Jack Behrend Collection

Teacher’s Strike

Transcript (Download)

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

They don't give you any choice.

It's either Hitler or it's freedom.

And you've got to pay the price for freedom.

I think you can't not have a contract.

And I think that you can't not give somebody We have a chance to have a contract and negotiate it.

What I think we're talking about here is whether or not the teachers are going to exist in the building under a contract that spells out fairly clearly what policies and procedures are and what appeals procedures are and how the teaching staff and the administration can work together and how they can mend differences when they occur.

I think what the Board wants is the right to arbitrarily decide anything they wish, when they want, how they want, why they want, in relation to whom they want, to hire and fire people and make decisions regarding the working conditions and situations of people based on their own whims.

From the first day of the strike, the teachers felt increasing pressure.

Malograms and threatening letters seemed to be legal procedures, but the Board's real intent came through when they repeatedly delayed or canceled bargaining sessions or failed to bring in new proposals.

Most threatening to us were the administrators' around -the -clock preparations to open the schools with replacements and, in effect, destroy the Union.

I don't want to see our Union broken.

Wesley Gibbs came to a faculty meeting several years ago and said this, I am not your friend.

If you've got a good Union, you better have a good Union.

And get into it, because I'm not your friend.

And every administrator in this district has adopted that philosophy.

He said that all we would be doing by firing these teachers is taking some unemployed people and switching them with others.

We are trying to conduct an education in a situation where the system is valued and people are secondary.

The system is the antithesis of what we try to do in our classrooms, what we try to do in our homes.

No way.

I don't care the consequences.

Well, it was harder to think of going in.

I couldn't.

We were up to the door.

I couldn't go in.

I can't.

The mood of this group is the feeling you get walking with these people.

It's just the spirit and the enthusiasm, the courage.

And we're all here.

And that's what's going to make it.

I was terrified, just terrified, the week before we went into the strike.

But I feel better every day.

At this stage of the game, I'm prepared to stay out as long as we have to stay.

I feel better because I have a greater sense of solidarity with the faculty.

I have talked to people that I hadn't talked to in maybe six or seven years here.

I think it's very rare to see everybody out here risking so much for moral principles.

It's difficult for the community to understand that we're not out here for money.

My neighbors have been calling me in Glenview, just hearing about the strike on TV.

How much do you want and what's really going on? Is it really true that you're not out there for money? And it is.

They say some of the teachers in this school don't use their free time for kids.

Some of the teachers in this school duck out early.

Some of the teachers in this school are incompetent, so let's treat them all that way.

I resent that.

Mrs.

Garland has said this is not a crisis situation.

There is no way that you can have teachers come in right now and just pick up the classes.

It's going to hurt the kids' education because you can't get as qualified teachers as this.

This has got the experience of the years they've taught here.

The personal strength we gained from each other on the Pickett Line became union strength with the help of an honest leadership that provided full information, laid it on the line that we probably would be fired, and left us freedom of choice.

But I'm very deeply offended at what the board is doing, the way they're treating the faculty of this school, like a bunch of incompetents or a bunch of children or a bunch of people with no human rights.

Now, I would like to believe that all the administrators in the district will make those decisions based on what's best, what's the best educational plan for students and for the district and for the school.

We have sacrificed our lives, our professional lives.

By God, we were ready to make that sacrifice, and I did not see one administrator sacrifice one damn thing.

The security of the teaching staff is going to be dependent upon how much they can ingratiate themselves with their respective immediate administrators and principals and with the superintendent.

I don't want to have us living in a situation where people are unable to disagree with an administrator because they think an administrative suggestion is a non -efficient one or a poor one, and if I disagree with that decision, that the response I'm going to get is going to be a personal threat.

Dr.

Gibbs is finding the problems that are associated with this managerial system they put in.

These curriculum models and objectives are garbage.

440 teachers strongly are all against it, but they don't listen.

They say, you do it.

I will put a letter in your file.

I've been here for 13 years.

In 13 years I've given my guts to this district.

The doctor gives it into nothing.

I'm teacher number 1065 to that man.

As a total studies teacher, I appreciate the kinds of things these kids are beginning to engage in.

They're learning a lot about bureaucracy, and they're learning a lot about these big and personal institutions that we have, and they're learning it real well.

I said, you're a Jew, and so am I.

How dare you put dogs here.

The last time I had them was in Nazi Germany.

Some of us saw Doberman pictures.

We saw private security.

We saw Stokey police.

And we saw all kinds of evidences that whoever was running the show for the school did not trust us in a way that was unfathomable to us.

One week into the strike, at an open meeting, the board fired the striking teachers, calling out each of their names and crossing them off the list one by one.

It seemed inconceivable to us that they could wipe out all our years of experience and contributions to their schools with a slash of the pen.

And I felt the board were so wrong in doing what they did.

I have a son who was there until 3 in the morning, and when they called out, every teacher's name, to me, I think that's the lowest thing that any board could do.

And when this happened, there was no consideration for any past performance, and as that process occurred, all of their administrative staff stood silently by.

If there were a series of 101 speakers who came, who presented their viewpoints to the board, who pleaded, who cried, who begged, of those 101, a very conservative estimate would be that 93 of them were in favor of the teachers.

Regardless of how long they have worked for the township, or how many years they've put in, or what kind of a job they've done, it made no difference.

They were released by a board of education one by one simply because they did this one act.

Those who went in went in because it was a job, and those who stayed out stayed out because it was a profession.

And I think it would be a disaster to see all those teachers fired.

I think that that's what's become the main issue to the student body.

Our education is suffering, and we need you there.

We were fired on Monday night.

We were not cleanly fired.

We were dangled one more time.

For some of us, it was easier.

