Unions in the Classroom
March 11, 2009
Every relationship needs to evolve in order to thrive. The decline in frequency of teachers' strikes over the years is evidence that the relationship between teachers and administrators is currently mellowing, says Robert Blade, vice president of the Illinois Education Association. Blade says the reasons behind the decline in strikes are diverse, from changing financial realities to significant demographic shifts in the teacher population.
"There's a wave of retirements [as the Baby Boomers exit the teaching field] and with so many new people coming into the profession, new educators don't have the experience of shaping teacher contracts or understand the process as well as older teachers do. For example, I helped bargain our first signed contract many years ago, and there are maybe three teachers left in the district who were there at that time."
Blade adds that the Illinois Education Association helps both school boards and local residents understand the school district's financial situation. "If there is no money in a district, it doesn't make sense to strike for a financial reason."
He also cites a shift from "adversarial bargaining" to what he calls "Interest Based Bargaining" as one of the reasons for a decline in strikes. "In IBB, there is much less contention"the shift is to a problem-solving mode."
But that doesn't mean things are perfect. Just weeks into this school year, Blade said, one school district in Illinois had already gone on strike, and they were expecting another one to do the same. "I think that the partnership between locals and administrators needs to expand," he said. "Parents and communities need to be brought into that partnership, where all stakeholders are actively working for school improvement. Locals need to understand that student achievement is a bread and butter issue, that an educator's working environment is a student's learning environment."
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