The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) represents 72,000 academic staff at universities and colleges across the country. CAUT strives for fair working conditions, compensation and benefits to foster quality teaching and innovative research while advancing equity and human rights within our profession. Many of the institutions where…

On an Election Day filled with dozens of state races and ballot measures with big implications for the nation's public schools, state teachers' unions and charter school champions had plenty to cheer in the aftermath, even as tax measures that would help pay for schools suffered setbacks in some places. Union efforts were instrumental in…

Teacher certification trends in the United States since World War II paint a complicated picture of powerful interests at different levels making demands and trying to institute disparate reforms. These patterns have varied over time, often because of teacher supply and demand. The federal government initiated its involvement when education…

After 39 applicants went home losers from the first round of the Race to the Top competition, many states regrouped and raised the stakes for round two--changing laws to revamp teacher evaluations, drumming up more support from districts and teachers' unions, and getting more aggressive about turning around low-performing schools. The authors…

The National Education Association suggested this week that school districts need not use their own money to pay for obligations under the No Child Left Behind Act, in the wake of a federal appeals court ruling that revived the union's lawsuit challenging the law as an unfunded federal mandate. The January 7, 2008 ruling means that "as a…

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed last September 2006 to take up the issue of when a teachers' union may spend the money it collects in the form of "agency fees" from nonmembers on political causes. The justices said they would review a Washington state law that requires nonmembers to "affirmatively consent," or opt in, before a…

The adoption of provincewide collective bargaining in British Columbia is part of a broader trend that includes abolishing school boards in New Brunswick, eliminating traditional religion-based boards in Newfoundland, and amalgamating school districts and centralizing school finance in several provinces. British Columbia's innovation typifies an…

Examines some of the directions that modernization of teacher unionism has taken in the 1990s, explaining that the 1990s has been the decade of the Australian Education Union (AEU). The paper describes the AEU and looks at organizational changes within the AEU, industrial roles, and political roles that affect today's teacher unions in Australia.…

On the silver anniversary of the U.S. Department of Education, participants on all sides of the perpetual debate over the proper role of the federal government in education are taking its survival for granted. The Cato Institute this year issued its customary biennial call for Congress to demolish the department. Based on interviews with some of…

A University of Great Falls (Montana) faculty vote to unionize and a National Labor Relations Board decision that the faculty were employees, not managers, may be a breakthrough for faculty unionization at private colleges, signaling change in NLRB philosophy. Counting of the vote, taken in 1996, was delayed until December 1997, whereas…

A program was conducted by the Food and Beverage Workers Union in Washington, D.C., to provide workplace literacy classes for food service workers in the city's government agencies, universities, and museums. A curriculum for workplace literacy skills was developed, sites were selected, and students were recruited. From a target audience of…

Written primarily from the employer's perspective, this report examines the issues involved in providing child care assistance as an employee benefit. Chapter 1 summarizes rapid changes in the work force that have produced employer involvement in child care arrangements. The major findings of the report are highlighted in Chapter 2, including the…

Seventeen million people are employed in the delivery of government services in the United States, more than half of these in education, health care, and public safety. Others provide services related to defense, postal service, the environment, housing, and administration. Though 82 percent of public employees work for state and local government,…

Presents a concise and interesting overview of the rise and extension of labor activity during the New Deal. Labor took advantage of Roosevelt's pro-union policies to consolidate their power and forever transform the lives of working men and women. Discusses improvements in working conditions, wages, and benefits. (MJP)