Immigrant Teachers Face Intimidation As Strike Wave Spreads

AFT members protest against a union busting bill at the Texas State Legislature (Dallas Morning News)

Writing for the Guardian, Christine Bolaños and Mike Elk have a look at the intimidation faced by immigrant teachers:

According to an analysis by the Guardian, more than 13,000 teachers were recruited from overseas on J-1 cultural visas during the last five years alone as a result of local shortages. According to the federal government, more than 18,000 educators teach on H-1B visas.

In Texas, Missouri and elsewhere, immigrant teachers say that they have faced a culture of intimidation that has prevented many from speaking out.

“Things like that happen all the time,” says Lily Eskelsen García, the first Latina president of the National Education Association. “And it’s reprehensible. That’s not good faith bargaining – that is an intimidation tactic.”

“What we know is that some people have been oppressing the system for a long time and don’t like the power of educators standing up and being heard and that they will try to intimidate us,” said García.

For more, go to the Guardian.

About the Author

Mike Elk
Mike Elk is an Emmy-nominated labor reporter and alumni of the Guardian. A native of Pittsburgh, Elk grew up in a UE union family. Elk was the only American reporter in the room with Lula on the morning of the election & traveled with him to the Oval Office. Credited by the Washington Post for being the first reporter to track the strike wave systematically, Elk started Payday Report using his NLRB settlement from being illegally fired for union organizing in 2015. He lives in his hometown of Pittsburgh and attended journalism school at PUC-Rio de Janeiro. He speaks both Portuguese and Pittsburgh fluently. His email is [email protected]

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