Yes, we’re living in a turbulent, challenging times. Our efforts to give every student what they deserve — an accurate and honest education, instilling in them critical thinking skills and the freedom to pursue their dreams — are under attack. Lack of stable and adequate funding for our schools has led to devastating budget cuts, closures and layoffs.
Our right to live our truths is in the crosshairs of inhumane politicians and bureaucrats. Working people are under siege, with thousands of jobs eliminated or downgraded and workers’ rights to collective bargaining and unions in peril.
Our union has dealt with struggles before and we have successfully pushed back, upheld our values, cared for colleagues and community and continued to nurture and educate all students.
We’ve been able to do this because when we work together, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish.
Consider: Despite the anti-worker, anti-public sector sentiment at the federal level, our union recently helped pass the Social Security Fairness Act, which secures rightful retirement earnings for millions of Americans, including educators. During the last Trump administration, one out of five CTA members went on strike and won real improvements for educators and students. Our union helped win community school funding during that same period. Educators organized in Rocklin, Chino, Temecula and more to stand up to attacks on our LGBTQ+ students and educators.
These are huge victories, most won under adverse circumstances. So our response in the face of the current political climate is not to cower in a corner or acquiesce to the barrage of executive orders and new directives.
No. We fight back. We stand up to any and all attacks on our students, public education and workers’ rights:
- Our union is fighting back against harmful ICE raids that threaten our communities, frighten our students, and erode any sense of safety they deserve to feel at school and other traditional safe spaces. We’ve already put together resources to support immigrant students, families and educators.
- Our union is fighting back by empowering each other with our Cadre Training Program, which develops our members’ racial and social justice perspectives, giving them the tools to reach and teach students and colleagues with sensitivity and understanding.
- Our union is fighting back against harmful school closures in our communities.
We also fight forward, because this is about more than just surviving to see another day — we fight forward to ensure better days ahead:
Our union is fighting forward to protect education funding in the state budget and to launch new campaigns to secure school funding in the coming years. Together, we will combat disinvestment in public schools that hurt our students, families, schools and educators. In California — a state with the fifth-largest economy in the world — we cannot and will not wait anymore for fully staffed schools, safe and stable schools, and competitive wages and benefits for educators. Read about the “We Can’t Wait” campaign. You can also see how other local bar-gaining campaigns are pushing forward for the schools our students deserve.
Our union continues to actively engage and listen to members as we build strength and solidarity. Our organizing grants, president release time grants and planning grants are historic resources to ensure our locals have the tools and support they need to organize in every worksite.
The fact is, when our union is alive at our worksites, we have the power we need to hold our administrators accountable, enforce our rights and demand the
support our students need. When our union is alive at our worksites, our members will walk door-to-door for school board elections, show up for rallies outside school board meetings, and be ready to go on strike.
Strong worksites and locals are fundamental to building a stronger statewide union. This is how we fight forward and build power to not only win at our
bargaining tables but to also protect each other and our communities.
We have the community support, organizing power and will to win the battles before us and those that will rise ahead. We can do this, together. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
David B. Goldberg
CTA PRESIDENT
