We Educate Miami

Following months of discussion and planning, more than 3,000 union women from across the U.S. convened in Chicago, IL on March 23-24, 1974, to form an organization to address the critical needs of millions of unorganized working women and make unions more responsive to the needs of all working women. 

CLUW adopted four core objectives: to empower women for greater participation at all levels in the labor movement; to organizing the unorganized; to promote affirmative action, social and economic justice in the workplace; and to increase the participation of women in the political and legislative processes.

For more, see www.cluw.org

Activists call on Biden to issue a new TPS for Haitians as nation’s turmoil deepen (Miami Herald https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article250119774.html) Immigration advocates called on President Joe Biden Monday to end deportations to Haiti and offer a new Temporary Protected Status designation for Haiti, a move that would provide immigration protection to thousands of additional migrants already living in the United States from the troubled Caribbean nation.

Biden administration releases nearly $1 billion in education funds for Puerto Rico (Miami Herald https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/article250116129.html) The U.S. Department of Education will release nearly $1 billion in federal funds to help Puerto Rico respond to both the pandemic and a series of natural disasters in the Biden administration’s latest move to reset relations with the island

How ‘Strange Fruit’ Killed Billie Holiday. Holiday, who throughout her career called public attention to the devastating impact of white supremacy, drew the notice of the Commissioner for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. He ordered her to stop singing the song... (as reported in The Progressive https://progressive.org/dispatches/strange-fruit-caused-the-murder-of-billie-holiday-180220/) The song’s lyrics were shocking to members of Holiday’s mostly white audiences: 

Southern trees bear strange fruit

Blood on the leaves and blood at the root

Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze

Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees

The song's writer, Abel Meeropol, actually taught at a high school in the Bronx, New York, and churned out reams of topical songs, poems and plays under the alias Lewis Allan. He published a poem under the title Bitter Fruit in the union-run New York Teacher magazine in 1937. The later name change was inspired. "Bitter" is too baldly judgmental. "Strange", however, evokes a haunting sense of something out of joint, according to a Guardian profile (https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/16/protest-songs-billie-holiday-strange-fruit) 

Pop Quiz: What national politician—well known in this area—endorsed the union drive at Amazon? This week we were happily surprised when the workers received another solidarity message from a politician well known to our listeners. Can you guess who it was? 

Let’s read what was written and see how long we can keep mystery alive before you guess who it is. 

In the USA Today on Saturday, this well-known elected wrote: What our nation desperately needs is not more oligopolies like Amazon or hostile relationships; what we need is a more productive relationship between labor and management.

Sounds like Bernie Sanders, right? Nope. Keep guessing. I will provide another hint. 

The person further wrote: One of my earliest political memories was marching the picket line with my dad in a Culinary Workers Union strike when he worked as a hotel bartender, and the lesson I took from it — all workers deserve respect — has stuck with me all throughout my career. 

Could it be progressive rookie Congresswoman “Squad” member AOC?

You are getting colder. Give up? None other than our Florida U.S. Senator Marco Rubio. 

If you did not get that pop quiz correct, it is certainly understandable: 

Tell us more about Senator Marco Rubio’s labor record: 

The Intelligencer (https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/03/marco-rubio-amazon-union-alabama-oped-woke-capital.html) reports: Over the course of his career, the Florida lawmaker has backed the AFL-CIO’s position in relevant Senate votes 8 percent of the time. For the average Senate Republican, that figure is 17 percent. Rubio is a co-sponsor of national “right-to-work” legislation (a policy that undermines organized labor by allowing workers who join a unionized workplace to enjoy the benefits of a collective-bargaining agreement without paying dues to the union that negotiated it, which has the effect of encouraging other workers to skirt their dues, which can then drain a union of the funds it needs to survive). Rubio opposes the $15 minimum wage, and supported all manner of anti-labor Cabinet nominees during the Trump administration. Just last night, he criticized Joe Biden for including a “bailout” of the pensions of millions of Teamsters, carpenters, builders, and other unionized trades in the newly signe

First Vice President Tony White and Secretary/Treasurer Mindy Grimes-Festge welcome state representative Kevin Chambliss who gives update on House Bills 835 and 947, which would allow for employers to intimidate workers who wish to join union and undermine union strength. Visit the UTD Legislative Action page to stand up for workers' right and public education by contacting your elected representatives. 

On this day in history, March 9, Dr. Antonia Novello was appointed Surgeon General of the United States in 1990. She was the first woman—and the first Hispanic—ever to hold that office. One of her most visible and effective campaigns was against tobacco industry advertising aimed at children, especially evident in posters and billboard advertisements that featured the cartoon character "Joe Camel." 

A vote on whether to form a union at the e-commerce giant’s warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., has become a labor showdown, drawing the attention of N.F.L. players, and the White House.

