In 2023, education workers across the country are flexing their muscles. The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) has been a militant and community-connected beacon for over a decade: credible, united for direct action, and gaining power to the point that one of its former leading organizers, Brandon Johnson, was recently elected mayor. In Los Angeles, United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) is led by a caucus focused on class struggle and social justice, striking when necessary, and its members recently stood in solidarity with the non-teacher school staff to gain improvements for their contracts, as well as above-inflation raises. Education worker strike actions also formed in other locales, including among school staff in Oakland, university workers at Temple and Rutgers Universities, and school bus drivers in Alaska.

Things are different in New York City — and it’s not for lack of an antagonist. Despite his working-class-guy schtick, Mayor Eric Adams is openly hostile to municipal unions, including the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), the union representing nearly two hundred thousand public school employees in the city. In recent negotiations, he made an initial offer of a 1.5 percent raise and demanded an extended workday from teachers.

This stance isn’t exactly surprising. Adams has made a career of closely aligning with corporate interests. His administration is filled with former Michael Bloomberg–era education “reformers” who are anti–trade union and anti–public sector; he even joined a pro-charter school initiative with Bloomberg himself during his first year in office. Mayor Adams is clearly an enemy of public education and public education workers.