Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

Shut It Down: Arizona Teachers’ Mass Sick-Out Delay School Reopening

On Saturday, Arizona teachers flexed their muscles. They called out sick and delayed the unsafe reopening of schools that will put many in danger. This is just a small taste of what a nationwide teachers’ strike would look like.

Carmin Maffea

August 17, 2020
Facebook Twitter Share
Image: The Intercept

Teachers in Arizona’s J.O. Combs Unified School District garnered a major victory this past Saturday. Over 100 teachers went on mass sickout, forcing the district to cancel its plans to reopen schools. Actions like this have also occurred in Chicago, where just the threat of a teachers’ strike forced schools to shift to remote learning rather than send teachers and students back to school in unsafe conditions. Teachers all over the country are well-positioned to fight back against school boards which are facing intense pressure at the state and federal level to reopen schools despite the risks posed by Covid-19.

The district was prepared to reopen schools on Monday after being granted government approval to reopen. However, these plans would have put the lives of staff, faculty, and students at risk. Arizona continues to face high numbers of Covid-19 cases, and no school district in the state meets the department of health’s requirements to reopen.  Nevertheless, as politicians have admitted, states are attempting to force schools to reopen so that parents can go back to work and make profits for the rich.

But educators were not willing to sacrifice their lives, the lives of their students, and the lives of other workers within Arizona school facilities to further enrich capitalist coffers. 109 teachers, who make up around 20% of the school district’s total teaching staff, called out sick. With so many teachers refusing to go back to work, the district did not have enough teachers to hold classes and had no choice but to give in to the demands of workers and delay the first day of school. The superintendent of the district said that the message they received from teachers was that they do not feel safe returning to classrooms with students.

A victory like this displays the potential of a national teacher’s strike. Teachers are intimately connected to working class communities and play an integral role in the reproduction of capitalist society. As is evident by the ruling class’s rush to reopen schools in the middle of the pandemic, workers can only carry on with everyday production and make capitalists a profit if schools are open to take care of their children. If teachers do not work, the economy is forced to a halt. 

A national teachers’ strike could demand and achieve so much. It could fight to cancel school reopenings or shift to remote learning until schools are able to meet the safety requirements of both teachers and medical professionals. But beyond this, a national teachers’ strike — united with other workers’ struggles — could make demands in every sector of society impacted by the pandemic and economic crisis.  Teachers could fight for rent cancellations, adequate housing for all, proper PPE for essential workers, as well as for racial justice and an end to police terror. Utilizing the collective power of teachers  on a national scale, the working class could garner significant concessions from the state and capital.

Facebook Twitter Share

Carmin Maffea

Carmin is a revolutionary socialist from New York.

Labor Movement

A UAW sign is held next to a "Free Palestine" sign

The UAW Has Called for a Ceasefire. It’s Time for All of Labor to Stand Up.

The UAW International union has joined calls for a ceasefire and is exploring how to divest from Israel. This is a step which should inspire union activists to take up the fight to bring their union into the fight against Israel's attack on Gaza and the struggle against imperialism.

Rose Lemlich

December 2, 2023
Protesters in NYC for Palestinian liberation.

Uniting Workers for Palestine Is a Fight for the Future of Labor

The struggle for Palestine shows the potential for the rank and file to push unions to break with imperialism and to build a new, combative, and internationalist unionism.

Tatiana Cozzarelli

November 27, 2023
A rally with people holding signs and a banner reading "Full funding"

Student Workers Stand Up for CUNY and Palestine

Attacks on CUNY and CUNY activists are an attack on all working people and students. Workers and students united can fight back.  

Olivia Wood

November 25, 2023

The Labor Movement Is Key for Palestinian Liberation

As part of the global movement in solidarity with Palestine and against the genocidal policies of the Israeli government, labor unions are taking action and demanding a ceasefire. This is not only a welcomed addition to the movement, but a necessary one that concretely shows the power of the working class.

Tristan Taylor

November 18, 2023

MOST RECENT

The New Hollywood McCarthyism Emerging Around Palestine

Over the past week, a new Hollywood McCarthyism has emerged: multiple people in Hollywood have jobs and representation over their support of Palestine. We must denounce and fight these attacks which weaken the movement and scare supporters into silence.

Sybil Davis

December 3, 2023

Robert Habeck Wrote a Play Praising a Right-Wing Mass Murderer

Germany's Green vice chancellor strikes many as an idealist who has been struggling with the tough realities of government. Yet before he was a national politician, he wrote a play that opens a window into a dark soul.

Nathaniel Flakin

December 1, 2023

The World Kissinger Built Must Die Too

Henry Kissinger died at 100 years old. But his legacy remains in the brutal world system he built and the future generations of imperialist ghouls he inspired. They all must go.

Samuel Karlin

November 30, 2023

Fact Check: Did German Leftists Try to Bomb West Berlin’s Jewish Community Center in 1969?

Answer: No. The bombing was undertaken by West Germany’s domestic secret service, originally founded by Nazis.

Nathaniel Flakin

November 29, 2023