Errol Savage, President of the Cleveland Teachers Union, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast for his first appearance on the show, filling in for longtime North Coast Area Labor Federation President Pat Gallagher.
Savage became the second challenger in Cleveland Teachers Union history to unseat an incumbent president and the first to do so in more than 40 years. He was sworn in on April 9 and learned about 310 teacher layoffs the same day. He described how he has responded to every challenge in his career: by turning to his union Brothers and Sisters, organizing, showing up and fighting. Following the original 310 layoffs, fewer than 50 teachers are not yet back in Cleveland classrooms in a full-time capacity, Savage said, and most of those are under contract with other districts but intend to return to Cleveland.
Savage also addressed the broader attacks on public education, the support from Cleveland residents for the district’s teachers and what he is already doing to help teachers in other districts facing similar fights.
Errol Savage started his career in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District in 2000 as a school librarian. He became active in the Cleveland Teachers Union and became more involved over the following two decades. This year, he was elected president of the union — only the second challenger in the union's history to defeat an incumbent, and the first to do so in more than 40 years.
He was sworn in on April 9. While standing at the podium during his inauguration, his phone began vibrating in his pocket from multiple text messages. By the time the ceremony ended, he had learned that the district had announced 310 teacher layoffs on his first day as union president.
He said he knew what to do, and it was something he had done throughout his career: he turned to his union Brothers and Sisters.
Savage was laid off in 2004, one of 1,500 Cleveland teachers let go that year. He remembered watching then-union president Joanne DeMarco fight to prevent the layoffs and then fight to bring teachers back. DeMarco has since passed away, but her approach stayed with Savage. When you face something too big to handle alone, you organize, you show up and you fight. Those three things worked in 2004, and they would work again, Savage said.
The district's initial position was that the layoffs were a consequence of declining enrollment — fewer students means fewer teachers. Savage said he did not accept that premise as the end of the conversation. He started calling people who had been through it before. He started organizing.
The moment that changed the trajectory of the fight was a public meeting of the Board of Education. Attendance at those meetings is typically light, often Savage and a small group of colleagues. This time, he notified the membership and invited them to show up.
More than 600 teachers attended. The auditorium could not hold everyone. Teachers circled the parking lot outside. The district brought in additional security and police personnel to manage the crowd. Parents also showed up. Other Cleveland residents also showed up. Speaker after speaker took the microphone and told the board that the community supported its public school teachers and was unwilling to accept the layoffs.
After the meeting, the superintendent and Savage began meeting. Recall talks that had stalled were reopened. The superintendent ultimately made difficult decisions about other programs and other personnel — cuts that did not involve increasing class sizes or reducing educational quality for students. And teachers came back.
Of the original 310 layoffs, fewer than 50 teachers are not yet back in Cleveland schools working full-time. The vast majority of those remaining are under contract with other school districts — contracts they signed while waiting to see what would happen in Cleveland — and most have told Savage they intend to return to Cleveland when those contracts expire.
Savage credited the outcome to public pressure, union involvement and common sense.
Savage said he does not know when public school teachers and public education became the enemy in the larger political conversation, but he pushed back on the premise that they ever should have been. He grew up believing that public schools were the foundation of the country's greatness and the bedrock of equality — a place where students learned they were equal to one another. What’s now called cost-cutting, he said, is actually the destruction of something the public built and depends on.
Cleveland residents, he said, do not agree. The more than 600 teachers who attended that Board of Education meeting did not show up alone. Parents and community members came with them. The public supports public education in Cleveland, and it showed.
Savage said the labor movement needs to stand with teachers the same way teachers stand with it. Union workers across industries benefit from public education. Public school teachers benefit from a strong and organized labor movement. The fights are not separate.
Other districts in northern Ohio have noticed what happened in Cleveland. Savage said teachers in Fairview Park, Ohio, are facing a contract fight of their own, with a public meeting of the Board of Education scheduled for Aug. 25. Even though the Fairview Park teachers are not directly affiliated with the Cleveland Teachers Union through the state federation, Savage said they are still Brothers and Sisters in the labor movement, and he is already in conversations about what support can be provided.
He said the labor movement's reach and memory are among its most powerful assets. When unions show up for each other, those acts of solidarity are remembered. He said he will not forget who showed up for Cleveland.
More information on the Cleveland Teachers Union is available at ctu279.org.
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