Teacher Unionism in America Lessons from the Past for Defending and Deepening Democracy
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Teacher Unionism in America Lessons from the Past for Defending and Deepening Democracy By Jon Shelton public education. Had Trump lost the elec- toral college vote, I would still have argued n 2017, I published Teacher Strike!: that forging member-driven unions and a Public Education and the Making of a broader coalition with our communities is New American Political Order.1 The more important than ever. As we face the book was my scholarly attempt to racism, sexism, and unmitigated class war- Iunderstand how the hundreds of teacher fare of the Trump administration, however, strikes in the United States in the 1960s, it is quite possible that teachers’ efforts to ’70s, and ’80s affected American politics. I wage successful political action represent argued that, even in an era more favorable the fulcrum through which we will either to public employee unions than ours is revitalize our democracy or slip even more today, teachers’ activism still collided with drastically into authoritarianism. misguided labor law, institutional racism To rebuild our democracy, working that sometimes pitted teachers against the people must organize. And teachers, as communities in which they taught, and a professionals central to instructing our would receive the same benefits of citi- tragic wave of fiscal crises. Activist teach- future citizens, share a special responsibil- zenship without contributing. ers’ critics—mostly on the Right but some- ity. By becoming more active in their own In 2016, the Supreme Court seemed times on the Left—often used these unions, they can build alliances with other poised to overturn the constitutionality of conflicts to try to discredit teacher unions. working people in their communities. agency fees in the case of Friedrichs v. Cali- I used historical examples to develop my Unfortunately, the framework in which fornia Teachers Association, but when Jus- conclusion, where I argued that to tran- most teachers have organized over the tice Antonin Scalia died, the court was left scend these legacies, organized teachers past half century—a framework that was deadlocked. In spite of the long-standing must forge powerful connections between already under threat—is likely to be dealt custom of moving forward an opposition their interests in the classroom and the a severe blow as a consequence of Repub- party’s nominee for the high court (Ronald needs of the broader community. licans’ theft of a Supreme Court seat. For Reagan’s nominee Anthony Kennedy was I made my final edits in October 2016. years, the National Right to Work Commit- confirmed, for example, by a Democratic- When I wrote the conclusion, I did not yet tee (NRTWC) and other shadowy organi- controlled U.S. Senate in his last year in know what would transpire on November zations have tried to stop public employee office), Senate Republicans refused to allow 8. Given President Trump’s first year in unions from negotiating “fair share fee” or President Obama’s nominee even a hearing. office, it is not hyperbole to say our democ- “agency fee” arrangements in which Trump instead nominated ultra-conserva- racy faces its biggest crisis since at least the workers contribute to the costs of repre- tive Neil Gorsuch to fill the seat. With Gor- Great Depression, and perhaps since the senting them. This argument has often such in the fold, the NRTWC and another Civil War.* been in the name of the First Amendment right-wing group—the Center for Individ- In a deeper sense, however, the forces rights of a handful of workers who oppose ual Rights—have fast-tracked a similar case, behind Trump’s election have simply exac- the union (even though these workers Janus v. AFSCME, in the hopes that the court erbated the efforts by the Right over the past only pay for representation costs and not will eliminate agency fees.3 Unless teachers 40 years (the roots of which I document in for the campaigns of politicians).2 Indeed, redouble their efforts to organize and build Teacher Strike!) to undermine broad eco- outlawing fair share fees would be like membership, teachers and communities nomic opportunity, workers’ rights, and making federal income taxes optional. alike will suffer the consequences of weaker The conscientious would pay them out of teacher organizations. Jon Shelton, an assistant professor of democracy a sense of obligation, but many others Trump’s vision for public education, and justice studies at the University of Wiscon- reflected in his appointment of Betsy DeVos sin–Green Bay, is the author of Teacher Strike!: *For more on this topic, see “Hope in Dark Times” and as secretary of education, is singularly Public Education and the Making of a New “History and Tyranny” in the Summer 2017 issue of American Political Order. He is the vice president American Educator, available at www.aft.org/ae/ threatening, too, as DeVos represents the of higher education for AFT-Wisconsin. summer2017. most anti-public-education figure to occupy 30 