AFT REPORTS: Rally during AFT convention supports Detroit teachers' union
Detroit Federation of Teachers, facing a devastating union-busting attack, garnered support from other union members from across the United States on Friday, July 27, 2012. Several hundred delegates to the American Federation of Teachers went from the opening session of the AFT Convention to a lunchtime rally in front of the nearby headquarters of the Detroit Public Schools.
Control of Detroit Public Schools is now in the hands of an “Emergency Manager,” Roy Roberts. Appointed by the state in response to a “fiscal crisis” in the city, he has the power to impose a contract without negotiating with the union. He has essentially fired all Detroit teachers, and had walked away from the bargaining table.
DFT local President Keith Johnson and national AFT President Randi Weingarten both spoke to crowd of some 3,000 AFT delegates in the convention hall in the morning, and the smaller crowd that rallied a couple of miles away in the early afternoon, where they called on Rogers to “negotiate now.” They then went upstairs to meet with Rogers while the rally continued outside.
The rally also supported a campaign by the DFT for a ballot initiative that would enshrine collective bargaining as a guaranteed right under the Michigan state constitution. The ballot initiative is part of a broader campaign by the Michigan labor movement.
Buses returned delegates to the AFT convention before Johnson and Weingarten emerged from their meeting with Roberts. Reports in the Detroit press indicate that Roberts did talk with them, but no negotiating breakthrough was achieved.