We walked out the first day, we knew that we were walking out of the school.

For other people, it was daily torture.

Many students, concerned for their disrupted education, organized rallies, attempted to reach administrators and board members, and with an increasing interest in the teacher's position, joined them on the picket line to talk or participate in informal classes.

I speak for a great number of people I've talked to over the past two weeks, and I too feel a very severe disappointment in our administrative staff, any administrative staff, who could sit back and watch in silence for fear of losing their jobs, the fate of 267 dedicated teachers go down the drain.

I understand that fear is a strong motivator.

We as a union of people have faced those fears, and we have conquered them.

When I heard Peter LaForge, a man whom I respected since I'd been at Niles, of dignity and courage and strength, fired summarily, I heard my own name called, I stood up, I looked around, saw my friends and fellow teachers, and I even managed to smile, because I thought that nothing from them, from the board, could make me cry.

I had the support of my fellow teachers, and that's what I needed.

Gentlemen, there's a difference between management and leadership.

Mike Lonsburg, this is Judy, you creep.

Get your gutsy's on and get to the north, we've settled.

There's a meeting at north, we don't work, we party.

You know we won.

I tell you, we've all bought the rest of our lives.

There's not anybody here that's ever going to be afraid of anything.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

We're all going to die.

Identifier
F.2004-02-0086
Date Of Production
1976
Abstract
Documentary of a 1976 strike by the Niles Township teachers. This strike ended in 267 union teachers being fired only to have the firings canceled. Numerous audio clips are provided as voice over, many from teachers giving their opinions and feelings of the strike. Includes footage of the picketing teachers, as well as students organizing in solidarity. Still shots of newspapers document the way the strike was publicly recorded.
Log
00:08 - Music begins playing over a blank screen as the words “Teachers’ Strike” zoom diagonally into frame.
00:18 - FADE to a newspaper page of the Nilehilite accouncing that the Niles Township Federation of Teachers declare strike. Var, opinions are voiced over footage of striking teachers. Var. MS views of strikers wearing signs and milling calmly outside a building. Shots of letters addressing the picketers.
01:12 - FADE to a blank screen as a female narrator (using the pronoun “us”), speaks about the pressure put on the teachers and the Board’s continual delay of bargaining sessions. She then speaks about the administration preparing to open the schools with replacement teachers and effectively destroying the union.
1:38 - FADE to more footage of picketing teachers, now including var. LS views. Small child smiling and holding a sign reading “Honest Bargaining”. ZOOM IN on var. still photos of striking teachers.
2:37 - Man arrives with a truck and begins cooking food outside at a small table. Var. scenes of teachers eating outside as voice overs document people’s opinions about the strike. More still shots of newspapers and footage of a flickering television screen. Narration and newspapers begin to convey the idea that the union teachers will soon be dismissed.
04:01 - Blank screen with narration about personal strength and honest leadership in the strike organization.
04:19 - Stills and PAN of more newspapers, including a want ad for teachers in Niles Township. The voice over addresses the fact that the administration controls the fate of the teachers. Var. MS and LS of striking teachers juxtaposed with men in suits.
05:02 - Long sequence showing only a television screen, flickering. It is difficult to discern what is playing but it is mostly the picketing teachers and men speaking. At one point the audio syncs up with the television. People are getting more upset.
05:50 - ZOOM OUT on a still photo of two men standing by police officers. One officer has a dog. Var. still photos of police dogs as voice overs recount how heightened security and the presence of the dogs made them relalize they weren’t trusted.
06:27 - Over a blank screen the narrator says that the board fired all the striking teachers, reading off their names and crossing them off a list one by one.
06:48 - FADE to the Morton Grove Champion with the headline “Board fires teachers.” Shots of the Chicago Sun Times and Daily News follow. TILT down to an ironic photo of a suprised girl with the caption “school can be fun...”
07:13 - Var. LS and MS of students returning to school. Footage is intercut with a CU of a school bus passing in a blur and then driving off down the street. PAN of a crowd of people standing by the street. Voice overs give reaction to the dismissal of the teachers, followed by a MS of students on the lawn and a student with a bullhorn.
08:24 - FADE to blank screen as narrator recounts the actions of concerned students who held rallies and joined the picket line in the wake of the dismissal.
08:41 - Var. shots of students gathered in large groups, a LS giving scope to their size. CU of var. shirts and signs, expressing opinions against the Board. ZOOM IN on a television set as a teacher’s voice over recounts her feelings at moment they were fired.
09:56 - CU of Chicago Daily News announcing that the teacher firings are off.
10:08 - Var.CU, MS and ECU a group of people outside a building, hugging and looking happy while drinking coffee and smoking. Camera is occasionally shaky, with shots going out of focus at time but shoots often from among the teachers, giving the viewer a feeling of being there. Ode to Joy plays. Near the end of this sequence the number 267 begins to be chanted.
14:54-15:06 - Flickering CU of television screen with two unidentified men raising their fists in victory. Freeze and FADE OUT.
Run Time
0:15:58
Format
16mm
Extent
575 feet
Color
Color
Sound
Optical
Reel/Tape Number
1/1
Has Been Digitized?
Yes
Language Of Materials
English
Element
Print
Genre
Documentary
Subject
Strikes
Teachers
Labor unions
Related Collections
Jack Behrend Collection

Related Places
North America ➜ United States ➜ Illinois ➜ Niles

Main Credits
Pietz, May (is director)
Pietz, May (is producer)
Behrend, Jack (is producer)
Behrend, Jack (is director)

Additional Credits
Behrend, Jack (is cinematographer)
Pietz, May (is editor)
Behrend, Jack (is editor)

 
Do you know more about this item?
If you have more information about this item please contact us at info@chicagofilmarchives.com.