At the beginning of school days in September 2015, teachers in Seattle public schools went on strike. It is the second time that teachers went on strike in the U.S. in recent years since 2012, when Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) was negotiating for a new contract that improves teachers’ salary, and evaluates teachers’ performance fairly. CTU has reached an agreement after a long negotiation period with the city. The pattern and goal of the Seattle teachers strike matched perfectly with what had happened in Chicago. Teachers in Seattle also went on strike because they were not satisfied with their contract.
Teachers’ strikes seems to occur whenever satisfactions were not met in the contract. Whether it happened in recent times or many years ago,
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA) think that teacher’s salaries were lower than other workers in other private company, the service, or some of the organization. Government reduced the budget of the education through cutting down the salaries and dismissing a number of employees. Teachers began to negotiating their safeguards even to rise the strike. Salaries has been regarded as the main reason for the strike. But there are still some of other concerns in the cause of strike. Such as large classes, lack of administration of the students’ behaviors, union rights, benefit and job security, and the evaluation of performance. All the factors were reasonable to result a strike. Another important reason being the unions wanting to prove their power. Closing down schools is one of the most militant actions to fight for their rights. When there was a non-skills negotiation between the school boards and the teachers unions, unions respond
Mostly of them still lies within our current education system. “In particular, it was unable to: significantly slow the mayor’s crusade to close scores of schools; halt district funding for mostly non-union, privately run charter schools; stop the lengthening of the school day and year without adequate employee compensation; or prevent the establishment of a teacher evaluation system based to an important degree on unreliable student scores on standardized tests.” (Kaplan, D. (2013, June). The Chicago Teachers ' Strike and Beyond. 33-46).So what has changed throughout these strikes? Obviously, striking is not an appropriate action to take, as it still failed to improve any of the core education policies, which ultimately influences all public schools in the entire
The main cause of the strike was when the American Federation of Labor (AFL) started to hire unskilled workers into the steel industry. The skilled jobs that the AA worked in were starting to fade away. The AA was not pleased,
This strike was a battle over several issues. One factor that escalated the strike intensity was the pensions battle. Billons of dollars in pensions were on the line. The Teamste...
To conclude this analysis on the basis of the labor’s extensive history, Sloane & Witney (2010) propose, “it is entirely possible that labor’s remarkable staying power has been because of the simple fact that to many workers, from the nineteenth century to the present, there really has been no acceptable substitute for collective bargaining as a means of maintaining and improving employment conditions” (p.80). In the end, it is important to anticipate unions and employers presently work together to find solutions that will enhance collective bargaining strategies and practices to serve the interest of both parties.
Not everyone agreed and supported the cause of the strike. There were workers that did not want to get involved, and there were people bullying the strikers for striking and trying all kind of methods to get the strikers to give up the strike. There were threats, and things said and done as part of the struggle to gain forces on both sides. The use of violent type tactics were being used on a regular basis and people were getting hurt.
The Pullman Strike of 1894 was the first national strike in American history and it came about during a period of unrest with labor unions and controversy regarding the role of government in business.5 The strike officially started when employees organized and went to their supervisors to ask for a lowered rent and were refused.5 The strike had many different causes. For example, workers wanted higher wages and fewer working hours, but the companies would not give it to them; and the workers wanted better, more affordable living quarters, but the companies would not offer that to them either. These different causes created an interesting and controversial end to the Pullman strike. Because of this, questions were raised about the strike that are still important today. Was striking a proper means of getting what the workers wanted? Were there better means of petitioning their grievances? Was government intervention constitutional? All these questions were raised by the Pullman Strike.
This strike involved the workers of General Motors and they were unhappy with how much they were getting payed in relation to how much profit General Motors was bringing in. They also were concerned with the notion of being fired with no warning and no help after they were layoff with no unemployment insurance. The workers that were still at the plants had no control over about of hours to be worked, or when the lines would speed up. With the workers at high tension they formed the Sit down strike (The 1937 Flint Sit- down Strike). The strike need to be this was for a few reasons, one, all the workers would not leave the building because if they held a normal strike then they would just all be fired and replaced with other people. Another reason was because although there was an early union that started in 1935, the United Automotive Workers (UAW), they are still a new union that did not have respect with he companies to negotiate with them. Also, by locking themselves inside with the machinery, the GM had to react in a peaceful way so that their machines would not be damaged(Rubenslein Ziewacz, 241). Another big step for Unions was on August 28, 1963. This was event was called the March on Washington and took place at our nations capital. Although many people now know the March on Washington to be about civil rights and freedom it was originally about Jobs and the rights of workers. My people gathered to hear Dr. King speak about freedom, but the Union officials were their as well supporting what they were fighting for as well (The 1937 Flint Sit- down
The less the workers were paid, the more was put away into the pockets of the higher-ups. While Andrew Carnegie seemed passive in letting Mr. Frick take over the management, he initially was allowing problems to ensue because he was also looking for more money to enter his pockets. Unions stood in the way of this goal because their job is to protect the workers. The way management handled the flaring situation only fueled it because they were not scared of the consequences. The management knew they were negotiating terrible offers to the union. Their goal was to maximize output with little to no cost. In time, management was criticized for how they handled the situation. Management was requested to re-think everything that was going on by Mr. Carnegie. “"This is your chance to re-organize the whole affair," Carnegie wrote his manager.”Far too many men required by Amalgamated rules." Carnegie believed workers would agree to relinquish their union to hold on to their jobs. After the strike occurred it could be said that with management winning the battle not much changed within the company right away. The strike also pushed back a lot of progress the union had made while working with
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, even though it had been unsuccessful, was significant. It highlighted a growing division between capital and labor in American society. It emphasized the issue of labor rights both socially and politically and functioned as a catalyst for the organization of American labor unions nationally. The Great Strike had several important long term repercussions. The number of national labor unions soared after 1877 and that growth led to an escalation in labor conflicts around the United States. The violence of the Great Strike led to a revised role of state and federal governments in labor conflicts and the establishment of labor rights as an ongoing political issue in America.
