That Union Thing
It was way back during the Depression, in Akron, Ohio. It was a very brutal time. People were actually being thrown out into the street. They were freezing to death, or they were getting pneumonia and were dying as a result of it. A family was being evicted from their home in Akron.
And now, here's the thing: People were aware of it, but people weren't organized, people didn't know how to react to it. The family was strung out all over the place, their goods and everything like that, and [the police] were still carrying them out, and here [the father] was sitting out there with his family, and he was just bawling like a baby. You know, everything he had ... and what was he going to do through the night?
An organizer of the unemployed walked up with a group, grabbed one of the chairs, and started walking back in to the house. And he turns around, and he says to everybody, "Let's take it back." And there was no reaction. There was no reaction whatsoever. And just for a moment, this thought was running through his mind, which has always struck me. He says, "By God, they don't realize it. It's only by them doing it, will it ever get done."
People have to realize that. They can't continue to wait on the AFL-CIO, they can't wait on their international, they can't wait on everybody else. It has to be up to us, as individuals, to take and go that extra step, step out in front. just like in the novel: Pick up that chair, and walk on in and past the cops, and not be so concerned about what is going to happen. Because you carrying that chair in there, you taking on that fight, is much greater than anything you're going to lose.
Jeremy Brecher, Strike! (Cambridge MA: South End Press, 1997), p. 364
Miami-Dade Teachers win Pay Raise
A publicity campaign using radio spots and handbills helped Miami-Dade public school teachers convince the School Board to honor their contract and grant a 4% pay increase. The School Board had stated earlier that state funding cuts prevented them from being able to honor the contract.
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