Players from the National Football League were among the first to voice their support. Then came Stacey Abrams, the Democratic star who helped turn Georgia blue in the 2020 election.

The actor Danny Glover traveled to Bessemer, Ala., for a news conference last week, where he invoked the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s pro-union leanings in urging workers at Amazon’s warehouse there to organize. Tina Fey has weighed in, and so has Senator Bernie Sanders.

And on Sunday, President Biden issued a resounding declaration of solidarity with the workers now voting on whether to form a union at Amazon’s Bessemer warehouse, without mentioning the company by name. Posted to his official Twitter account, his video was one of the most forceful statements in support of unionizing by an American president in recent memory.

“Every worker should have a free and fair choice to join a union,” Mr. Biden said.

Amazon Workers’ Union Drive Reaches Far Beyond Alabama (New York Times, March 2)

Further, Rep. Chambliss says that HB1 has "license to kill" contained within bill. Chambliss sent a strongly-worded statement calling the measure “the scariest piece of legislation that I have seen in my life.”

Celebrate Read Across America Day -  March 2 is "Read Across America Day."  Books and stories provide points of access for understanding other people's lives, to walk in someone else’s shoes—or to try on a different hat! We did Read Across America this morning and had so much fun. That video will be up at www.utd.org for parents to watch with their children so please take advantage of this wonderful resource. 

 Why Reading Aloud to Kids Helps Them Thrive (PBS for parents) 

Reading aloud to kids has clear cognitive benefits. For example, brain scans show that hearing stories strengthens the part of the brain associated with visual imagery, story comprehension, and word meaning. One study found that kindergarten children who were read to at least three times a week had a “significantly greater phonemic awareness than did children who were read to less often.” And the landmark Becoming a Nation of Readers report from 1985 concluded that “the single most important activity for building knowledge for their eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children.”

On this Day:  – March 2, 1955: Claudette Colvin Refuses to Give Up Her Bus Seat (Zinn Education Project) 

I could not move, because history had me glued to the seat. . . It felt like Sojourner Truth’s hands were pushing me down on one shoulder and Harriet Tubman’s hands were pushing me down on another shoulder, and I could not move.  — Claudette Colvin 

At age 15, on March 2, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat to a white woman. Colvin was motivated by what she had been learning in school about African American history and the U.S. Constitution. 

Why is March Women’s History Month? 

Besides International Women's Day on March 8, March holds a few more important milestones for women's history:

• Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in all federally funded education programs, was passed by the Senate on March 1, 1972. It became law later that year. In fact, the educators who formed the first Women's History Week a few years later did so to help schools comply with Title IX regulations. 
• The Equal Rights Amendment, a constitutional amendment which guarantees rights regardless of sex past those assured by the 19th Amendment, passed the Senate on March 22, 1972. (P.S. -- it's still not fully ratified.) 
• Earlier in the 20th century, two significant women's suffrage events took place in March. The first major suffragist parade took over Washington, DC, on March 3, 1913, and the National Woman's Party, a political group dedicated to women's suffrage, was officially formed in March 1917.

Today is the first day of the state legislative session. Often that seems far removed from our every day lives here, but the decisions these folks in Tallahassee make have significant consequences in the lives of each and every one of us. We are going to talk about these issues and, more importantly, ask you to take action every week so the peoples’ voices are heard in Tallahassee and beyond. 

When she stepped onto the sidewalk behind the Broward County Main Library Friday, it had been 271 days since LaToya Ratlieff stood at that unassuming street corner in downtown Fort Lauderdale. The last time she was there, in May, a police officer shot her in the face with a rubber bullet while she peacefully protested the death of George Floyd.

“I really never left this corner,” Ratlief said Friday. “I left, but in reality I’m here all of the time.” 

Ratlieff has suffered from de

Thanks to Federal support, Teachers age 50 and older will soon get access to COVID-19 vaccine in Florida 

Demand for vaccinations has outpaced supply, so the federal CDC  outlined a three-phase vaccine rollout plan. The first phase, issued in early December, recommended vaccinating health care workers and long-term care residents. The second phase, issued three weeks later, recommended vaccinating people ages 75 and older and non-health care frontline “essential” workers, including teachers, police officers and grocery store employees. The CDC included vaccinating people ages 65 to 74 in a third phase, along with younger people who have underlying medical conditions.

DeSantis, though, ignored the second round of recommendations and issued an executive order in December directing that vaccine doses be given to staff members and residents of long-term care centers, people ages 65 and older and people who hospitals deemed were high risk. 

Condolences to out to the family of Donna Blatche, M-DCPS school bus driver, who died of COVID-19. Between students who refuse to wear their masks and a breakdown in communication on whether any students sent home to quarantine were also on their routes, bus drivers’ concerns are growing.

