For months, teachers at Fulton K-8 struggled with a leaky roof. Water-logged ceiling tiles fell into the classroom. Puddles formed on the bathroom floor. It affected teachers across the campus. As the rain wore on, we kept hearing that maintenance was backlogged and Fulton would have to wait. But Fulton teachers know better! We had a union meeting to talk about taking action. Our union contract gives us the right to a safe working environment. Leaks violated that, so we had a grievance. However, we decided not to file a grievance. We wanted a solution within a week, and worried that layers of administrators could draw out the grievance process. So we came up with a plan to organize!
We had to get specific about the solution: we wanted the roof fixed in 1 week, or an action plan to fix it. The BSS or principal couldn’t do that, though. The decision-maker with power to give us what we wanted was the head of Maintenance. We decided on a coordinated email campaign, with every teacher sending an email to him on the same day with photos of leak damage. This showed our unity.
What if the District didn’t give us our solution? We planned for that! If it wasn’t solved in one week, we’d make a parent flyer about the leaky roof, asking parents to call the head of Maintenance. All of us would pass it out in front of school. But we didn’t have to do that because… after every teacher emailed the head of Maintenance, they met our one week deadline to fix the leaks! They even came in on the weekend to finish the repairs!
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