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2018 The Chicago Teachers Union on strike in elementary teachers (virtually all of whom 2012. Inset: Margaret Haley, a leader of the Chicago Teachers Federation. were women) “were working under practi- cally the same salary schedule that had been in force in 1877,” while the salaries of Democratic politicians not doing nearly male administrators had been increased enough to arrest it, a trend scholars have significantly.8 Female teachers in Chicago referred to as “neoliberalism”—organized were discouraged from marrying. And teachers, as unfair as it might be to expect without any retirement provisions, they it, must do even more. I concluded in the typically relied on charity when they book that “two examples of teacher union- stopped working. ism, one hundred years apart … show that Teachers first organized for a pension teacher organization is at its best when it is plan and, in 1897, formed the Chicago part of a larger social movement and when Teachers Federation, the nation’s first real it can show how intimately related are teachers union.9 Haley and another teacher, teacher working conditions, student learn- Catherine Goggin, emerged as leaders. Gog- ing conditions, and social equality.” gin was appointed the CTF’s first president Organized teachers must forge powerful connections between their interests in the classroom and the needs of the broader community. LEE BALGEMANN the top post in the Department of Educa- The two examples I used were both from and, concerned with both their own welfare tion’s 40-year history. Since her confirma- Chicago: Margaret Haley and the Chicago (the new pension provision immediately tion, DeVos has proposed diverting an Teachers Federation (CTF—a founding faced political threats) and their students’, enormous amount of federal funds to pri- union of the American Federation of Teach- about half of the city’s 5,000 elementary vate schools.4 What she (and by extension ers in 1916) in the early 20th century, and school teachers signed up for the union in Trump) threatens is perhaps the most Karen Lewis and the Chicago Teachers its first six months. Haley, the firebrand who important innovation in American history: Union (CTU) in the early 21st. In this article, would soon be dubbed “Labor’s Lady Slug- public investment in common education.5 I explain what we can learn from each and ger,” was elected vice president in 1898. The good news is that, in spite of the share what my union (situated just a bit Teachers had no collective bargaining many things working against democracy north of the Windy City) is doing locally to rights or professional organizing assistance nationally, politics is still mostly local. In my follow in their footsteps. at this time. In this climate, two key things book, I document some astounding efforts made them effective: members themselves by teachers across the country to build and A Feminist Union Fights did the hard work of organizing, and they wield collective power. One of the most for Chicago Children worked with the broader community when important reasons for these successes (and Margaret Haley was born in 1861, the they did it. why DeVos has been mostly frustrated so far daughter of an Irish immigrant mother in radically overhauling public education)6 and Irish American father. Like many is that our education system is still highly working-class women at the time, she Teacher Strike!, by Jon decentralized. Further, schools—from ele- sought the relatively stable wages of a Shelton, is published mentary schools to public universities—are public school teacher. In 1884, Haley took by the University of highly visible institutions that form a crucial a job teaching sixth grade in Chicago. Her Illinois Press, which is piece of a city’s or town’s identity, and thus school was in “Packingtown,” the neigh- offering American give teachers a phenomenal amount of borhood made famous by Upton Sinclair’s Educator readers a 20 percent discount off political agency. fictionalized account of the brutal condi- the purchase of the Indeed, as I began to consider my book’s tions immigrant workers faced in the book through June 7 conclusion, I couldn’t help wondering meatpacking industry. 15, 2018. To order, about the present and future of organized Haley taught classes of 40–60 students, visit www.press. teachers. Given the grander scheme of many of whom were malnourished and uillinois.edu and American history—in which corporate often sick, spoke little English, and would use promo code America undertook an assault on working leave at age 11 or 12 to go work in the pack- SHELTON. people beginning in the 1970s, with most inghouses. By 1897, the vast majority of AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2018 31 Just a year into its formation, the CTF union continued to build power, and Chicago Teachers presented a 3,500-signature petition for teachers across the United States wrote to Organize a Movement increased pay to the school board, which Haley and Goggin asking them for help against Neoliberalism convinced the board to provide salary organizing their own locals.