support us, Like I promise it's
Speaker 2: different now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but but I mean, but I think this is
Speaker 1: one of those things too, where like the Teachers Union
Speaker 1: in general, if you're looking at what is this, what
Speaker 1: is the single like group of people in the United
Speaker 1: States who actually wants to make school suck less? Like
Speaker 1: the most it's probably like slightly above that is students.
Speaker 1: But the thing is, like students are organized enough to
Speaker 1: like right, and you know, and like I said, as much,
Speaker 1: really any know that this isn't to write off, like
Speaker 1: the incredible amount of student activism that I mean, it
Speaker 1: has been happening forever, but they don't have the kind
Speaker 1: of power that like teachers unions too, and teachers unions
Speaker 1: are the social voice. Yeah. Well, and also the ability
Speaker 1: to like, like the ability to withdraw your labor and
Speaker 1: suddenly actually have a massive effect on the entire sort
Speaker 1: of like state economy.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, we are united for our students, like the
Speaker 2: we are called a teachers' union, but we are united
Speaker 2: for our students because they don't yet have the ability,
Speaker 2: or the access or the social capital to be heard
Speaker 2: in the way that they deserve.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know. I think I think that's a
Speaker 1: that's a pretty good note to end on, unless you
Speaker 1: have anything else that you want to say.
Speaker 2: First, I'm satisfied. I mean I'm not satisfied. I'm striking,
Speaker 2: but like, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: So, how how can people well, A, how can people
Speaker 1: in Portland support the strike? And then b, how can
Speaker 1: people who are not in Portland who want to support
Speaker 1: the strike help?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Portlanders are able to help support the strike. We
Speaker 2: have a strike fund set up for purchasing and some
Speaker 2: of the things that we've needed on our strike. Lines,
Speaker 2: like megaphones, like ponchos. All of that strike fund is
Speaker 2: being used to help strike captains such as myself around
Speaker 2: the city organize our pickets and our actions, and so
Speaker 2: donating to that strike fund is one way to make
Speaker 2: sure that every teacher in Portland is getting some support.
Speaker 2: And then if you live in Portland, finding out the
Speaker 2: schools that are closest to you in your area, reaching
Speaker 2: out to those schools specifically, probably through social media since
Speaker 2: we will not be in our buildings, like using a
Speaker 2: school email wouldn't work, But reaching out to the strike
Speaker 2: in your area if you drive by and you see them,
Speaker 2: like giving them a honk in a horay and finding
Speaker 2: out where they need supplies to get directed to people
Speaker 2: outside of Portland. Same thing that strike fund is very visible,
Speaker 2: sharing on social media things on our behalf really making
Speaker 2: sure that your own legislatures know how important public education
Speaker 2: is to you. Hopefully things in your state or area
Speaker 2: are going positively for educators, but chances are they're not
Speaker 2: so I bet no matter where you live. As a listener,
Speaker 2: you a public educators in your area could probably use
Speaker 2: your support talking to school boards, talking to legislators and
Speaker 2: making change in education, making sure that kids are getting
Speaker 2: what they need. That fight is guaranteed to be happening everywhere.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we will we will have links to well,
Speaker 1: definitely a strike fund probably also will have links to
Speaker 1: social media stuff the description, so yeah, go go do that.
Speaker 1: And also yeah, yeah do you want I'm assuming you
Speaker 1: also people control the picket lines. M yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Anyone in Portland driving in any of our neighborhoods
Speaker 2: will find a school, will find a picket and you
Speaker 2: are welcome to join us. I know I'm in the
Speaker 2: Southwest region of Portland. Will be picketing in major areas
Speaker 2: as well as right outside our schools. So pretty much
Speaker 2: anywhere you see a sea of blue, give us a
Speaker 2: honk and hop out and join us for a little while,
Speaker 2: and we'll see you in some big visible spaces to
Speaker 2: be determined as we do some lar interactions.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, this is a This is the thing I
Speaker 1: will say from from experience is that like the Okay,
Speaker 1: so the more people there are, the better picketing is.
Speaker 1: And where there's a bunch of people on a picket,
Speaker 1: it rules. So go go to a picket. It's a
Speaker 1: good time.
Speaker 2: You're you're you're joining us.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're fighting. You're fighting for a good cause, you
Speaker 1: are fighting for your class and yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hey, well, thank you so much for having me,
Speaker 2: and thank you to your listeners for giving us an ear.
Speaker 1: And thank you, thank you for talking to me. It's
Speaker 1: been it's been great. And yeah, go go go listeners,
Speaker 1: all of you, go support the strike make sure they win.
Speaker 1: And yeah, go out, go out into your communities and
Speaker 1: do the same. It Could Happen Here as a production
Speaker 1: of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media,
Speaker 1: visit our website cool zonemedia dot com or check us
Speaker 1: out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could
Speaker 1: Happen Here update and monthly at coolzonemedia dot com slash sources.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening.