This paper investigates the case of Singapore where there are teachers' unions but industrial actions are rare. It questions why and how has educator organising, steered by Singapore Teachers' Union, transformed? Our findings show that historical, political, and socio-economic dynamics have influenced the transformation of STU. For more than…

Many often identified the Catholic Church with the cause of labor and worker's rights in the United States. However that was not the common situation encountered by laborers throughout most of the nineteenth century. The proclamation of the social encyclicals: Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum (1891) and Pope Pius XI's Quadragesimo Anno (1931)…

Ever wonder why union members' salary and benefits, workload agreements, and other aspects of their collective bargaining agreements, or "contracts," often remain unchanged and enforced during the all-too-common periods when public employees labor without a contract? In New York, the answer boils down to an understanding of the Public…

Today's movement in support of the 99 percent is a reminder that throughout U.S. history, a major engine of change has been grass-roots organizing and solidarity. Major history textbooks, however, downplay the role of ordinary people in shaping events--especially those who formed labor unions and used the strike to assert their rights. One of the…

This article refers to a research on the political memory of the military dictatorship in Brazil, held in three Brazilian cities (Belo Horizonte, Curitiba and São Paulo) in which we analyzed the social and psychopolitical impacts caused by the dictatorship as well as the redemocratization process in building the political memory of community and…

While the South African Constitution enshrines both children's right to a basic education and teachers' right to strike, conflict between these two often occurs when the way in which teachers' unions conduct strike actions detracts from learners' education. This article identifies the parties affected by industrial action in the school context,…

"Principled Resistance: How Teachers Resolve Ethical Dilemmas" brings together senior scholars and activist teachers to explore the concept of resistance as a necessary response to mandates that conflict with their understanding of quality teaching. The book provides vivid examples of the pedagogical, professional, and democratic…

The current review presents both postulated and empirically tested consequences of university unionization and labor strikes on the North American institution's administration, faculty, and students. The review explores the impact of collective bargaining on employee working conditions including job security, academic freedom, university…

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…

A longer version of this article appared in the November, 1968, issue of NEW POLITICS

The unionization of teachers has had consequences beyond traditional trade union objectives and now encompasses educational and sociopolitical goals. The American Federation of Teachers and the United Federation of Teachers of New York have used their organized power to influence school administration policies, to better the educational…

This paper revisits the educational reform movement of the 1960s, focusing on the role of teacher unionism and its impact on the politics of education during that decade. Historians of education have failed to combine information about the social composition and political culture of the teaching force, as well as the political culture of the labor…

In an attempt to predict the outcome of the revolution of students that is now occurring in the U.S., an analogy is drawn between a similar social revolution, the American labor union movement of 1870 to 1940. Both movements began as revolutions designed to gain equality and power for disenfranchised minorities. Although the issues disputed by…

In 1980-81, one issue dominated labor relations in elementary and secondary education--layoffs. In the future, unions are expected to protest layoffs more and more, at the bargaining table, on the picket line, and in the courts. This report highlights this issue in its section on major developments. The two major teacher unions--American…

This book sets forth the historic obstacles to the unionization of public school teachers, shows how difficult organization was, and illustrates the contradictions faced by public employees in unionization. The book is organized chronologically, beginning with the centralization of school life at the turn of the century and the emergence of early…