Bradshaw said her mom often expressed concern that she was not being notified when kids who had been on her bus route were sent home to quarantine.

She believes this is crucial information so bus drivers can make life-critical decisions like whether to quarantine themselves or get tested.

“I know she inquired about the protocols and why kids were missing over a certain period of time,” Bradshaw said, adding that with other family members working as bus drivers, she feels like her mom’s legacy will be fighting for them to be safe and respected, fighting for their dignity.

Pandemic looms over education priorities for Florida Legislature Some Democrats have charged the Republican majority has given early priority to partisan measures that do little to address the troubles created by the health crisis. For instance, legislators have advanced ideas that would expand vouchers and create education savings accounts, mandate moments of silence in public schools, add new requirements to participate in teacher unions, and exclude future teachers from a traditional pension plan.

“My hope, genuinely, is that my Republican colleagues would see that their priorities right now are not going to help our children or our teachers,” said Senate Education Vice Chairman Shevrin Jones, a West Park Democrat.

Jones is urging senators to emphasize policy that would help students who are struggling academically or proposals to encourage teachers to tutor after school.

“Put the power back into the teachers. They are really doing a lot, so give them more resources to be able to continue doing it,” Jones said.

On this Day:  – W. E. B. Du Bois, one of the most important activist scholars of the 20th century, was born on Feb. 23, 1868. Du Bois, a sociologist, historian, Pan-Africanist, author, and editor, was one of the co-founders of the NAACP in 1909, leader of the Niagara Movement, and editor of the NAACP’s journal The Crisis.
See more at Feb. 23, 1868: W. E. B. Du Bois Born - Zinn Education Project (zinnedproject.org)

Black and Poor Left Behind in Florida’s vaccine rollout: CBS MoneyWatch took a deep dive into Florida's vaccine rollout, comparing vaccinations rates with demographics on income and race across the state's 67 counties. 

As Florida scrambles to vaccinate residents of the state against COVID-19, a key determinant in whether people are able to get a shot is whether they live in an area that is predominantly White and wealthy. One factor seemingly not playing much of a role: the number of COVID-19 cases in that area.

Here are their key findings:

• As of February 7, residents of Florida's top 10 counties with the highest percentage of White residents were 80% more likely to have received at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine than those who live in top 10 counties where non-Hispanic Whites make up the smallest percentage of the total population.
• Residents of Florida's 10 counties with the highest incomes had a vaccination rate of 9% — that's nearly double the 5% vaccination rate of people living in the state's 10 poorest counties. Statewide, the first-dose vaccination rate for Floridians is 6%.
• Publix, the supermarket chain, is the main pharmacy provider of vaccines in Florida. In Broward County — which has a population of nearly 2 million and is among the state's districts with the highest percentage of Black residents — not one of the more than 50 Publix locations in the county has begun to provide COVID-19 vaccinations. Boca Raton — a wealthier and whiter city in Palm Beach County, with one-twentieth the population of Broward — has 10 Publix locations offering the vaccine. 

New CDC Guidelines About School Safety

https://www.npr.org/2021/02/12/967033554/cdc-offers-clearest-guidance-yet-for-reopening-schools

However…

…a new CDC survey of nearly 4,000 middle- and high-schoolers released this week shows how inconsistent mask use can be among older students (13-21). "Approximately 65% of students reported that fellow students wore a mask 'all the time' in the classroom and in hallways or stairwells." But mask use dropped precipitously elsewhere, from just 42% on school buses and 40% in restrooms to 36% in the cafeteria (when not eating).

On this Day:  – On this day in Black History, February 16, 1923, Bessie Smith made her first recording, “Down Hearted Blues," which sold 800,000 copies for Columbia Records. Give a listen at https://youtu.be/go6TiLIeVZA

Also On this Day… February 16, 1874 – Frederick Douglass elected president of Freedman’s Bank and Trust. This Sunday, while many of us celebrated Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, 1818: is also the Day the U.S. Observes Frederick Douglass’ Birthday. Douglass said, "If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters."

Guest DC Clark of DCS Mentoring joins First Vice President Antonio White and Secretary-Treasurer Mindy Grimes-Festge to discuss mentoring young men and Miami history.

Role of African American teachers in establishing Black History month discussed. 

On this Day:  February 2nd, 1971 US Congressional Black Caucus (the “CBC”) organizes. So happy 50th Birthday CBC! Since its establishment 50 years ago today, the Congressional Black Caucus has been committed to using the full Constitutional power, statutory authority, and financial resources of the federal government to ensure that African Americans and other marginalized communities in the United States have the opportunity to achieve the American Dream.

