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Should Teacher Unions Organize All School
District Employees?
In labor terminology, industrial unions are unions that
try to organize all the employees at particular sites,
regardless of their occupational specialization. In
contrast, craft unions organize only members of a
specialized craft across company lines. The United Auto
Workers (UAW) is an industrial union; airline pilots are
organized as a craft union in the Airline Pilots
Association.
What about teachers? The AFT has always followed the
industrial model; it has always tried to organize support
personnel as well as teachers. During most of its history,
the NEA's regular membership ranks were open only to
teachers; however, since the advent of collective
bargaining, especially in the past ten to fifteen years, the
NEA has become an industrial type union that seeks to
organize all nonsupervisory and nonmanagerial school
district employees. Let us consider some of the implications
of this change to the industrial union model for teachers
and teacher organizations.
First of all, bear in mind that a union cannot represent
employees unless the employees are accepted as union members
on equal terms with other union members. This means that bus
drivers, cafeteria workers, and secretaries, as well as
teachers, must have the right to vote, run for union office,
and participate in union affairs generally as teachers do.
This does not mean that the union governance structure, and
its programs and conventions, cannot reflect the different
occupational groups in the union. This is possible as long
as all have the basic rights and privileges within the
organization; for example, if janitors per se were not
eligible to run for NEA president, the required equality
within the organization would not exist.
Notice, however, the effects of the addition of divergent
groups to the teacher unions. Union publications must pay
some attention to the nonteacher groups. Union programs and
conventions must also meet the needs of its constituent
groups. Union bargaining must avoid favoring one group over
another, or the union will be vulnerable to unfair labor
practice charges for its failure to represent some employees
fairly.
I do not assert that industrial unions per se cannot
serve all of their constituent groups; to some extent, this
is a matter of degree. In any case, however, the shift
toward the industrial union model weakens NEA claims to be a
"professional" organization. The American Medical
Association does not include nurses, x-ray technicians,
operating room assistants, hospital orderlies, and medical
secretaries. The American Bar Association does not include
paralegals, legal secretaries, and notice servers. In short,
doctors and lawyers do not open their organizations up to
anyone else who is employed in hospitals or courtrooms. This
is one reason why these professions are able to maintain
their focus; there is no political pressure within the
organization to dilute its focus by including the needs and
concerns of all the occupational groups in the union.
It is usually taken for granted that the nonteacher
groups will be better served by joining the teacher unions,
but this is much to be doubted. The nonteacher groups will
always be a subordinate minority in the organization. If the
teacher union represents both teachers and support personnel
in collective bargaining, teacher opinion will be decisive
in resolving controversial issues, such as whether to settle
or continue to negotiate for objectives that are not met.
Teachers rarely, if ever, will accord as high a priority to
the objectives of support personnel as they will to teacher
objectives.
Of course, the teacher unions contend that unions are
really "professional" organizations, and it is fair to say
that the differences between unions and professional
organizations are often exaggerated. Nevertheless, there
doesn't appear to be any other occupation that claims to be
"a profession" while following the industrial union model.
This raises a question: why did the NEA adopt the industrial
union model in the first place? The answer is rather simple.
The unions are in the organizing business; like any
business, organizational entrepreneurs try to capture new
markets. This adds to the salaries and perks of union
officers and staff. The fact that it also undermines the
idea of education as a profession is part of the price to be
paid, but it is paid by teachers, not union officers and
staff.
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