Capitol Protest: Occupy vs. Teachers

Katy Grimes: California Teachers Association and Occupy Protestors are going to fight for relevance on Monday.

Glitter-wearing Occupy protestors from Berkeley and Davis are headed to the state Capitol Monday morning.

In a well-orchestrated protest planned for Monday, teachers and school employees have planned a Capitol protest over school budget cuts. And they have received carefully-planned help from school officials, with pink slip notices going out in the next few days. But the school pink slip notices are just notices of the potential for lay offs, and not actual notices of terminations.

Teachers that I know say that  these same notices go out every year when the CTA is in contract negotiations with the state — it’s all part of the union negotiation game.

Tomorrow’s protest should be interesting, with occupy protestors threatening to show up and take away some of the teacher and school employee protest thunder.

Estimates of 10,000 protestors surely is a very generous estimate – I would be surprised if 2,000 show up, unless protestors are paid, as is common with union employees. It’s all part of the school employee contract to receive pay for protest days sponsored by the unions.

I will be there tomorrow to report on the protest, as well as legislators’ reactions.

MAR. 4, 2012