So, the struggle to get the agreement is based on generations of neglect and defunding and deprioritization. Again, why would I trust you to have my back in a pandemic when I was unable to trust you to have my back in nonpandemic times? This boils down to a legacy of distrust, because we've been deprioritized. Again, Chicago Public Schools, under mayoral control, closed 50 schools that educated Black children. Again, in a pandemic that is killing Black people three times more than white people, why would you have infrastructure of trust there?
You have to rebuild the trust and the confidence of the individuals who will be attending these school communities, going inside of these buildings, as well as showing where the resources have been implemented and also maintaining the implementation of those resources. We're in a pandemic. I don't think it's a big -- I don't think it's unreasonable for people to have an expectation that you pull together in the same direction and that you have front safety as the uniting factor.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to read a quote from Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who was recently interviewed by The New York Times. She said, quote, "I understand that the notion that we would lock teachers out was disturbing to all. It should be. But it should also be disturbing when teachers say: 'I don't care what you say. I don't care what you do. I'm not going to abide by the contract or the rules that have been set for my place of employment,'" Lightfoot said. "That's chaos." Stacy Davis Gates, if you could respond?
STACY DAVIS GATES: I don't think there is a response to that. For the life of me, I do not know why any politician would harbor ill will and provoke fights with teachers, with paraprofessionals and school clerks, tech coordinators and social workers, counselors, librarians. I don't understand that.
Furthermore, the members of the Chicago Teachers Union, in coalition with parents and students across the city, have struggled together. They've struggled together to get an elected school board. They've struggled together to get cops out of schools. They've struggled together to get nurses and social workers inside of schools, to bring the issue of housing and security to the forefront and fight for housing for our students who do not have permanent housing. So this concept that we're not partners is simply another misleading action, statement from the mayor of the city.
AMY GOODMAN: And if you can talk about the importance of organizing and striking, right now in this period during the pandemic, the most effective way you see to keep the schools safe and to bring everyone back together?
STACY DAVIS GATES: Well, the most effective way is going to have to be with democracy. So, number one, Chicago has needed an elected school board for a very long time. Our mayor ran under that. She has so far yet to deliver. Democracy provides a very important set of checks and balances where stakeholders across the board have a way under which to interact. That's number one.
Number two, you have to have a labor union that is committed to the common good struggle, in that we, as educators, provide a common good, therefore we should be at the fore pushing for all of the things that our entity needs, as well as the people that we serve. There's no separation. Humanity basically forces us to provide the type of housing stability, the fight for justice in healthcare, the fight for the full resourcing of our school communities, but our neighborhood communities, as well.
Look, Chicago has undergone a seismic shift since 2012, when our union, with parents, with grassroots organizations and with students, said that Chicago students deserve more than what they have been given. And right now we are continuing to manifest that type of organization, that fight, that advocacy, where all people who are in the city get to win, not just the select few, not just the few who can buy it, but the many who need it.
AMY GOODMAN: And before you go, Stacy, I wanted to ask you about Karen Lewis, the former president of the Chicago Teachers Union who recently passed away at 67 years old. She had been battling brain cancer. She stepped down from her position at CTU due to her health four years later. This is Karen Lewis on Democracy Now! in 2010.
KAREN LEWIS: I don't think anybody will argue with that, that the system is broken. It is it has not basically changed since the 1900s 1800s, for that matter. And as a result, it has never been able to absorb real innovation. And the problem is, it's just a lot easier to test, test, test children. Our curriculum has narrowed in Chicago. If you look at the average day for an elementary school kid, it's reading, reading, reading, reading, reading, math, math, math, reading, reading, reading, reading, math. I mean, kids are bored to tears. They're hating school at an early age. There's no joy. There's no passion. And the results show that.
AMY GOODMAN: So, that's Karen Lewis in 2010. Your thoughts on her passing and her significance as former head of the Chicago Teachers Union?
STACY DAVIS GATES: Obviously, with her passing, I not only miss a great leader, I miss a friend, someone who cared for me and very generously gave me an opportunity to work in this movement and to be powerful in this movement.
And number two, I think her significance is that she has shifted the trajectory of the expectations of everyone in the city of Chicago. Nationally, she has triggered red from the West Coast to the East Coast to the Northern part to the Southern part of our country. And as a Black woman, she walked in her power, she walked in truth, and she defended Black children. She lifted up Black parents. And she gave us an example of how you lead in coalition, how you distribute power and provide a bellwether, if you will, for leaders who are committed to social justice.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you so much, Stacy Davis Gates, executive vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union, and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.
Next up, we go to Bessemer, Alabama, where Amazon workers are voting on whether to become the first unionized Amazon warehouse in the country. Stay with us.
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