When We Fight

More educators have gone on strike in the last two years than have in a generation. And the majority of strikes last year were in education.

Why?

When we saw 35,000 educators in the second largest school district in the U.S. preparing for a strike, we started filming. We filmed from strike vote to contract vote, in awe of the mass participation and democratic process during the strike, from school cafeterias to rain-drenched picket lines.

Schools are one of the last public services guaranteed to everyone living in the U.S., regardless of ability to pay or immigration status. But like the country, public schools have always been rife with inequity, and likewise have always been sites of struggle. And now politicians and private companies are pushing privatization as a solution.

Over the past decade, educators from Minneapolis to Chicago to L.A. to West Virginia have engaged in a massive, democratic movement. They have transformed their unions and used their labor power (and leverage) to fight for better conditions -- they've pointed out that their working conditions are their students learning conditions, and they've crafted strategies such as 'bargaining for the common good' to unite with students and parents and improve the education systems where they live.