Australian university union admits to over 3,500 job cuts
The NTEU attributes the nationwide job destruction to individual university vice-chancellors, covering up the Albanese government’s agenda.
Mike Head•
Educators Rank-and-File Committee
The Educators Rank-and-File Committee is an international network of educators, students, parents, and workers fighting for workers power in the schools, to stop the capitalist destruction of public education and eliminate COVID-19.
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Founding resolution of the Action Committee, Nurseries & Education
Education instead of war! Skilled workers instead of austerity measures for our nurseries and day-care centres!
In recent weeks, the rank-and-file Action Committee, Nurseries & Education, has been founded in Berlin to take up the fight against the ongoing deterioration of conditions for nursery and day-care centre workers, children and parents.
Action Committee, Nurseries & Education•
Australia: Unions agree to facilitate sweeping job cuts at Western Sydney University
The cuts at WSU are part of a wave of retrenchments and associated pro-corporate restructuring being inflicted throughout Australia’s 39 public universities under the Albanese Labor government.
WSU Rank-and-File Committee member•
New Zealand teachers to strike over 1 percent pay offer
As teachers and nurses launch a fresh wave of strikes, objective conditions require a unified industrial and political campaign by the entire working class to defeat the government’s austerity agenda.
John Braddock•
Sandy English•
Kapila Fernando, Pani Wijesiriwardena•
Nick Barrickman•
A WSU Rank-and-File Committee member•
Our reporters•
What way forward for postal workers after the rejection of Canada Post’s concessions-laden contract?
The contract rejection must become the launching pad for a renewed fight based on an entirely new strategy—one that breaks the stranglehold of the CUPW bureaucracy and mobilizes the immense social power of the entire working class.
Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee (Canada)•
The lessons of the Philadelphia municipal strike and the way forward
The Philadelphia municipal strike was not the end but the opening act in a rapid series of confrontations in Philadelphia and beyond.
Philadelphia Workers Rank-and-File Strike Committee•
Union seeks to shut down Philadelphia-wide strike movement as rank-and-file resists
The agreement is aimed at blocking a growing rank-and-file rebellion and preventing the resurgence of a powerful citywide strike movement.
our reporters•
Online meeting Monday: Override AFSCME’s sellout of the Philadelphia strike! Build the Philadelphia Workers Rank-and-File Strike Committee!
This is a call to action for all workers who want to defend their rights. Don’t let the bureaucrats and city officials decide your future behind closed doors!
Philadelphia Workers Rank-and-File Strike Committee•
Postal Workers Rank-and-File Committee (Canada)•
Philadelphia Workers Rank-and-File Strike Committee•
our reporter•
USPS Workers Rank-and-File Committee•
Roger Jordan•
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the term “rank-and-file” mean and where does it come from?
“Rank-and-file” is originally a military term. It refers to the lower “ranks” of soldiers, who literally stand in lines or “files”. These soldiers have a different set of interests in preserving their lives than the officers or “brass” who prosecute the wars on behalf of the ruling elite.
Rank-and-file committees are of, by and for the rank-and-file workers, who have a different set of interests in preserving their lives than management, the bosses, the politicians, and the trade union apparatus, who send workers to die while defending the profits of the ruling elite.
Is it legal to build rank-and-file committees of educators and other workers to stop the spread of COVID-19?
Yes. The formation of rank-and-file committees is 100% completely legal under the First Amendment to the US Constitution.
The right to freedom of speech means you can say whatever you like about what you agree or disagree with. Freedom of association, also covered under the first amendment, means you have the right to associate with others who share your views, for political ends. You also have the right to petition the government for redress, to make demands on the government and tell them what you want them to do.
Does HIPAA law prevent schools or workplaces from disclosing information about the spread of COVID-19?
No. HIPAA has an exception for disclosures to prevent and control the spread of disease, but the state is deliberately not invoking this exception in order to conceal information from workers, so that they can pretend that what they are doing is safe when it’s not.
Rank-and-file educators have the right to know who’s gotten sick, where, when, and what happened. Rank-and-file committees have to demand this information, and have to share it with other workers as a matter of collective self defense.