The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMA), a public research university, has demonstrated a long-standing commitment to improving working conditions for non-tenure track faculty (NTTF) with a 20-year track record of progressive policies to improve the support for them. This commitment is manifested through a series of improvements in policies,…

Charter schools see as many as one in four teachers leave annually, and recent evidence attributes much of this turnover to provisions affected by collective bargaining processes and state laws such as salary, benefits, job security, and working hours. There have been many recent efforts to improve teacher voice in charter schools (Kahlenberg…

Sick leave banks are a common staple of teacher contracts. Although these banks may benefit employees, they expose school districts to a variety of complications and unintended consequences, including administrative complexity, potential cash flow implications, cost disparities, increased absenteeism, instructional instability, privacy issues, and…

Teachers' unions find themselves on the defensive in states across the country, as governors and lawmakers press forward with proposals to target job protections and benefits that elected officials contend the public can no longer afford academically or financially. Many of those efforts are being driven by newly elected Republicans, who have…

Teachers' unions are under unprecedented bipartisan attack. The drumbeat is relentless, from governors in Wisconsin and Ohio to the film directors of "Waiting for 'Superman'" and "The Lottery"; from new lobbying groups like Michelle Rhee's StudentsFirst and Wall Street's Democrats for Education Reform to political columnists such as Jonathan Alter…

First it was changes to pay, then evaluation systems, and then tenure laws. Now, lawmakers in several states are challenging collective bargaining, the foundation of teacher unionism. Leaders in Idaho, Indiana, and Tennessee are proposing bills that would limit what, if anything, teachers' unions could negotiate. None of the proposals has yet…

Leaders of the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) charter schools are optimistic that they can reach a long-term agreement with the Baltimore (Maryland) Teachers Union in a nationally watched dispute over teacher pay for an extended school day, reducing the likelihood that the charter network will carry out its threat to close its two schools in…

Gov. Scott Walker's sweeping proposal to scale back collective bargaining rights for most public employees in Wisconsin has sparked a rancorous standoff with teachers across the state--and fueled speculation about whether similar plans will gain traction in other parts of the country. But as massive demonstrations played out in Madison--an…

State-level battles over changes in education policy have shifted in many places from legislative chambers to courthouses, as unions and other critics of new laws challenge them on the grounds that they violate state constitutions and worker contracts. Republican governors and lawmakers--their ranks bolstered by the 2010 elections--won passage…

This chapter explores recent legal challenges and victories brought forth by part-time community college faculty in Washington State in an effort to attain equity and social justice.

Once as familiar in the back-to-school ritual as falling leaves, teacher strikes seem headed for a winter freeze. According to the nation's largest teacher's union, about 15 of the National Education Association's (NEA) 14,000 local affiliates have gone on strike since the start of this school year. In Pennsylvania--a traditional union…

Although it is widely believed that unionization in higher education is incompatible with traditional academic practices involving collegial self-governance, the University of Connecticut Chapter of the American Association of University Professors found that unionization can augment the faculty's role in peer self-governance. (JMD)

A growing component of the instructional workforce in higher education, graduate teaching and research assistants are frequently viewed by university administrators and trustees as students rather than employees, according to this American Federation of Teachers (AFT) report. As the number of new full-time faculty hired decreases, an increased…

This monograph examines tenure and pay structures in Canadian universities, focusing on hiring, tenure, promotion, salaries, and termination; and examining the employment relationship from both economic and managerial perspectives. After briefly reviewing the concept of tenure, the discussion moves to career hierarchies and pay structures,…

Major issues concerning the negotiation of a collective bargaining contract on February 1, 1981, at the National Autonomous Associations of Academic Personnel of the University (AAPAUNAM), the first legally authorized bargaining agent of the faculty. The contract was negotiated under terms of the recently enacted amendments to the federal…