Since the 1960s, teachers unions across the United States have used strikes or the threat of strikes to influence the terms of collective bargaining agreements with local school districts. In the spring of 2018, teachers in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, and elsewhere changed their tack, staging walkouts designed to secure salary hikes and…

Teacher strikes and walkouts in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, and elsewhere grabbed public attention last spring, but these wildfires of statewide activism are unlikely to spread far. In most states, teachers have unique and powerful advantages in local politics--advantages they are unlikely to give up anytime soon--and they are already active…

Teachers unions have had a "muscular" presence in some states, but in others, especially in the South and Southwest, the unions have held little power in recent decades, and the growing dominance of conservative Republicans in state legislatures and statehouses was creating a hostile environment with right-to-work (RTW) laws. The…

The author reviews four factors that contribute to the reduction of the authority and power of teachers: the Far Right, the Christian Right, the standards movement, and the decline in the use of collective bargaining. As a result of these initiatives, teachers are forced to abandon many progressive educational practices and embrace educational…

The growth of unionization and the enactment of collective bargaining legislation are considered to be the causes of increased strike activity in the public sector. This paper includes statistical data on the frequency and number of public employee strikes in each state; summarizes the state labor legislation; and presents an average of strikes,…

Profiles Robert P. Bates, director of field services for the American Federation of Teachers. (IRT)

Did the 1982 National Football League strike have to last fifty-seven days? Did it have to occur at all? After reviewing the issues and events that developed during the five phases of the negotiation sessions, the author--a management negotiator in the recent strike--answers "no" to both questions. (SR)

Reasons for the failure of a teachers' strike are analyzed. (JD)

Provides a brief history of the Pennsylvania Public Employee Relations Act, examining both its antecedents and the studies made of it after it was in operation for some years. (IRT)

Argues that binding arbitration undermines the authority of public employers and that school boards should institute due process and the termination of striking teachers under applicable state law in those states in which teacher strikes are illegal. Journal availiability: see EA 511 612. (IRT)

Recounts the experiences of two substitute teachers who crossed a picket line during a teacher strike in a school district of a small western town. Considers the long-term effects and outcomes of teacher strikes. Questions the feasibility of teacher strikes. (HB)

This article discusses recent court decisions affecting the relationship between teachers' associations and unions and the public agencies that employ those teachers. Topics discussed include constitutional rights, union representation and union rights, obligation to bargain and scope of bargaining, grievances and arbitrability, fiscal…

The resolution of public sector negotiations impasses by a vote of the electorate is presented as a new solution that is the best available in teachers' union disputes with administration. It puts the accountability in the hands of the people who must live with the decision. (MD)

Having served on both sides of the negotiating table, the author condemns the destructiveness of the adversary system and appeals for new forms of communication to replace collective bargaining in education. (Author)

Examines Ohio's Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act from a union perspective and argues that the act has advanced the cause of "orderly and constructive relationships" between Ohio's public employers and their employees. (MLF)