"I never could imagine that one day when I came to America -- to pursue the American dream, like everybody --that I would come to a point when the management of my work would come and have that meeting. I will never forget that one. It comes in my nightmares at night. It went for five hours. It was like threats, clear threats from management: 'The school is going to close.'"
Our guest, Massene Mboup, is second-grade teacher and soccer coach at the Portland French School, and an activist in the teachers' union organizing drive at the school. Thanks to management's intimidation tactics -- including threats of deportation and firing two employees -- workers are still struggling to win recognition for their union, despite filing for election with more than seventy percent support last spring. Their story is a textbook example of the challenges workers face in organizing a union.
"After the meeting many teachers were calling me: 'The school is going to close. Can we stop?' and I tell them, 'No, it's anti-union tactics! The school is not going to close. Actually a school can function without a board, without even a principal. A school needs teachers, parents and students. If we have that, you go.'"
We also replay a segment on a Los Angeles teacher who went on hunger strike to oppose cuts to California's education funding.
- KBOO