...g because of administration burn out, changing of school board properties, cost savings, educational benefits, and the differing needs of high school and elementary schools. Disruption of lives in students, parents, and teachers was also another disadvantaged stated by McChesney. (McChesney, 1996)
In 1902, there was a strike among the United Mine Workers. The workers were protesting against the unsafe working conditions they were forced under and the unreasonable work hours and pay. Coal miners would work very long hours with hard physical labor in the dark for little pay and almost no job security. Strike was seen as the only option because the mine owners did not listen to their workers. After seeing a coal shortage, the President personally intervened. Although his attempt to bring the sides together failed, representatives from the coal miners and the coal operators later met. A union was formed between the two and there was a 10% wage increase and a decrease in daily working hou...
The Norris-La Guardia Act of 1932 was one of the first major pieces of federal legislation establishing the rights of unions and union members. This act granted workers the right to organize and strike without fear of federal interference (CSU-Global, 2013). Norris-La Guardia limited the ability of the federal government and employers to engage in anti-union activities (Fossum, 2012). Workers were no longer required to sign “yellow dog contracts” which prevented them from joining unions and allowed dismissal due to union membership (Reed & Bogardus, 2012, p. 419). Although it legalized collective bargaining, the scope of Norris-La Guardia was somewhat limited because employers were not required to recognize labor unions established by employees (Fossum, 2012). Even so, passage of the Norris-La Guardia Act gave workers a foundation on which to as...
The labor union movement over the years has shaped the way individuals work and live for both the nicest and unpleasant. Some would think the unions influence has created a power struggle between management and union leaders. In today’s time, some citizens insist the existence of unions are a must to aid in employee freedom, while others view the labor unions as just another problem in the line of progress. The purpose of labor unions was for employed workers to come together and collectively agree on fundamental workplace objectives. The rise of the union came about after the Civil War- responding to the industrial economy. Surprisingly at the least unions became popular within the 1930-50’s and began to slowly decrease, starting in the 1960’s on to today. Although, the popularity of labor unions has decreased, its importance remains to be evident with politics, journalism, auto, and the public education industries. The objective of this paper is to shine light upon labor unions, taking a closer look at the disputed issues of union ethics, concerns of union diversity, and the opposing viewpoints of labor unions.
It was protect them from losing their jobs, which at first is grand for the low paid teachers, but instead of doing good it causes education become impossible to teach. According to New York Times, a well known newspaper, states that “Firing a bad teacher could take anywhere from two to almost 10 years and cost $50,000 to $450,000 or more” (New York Times). This tener law, makes it a time consuming and money spending process that the schools are not worth taking. In the movie, “Waiting For Superman” , by Davis Guggenheim- a well known director who made many other successful non-fiction films-The film claims “That if only the bottom 1/5 of bad teachers in the US were fired and replaced by only average teachers, our national test scores would reach those of Finland, more than a dozen places higher on international exam scores” (Guggenheim). So we just edited the tenure law then we can rid of the ineffective teachers and replace them, so that the students will receive the tutelage need. In recent news on tenure-article by New York Times- a Los Angeles County Judge Rolf M. Treu began to fix tenure law stating, “the practices are unconstitutional, for teachers can receive lifetime tenor. The process of getting rid of teachers is long process and money spending. So it is hard to rid of tenor teachers” ( Treu). Judge says, “Ruling is stayed pending an appeal by unions and
My first reason supporting the motion that workers should be allowed to strike is in order to bring to the fore poor safety conditions. For instance, in the nuclear power industry, any breaches of safety can have tragic consequences. If the employees are exposed to nuclear material, this could lead to serious illnesses such as cancer, leukaemia and radiation sickness. Radioactive material could also affect residents of the surrounding area, as in the case of the Chernobyl disaster. In the light of poor safety conditions, workers striking can be justified by the fact that the government and public would be informed.
As you can see the school board handles many issues from budgets, to tenure, to performance scores, to conferences. Although this paper did not cover everything in the meeting, it summarized what took place, and what affects it would have on teachers. The decisions made no matter how big or small can influence how and what task a teacher performs. The school board meeting was interesting because you are able to see how the changes could affect you personally.