Support your teachers. Support all public employees.

Working and middle-class men and women in this country and their labor unions are under attack. First they came after public employees in Wisconsin. Then they came to Ohio, Indiana, Texas, Tennessee, Alabama and New Jersey. Even closer to home, there are major assaults on collective bargaining in New Hampshire and in Maine. Just last week, Governor LePage in Maine removed a mural from the walls of the state Department of Labor depicting working men and women because it was too “pro-labor.”

We are also seeing attacks on collective bargaining rights right here in New Bedford. Here a group has organized to pressure the school committee and the mayor to strip our teachers of many of their contractually bargained rights. Their criticisms of our teachers are relentless. This is not a productive way to improve our schools or our city.

I am writing this to remind us all why unions are important and to say that there a better way to solve problems. Let’s start by talking about the economy. Workers and their unions didn’t cause the economic meltdown, and crushing unions won’t solve it. If you want to find out where the problem is, look at Wall Street and Citibank, not at Carney Academy or Gomes School. In fact, unions have historically improved the economy and raised the standard of living for everyone. When unions demand fair wages and decent working conditions, all employees benefit. The economy grows as more working families have money to spend on goods and services.

Unions won the 40-hour workweek, unemployment insurance, health insurance benefits, sick days, paid vacations, workplace safety laws and many other things we now take for granted.

Unions also fight for our professions. We have a saying: “Teachers’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions”. We advocate for small class sizes, healthy indoor air quality and common planning time for teachers. We also know that students need more than MCAS drill in our schools. They need services to support their social and emotional growth. They need art, music and sports to keep them healthy, creative and interested in coming to school. We fight for the funding to make all this possible.

That said, we know we have some serious challenges in New Bedford. We realize there are achievement gaps between rich and poor students, but here is what won’t help you close those gaps. Criticizing teachers. Calling us “shortsighted”, “selfish”, “indifferent”, “unprofessional”, “incompetent”, “obstructionist” and “innovation killers.” Cutting our benefits. Getting rid of seniority, or gutting our collective bargaining rights.

Those are all distractions. The real solutions involve, number one, closing the income gap. Unions are important in that effort, since unions have long helped lower-income workers rise to the middle class. Without unions, the rich will just keep getting richer and the poor will keep getting poorer. Number two, making sure that teachers and other educators in our schools have a seat at the table in shaping school reforms. Without unions, we are pawns in the education reform process. With unions, we are players.

My message to our community is this. Support your teachers. Support all public employees. Together we can solve problems and continue to make this a great place to live.