On Friday, March 1, 2019, a mass picket line of striking Oakland teachers, other district workers, students, and community members chanted loudly as they surrounded La Escuelita Elementary School in Oakland, California, to block school board members from meeting to impose cuts to classified workers (e.g., office workers and custodians) and vital…

The challenge of reopening US public schools in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has high-lighted the significant role that local teachers unions play in setting policy. The politics of school reopening during the pandemic has brought to the national spotlight the outsized role that teachers unions play in managing big cities. Bureau of Labor…

This article presents the author's views about the school district deconstruction in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He discusses his 30-year experience as a principal and central office administrator with the School District of Philadelphia and his involvement in the efforts to lead urban school reform in the country. He also describes the reform…

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…

Describes how unprecedented joint strikes by unions representing faculty members at public colleges and teachers in public schools shut down education in Hawaii. Discusses the settlement reached and potential repercussions. (EV)

It was not the longest strike in the history of U.S. teacher labor unrest, but it may be among the most infamous. Teachers in Middletown, N.J. walked out on a Friday in late November 2001, and were back in the classroom just over a week later. In between, 228 members of the Middletown Township Education Association were jailed for their action,…

The fall 1987 Chicago (Illinois) teachers' strike, documentation of the systems' problems, a movement to return local control, a history of organizing, the fall 1986 Education Summit, and skepticism about the board's ability to engineer change led to the school system's restructuring through the Chicago Public Schools Reform Act. (JB)

Collective bargaining is the process of negotiating and administering a contract agreement between a union and the employing organization. Although the specific provisions of collective bargaining agreements vary from one school to another, the collective bargaining process, and negotiated contract generally, address the following issues:…