By Industrial Council No. 1, WIIU

DETROIT, DECEMBER 6 — All hell has broken loose in the Detroit Federation of Teachers.

Earlier today, about one-third of the 7,000 members of the Detroit Federation of Teachers met downtown in Cobo Hall to hear DFT President Keith Johnson explain the details of the tentative agreement with the school board.

It wasn’t pretty. The school board wants to slash health care benefits and prep time, freeze wages for the first two years of the contract and — get this! — take $500 a month from every teacher and put it in a “Termination Incentive Plan,” with the promise that it will be returned when the teacher retires or is laid off.

Some plan! You have to wonder exactly what they mean by “termination incentive.”

Obviously, the teachers listening to this were mad. This is what their bargaining team spent a year working on, and what they agreed to extend the contract three months for?!

But it gets worse — much worse.

When teachers began to voice their opposition to the deal, how did Johnson and the other DFT officials respond? They told the teachers that if they did not accept the deal, they would help the school board put the city’s public schools in receivership and bankruptcy!

Johnson, clad in a very expensive suit and gleaming with jewelry, told the teachers protesting in the hall, “I am going to recommend to this membership that you do not attempt to punish the children of Detroit because you are not satisfied with this benefits agreement.”

Of course, any pay cut the teachers get doesn’t affect him or his fellow officials. Johnson takes $148,000 a year in union dues for himself. At least he showed everyone what he spent that hard-earned dues money on!

The angrier the voices in the hall, though, the more arrogant and stubborn the officials got. It came down to this from these scummy little labor lieutenants: Accept what’s in front of you. This is all you’re going to get. We will not go back to the bargaining table. If you turn it down, we’ll help the bosses cut your wages and benefits, erase your seniority, and lay you off.

They even refused to allow a voice vote at the meeting — a tradition in the DFT for decades — on the contract, choosing instead to hold a “secret ballot” vote over the next week. Many teachers believe this is so that Johnson can stuff the ballot box and get the contract passed.

Detroit teachers no longer have a union. The DFT has abandoned them and went over 100-percent to the side of the school board.

The teachers have been abandoned, but they are not alone. In addition to thousands of other Detroit city workers facing a similar fight with Mayor Dave Bing, they do have the option and the ability to organize themselves to fight back.

The WIIU is ready to assist Detroit teachers with any organizing effort that will once again give them representation in the workplace.