Can the teachers' unions come back?
Are the leaders of the national teachers unions finally learning the lessons of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) strike of 2012?
Nearly two years afterward, the CTU strike remains the outstanding example of resistance to the corporate school reform agenda that aims to turn public education into a marketplace and render teachers' unions powerless.
In the wake of the strike, it was inevitable that the leaders of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and National Education Association (NEA) would take a more combative tone at their union conventions this month, speaking more frankly than ever before about the relentless attacks on teacher organizations.
But the question remains as to whether top union officials at the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and National Education Association (NEA) will break from a failed--and increasingly disastrous--strategy of making concessions to preserve partnership with increasingly anti-union politicians and school officials.
More at http://socialistworker.org/2014/07/10/can-teachers-unions-rebound .
Cross-posted in the Socialist Progressives Group.
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But the union in my district (which is in Florida, whose right-to-earn-less status doesn't help) is ridiculous. At one point after the Great Recession the district had pay freezes (this after years of no raises prior to the recession); my county was hit especially hard as it lives/dies on real estate. Supposedly some current local teachers were "upset" that teachers coming into the district could be paid more than them since they had been "frozen" on the same step for years. The Union's "solution"? Subtract 5 years worth of experience from all incoming teachers. Not only does it not help (financially) the current teachers, these nincompoop's "solution" was to punish experienced teachers moving into the district. I quit the union last year and held my nose while I signed up with the Professional Educator's Network of Florida for my "teacher's insurance." Not my ideological solution (it's a "free market" competitor to unions), but I have zero faith in the local union. (To sort of both ease the pain while also rubbing salt in the wound, this saved me nearly $200.)
Edit:
My disgust over the situation made me lose my train of thought. The point of my post was originally to be that, as others mentioned, my union is in bed with the district. 