In March 2017, the Supreme Court decided "Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association" and upheld the constitutionality of agency fees for nonunion teachers. We examine how "Friedrichs" reflects a host of issues grouped around a patchwork of ideological commitments regarding teachers unions and public-sector unions more…

In recent years, issues pertaining to graduate student union organizing have been at the center of several political battles and court cases. This attention is, at least in part, due to the growth of graduate student unions at a time when organized labor's influence is receding in other, more traditionally unionized sectors of the labor force. As…

For most of the past decade, this author has studied union-management efforts to improve public education, and has witnessed extraordinary examples of teachers, union leaders, and administrators working together to improve teaching and learning. In this article, seven case studies on collaborative partnerships between teachers' unions and…

This article examines the legal and political significance of teacher unionization in rural and suburban school districts between 1960 and 1975. While most historians focus on the growth of unions in urban areas, strikes in outlying districts played a determinative role in the development of public sector labor law, particularly in the arbitration…

The exploratory essay studies the activities of the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA) from 1931 to 1940. (NQ)

Describes how teachers' evaluation of unions is constructed by historical, organizational, and social features of teachers' work and varies markedly across schools and districts. Presents the contrasting views of teachers in two comprehensive California high schools and considers the consequences of these evaluations for unions' recent strategy…

The history of the California Federation of Teachers, spanning 70 years, is documented in this book that contains two parts. The first part of the book discusses the teachers' union in the context of each of the seven decades of its existence: "1920s: The Conditions of Teachers"; "1930s: A Debating Society Struggles to…

In May 1985, the Representative Assembly of the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) adopted a resolution calling for a comprehensive review of labor relations among teachers, school boards, and school management. The Far West Laboratory was engaged to design a survey of ACSA members. A questionnaire was designed and circulated…

Douglas Mitchell suggests that statute construction issues arise from the interaction between the realities of power resources and the goal of giving each interest group sufficient power to protect and pursue its own interests while preserving the rights or interests of others. California SB 160 explicitly limits the scope of bargaining to wages,…

Trust agreements are cooperative arrangements supported by the school district and teachers' union leadership to promote local educational reforms. The ability of trust agreements to establish local professional cultures that support innovative teaching in California is examined in this paper. Included are: (1) an outline of the logic that links…

Outlines a discussion between Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers, and Wes Apker, executive director of the Association of California School Administrators, that centered on the status of collective bargaining in the schools. (MD)

The impact of Proposition 13 and subsequent state bailout legislation on public employee relations in the City and County of Los Angeles (California) has been a new collective bargaining environment. The 1979 negotiations, where a countywide strike was narrowly averted, illustrate the hardening of management attitudes and union militancy. (MLF)

The discussion in this report focuses on the state-level structures and processes for the administration of teacher bargaining in four very different states: New York, Minnesota, California, and Kansas. Sections on each state are based on interviews with personnel in state labor relations agencies or boards. Each state's structure is described and…

Results of a study involving 450 teachers in three California school districts show that two sets of standards exist for judging the effectiveness of teacher unions. For union leaders, legitimacy means keeping promises to teachers by winning concessions from management and, at the same time, working toward a more credible and cooperative…

The purpose of this handbook is to give both new and veteran California school board members a guide to the process of collective bargaining. In general, the board's role in collective bargaining is defined as including developing goals, selecting the board's representative, developing parameters, maintaining communications with the public,…