In late August, as COVID-19 continued to spread, San Antonio high school teacher Luke Amphlett began organizing meetings with his coworkers to talk about their school’s vague and potentially dangerous reopening plan. His school didn’t have a reputation as a hotbed of teacher organizing. But as the first day of school approached, nearly one-third of the faculty had assembled to draft demands.

Just before they delivered these demands, Amphlett was brought into the principal’s office. He was questioned about his organizing activity, then placed on administrative leave. But the retaliatory move backfired: over the next several days, the teachers’ union, students and former students, and community groups throughout San Antonio demanded Amphlett’s reinstatement — and won.

Jacobin’s Meagan Day spoke to Amphlett about the reinstatement fight’s effect on teachers throughout the district and the vision advanced by the union’s newly-empowered rank-and-file reform caucus. The victory is proof of concept, says Amphlett, that if teachers fight for the entire working class, they can build bonds of solidarity that will serve them well in return.