Also, on this day in history, February 2, 1988, James Weldon Johnson is commemorated on a U.S. postage stamp. Johnson co-composed of the Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” in 1900. He had been the first African-American accepted to the Florida Bar in 1898, and the first executive secretary of the NAACP.

On Feb. 3, 1870, the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It decreed that the right to vote shall not be denied on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.

White House: Florida has used only half its COVID vaccines: The Biden administration Monday said Florida had used only half the COVID vaccines given to it by the federal government, challenging Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attempt to blame the slow pace of vaccinations on a lack of federal supplies.

Attention has been focused on the transition in Washington, DC , but our state legislature is up to its old tricks while there is little “on-the-ground” oversight in Tallahassee. Instead, public input is being restricted and we need to pay especially close attention to legislation which would undermine our public education system, disenfranchise the voices of educators, and trample workers’ rights.  
 
 Here are dangerous bills we are watching: 

·         SB 48 would dramatically expand unaccountable vouchers, draining our already underfunded schools, so they can line the pockets of those who seek the profit off of our kids

·         SB 84 would take away retirement security for teachers, staff, first responders and other front line workers who sacrifice so much for our community

·         SB 78 would force teachers, staff, first responders and other front line workers to cut through a bunch of bureaucratic red tape and jump through hoops when they decide to join and/or remain a member of their professional organization/union

For those you following education news locally, the Broward Teachers Union won a critical victory for information from an arbitrator even in a somewhat split decision that found the district had the right to return teachers who had been out with accommodations back to the classroom.

“Principals must now provide documents justifying their decisions,” Broward Teachers Union President Anna Fusco said. “We have been asking Runcie to give us information for months. He stonewalled and prevented BTU from finding out how principals reached their decisions. Now there is a binding decision that Runcie must follow. Runcie will finally be brought to account.”

Support builds for Florida teachers to get vaccinated sooner Gov. Ron DeSantis has turned away requests to move educators to a higher priority. A big “thank you” goes out to the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners, who passed a resolution asking Governor DeSantis to prioritize frontline workers for the vaccine distribution, including teachers, on Thursday, January 21st. 

On this Day:  January 26, In 1863: Black Troops Recruited for the Union Army. Also,  in keeping with the concept of second doses, here is today’s second dose of “this day in history”:  on Jan. 26, 2010, The World Health Organization rejected claims that it overstated the severity of the swine flu pandemic under pressure from vaccine companies. 

Miami Dade had a virtual visit yesterday from the incoming Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, to a MLK breakfast with the 5000 Role Models of Excellence group, which provides mentorship, scholarships and more for our children. So that was a special treat. The 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project is a dropout prevention, mentoring program committed to closing the minority male achievement (access) gap by guiding minority male students along a carefully charted path through grades K-12 and college or ensuring the attainment of other post-secondary credentials, and increasing their employability in higher wage, high skills jobs within high demand industries. Presently, the program serves approximately 8,000 students in 105 schools, including 37 Elementary, 24 Middle, 33 Senior High, and 11 K-8 Centers in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Find out more at www.5000rolemodels.com

Tomorrow is inauguration day so we are feeling pretty, pretty good about that. After four years of Donald Trump as President, we are looking forward to an administration were at least education advocates, labor unionists, social justice seekers in all fields should be able to have a dialog with the resident of the White House and the people who work with him. So let’s take a minute to reflect, give thanks and celebrate the will of the majority.

On this Day in history:  January 19, 1966... the Georgia State House of Representatives refused to seat state representative Julian Bond despite his election the previous November. Their stated objection was his endorsement of a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee statement accusing the United States of violating international law in Vietnam. In December 1966, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Bond’s exclusion unconstitutional, and Bond was finally sworn in the following month.

First Vice President Antonio White hosts guest Ruben Roberts, immediate past President of Miami-Dade NAACP.

Picking up the two Senate seats gives Democrats the opportunity to move an agenda. What is President 45 have to lose when he loses his seat? Note the difference between how the armed insurrectionists at the U.S. Capitol were treated in comparison with Black Lives Matter peaceful protestors? What would the danger be if conspirators are left unaddressed? 

On this Day in History:  January 12, 2010. Deadly earthquake strikes Haiti.
The earthquake, which lasted 35 seconds and was followed by several aftershocks, left an estimated 316,000 dead and 1.5 million injured. More than 1.5 million Haitians were left homeless after more than 400,000 houses crumbled into broken slabs of concrete and twisted steel. In the aftermath, donors and the Haitian government promised better construction, free public housing and a revitalization of Haiti’s devastated economy. 

None of it has materialized as envisioned.

The earthquake decimated the southern portion of Haiti, leveling more than 100,000 buildings in metropolitan Port-au-Prince and the cities of Jacmel and Léogâne, where the epicenter was. A post-disaster assessment by the U.N. estimated the destruction at $7.9 billion.