Joslyn Williams, Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO
Testimony on the District of Columbia Public Education Reform Amendment Act of 2007
January 30, 2007

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NEWS FROM THE METRO WASHINGTON COUNCIL AFL-CIO

January 29,2006: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Contact: Jos Williams, President 202-756-4160 
Rick Powell, 202-744-2885

DC SCHOOL WORKERS REJECT BOARD ATTEMPT TO DENY RIGHTS

"Stripping teachers and other school workers of their rights is no way to fix our broken school system," said Metropolitan Washington Council AFL-CIO President Joslyn Williams today. Unions representing over 8,000 DC District employees - teachers, principals, blue-collar workers and bus drivers - responded with outrage to today's surprise announcement by the D.C. Board of Education of a proposal that would force the unions to renegotiate contacts or empower the Superintendent of Schools to unilaterally change union contracts. 

It's scandalous to scapegoat the very people who work every day with our city's students for the long-term failings of the school district's bloated bureaucracy," said Williams. "Attacking the rights of these dedicated educators is nothing more than a smokescreen to avoid accepting responsibility for decades of neglect and mismanagement. This proposal won't help a single student and will harm every local educator. If the School Board and administration want to know where that responsibility rightly belongs, they need look no further than the nearest mirror."

Expressing deep disappointment that the School Board had not discussed the proposal with workers before attempting to ram it through, the school workers unions vowed today to unconditionally oppose any attempt by the School Board to attack the collective bargaining rights of the workers. "The quality of our children's education must always come first," said Washington Teachers Union President George Parker. "No one knows better than school workers that change is needed, but we cannot succeed unless we all - students, parents, workers and the school administration - are on board."

"We've fought long and hard for our 3,000 members," added AFSCME Council 20 President George Johnson, "We'll go to the mat for these workers."