The actions of Judge Clarkson Fisher, Jr., in Monmouth County, New Jersey, are aimed at breaking the teachers' strike and forcing them back to work. In addition to taking a stand against the school district's attempt to shift health care costs onto their backs, many teachers point out that their fight is also against unequal wages paid to women. The action comes at the same time as public school teachers across the Hudson River are facing down Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who is taking a hard line against pay raises. Teachers there are rejecting the mayor's attempt to use the "fiscal crisis" scam following September 11 as a reason to moderate their demands.

The rapid moves by the Monmouth County school authorities, backed by Judge Fisher, are cut from the same cloth as the union-busting drive by Finch, Pruyn & Co. in upstate New York. The company imposed severe concessions and dealt blows to the unions at its Glens Falls plant by successfully hiring hundreds of strikebreakers. Solidarity with these new strikes can make a difference in the outcome.

Many of the teachers in New Jersey ascribe an added urgency to their fight, as they see it as one that will make a difference for other teachers. Let the employers get away with these attacks, they point out, and other teachers and public employees will be next in line. That working-class attitude is one that can win the teachers a lot of support.

A visit to one of the struck Catholic schools in Manhattan by a Militant reporter turned up another sign of the kind of solidarity that is possible. Hundreds of students, let out of class early because all the teachers were on strike, poured out of the school. Many supported the teachers in their demand for a pension and wage increases to close the gap with their public school counterparts. That's a good sign both for today and the future.
 
 
Related article:
Striking New Jersey teachers defy court order  
 
 
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