Teachers Unions In Ontario: A Case Study

Over the years unions have provided many benefits to union workers through collective bargaining. One of the biggest union forces in the United States is the teachers union. With almost close to 5 million members nationwide, the teachers union is one of the most powerful unions. Through collective bargaining, problems have been created for the public school system which takes place at local school districts; rules have been imposed to create ineffective forms of organization at schools. The rules that are currently in place by collective bargaining are also creating a big disconnection with many public schools, that being the interest of the children. The teachers union is one main role

Workers tend to feel that they have no control over their jobs, workers joined or formed unions to instigate a change which would increase control between workers and corporations. One of the reason why unions are very important is because unions promote job security. Job security is very important to an average Canadian because it shows us the probability of a person becoming unemployed. If unions provide higher job security it would allow people to have less concern from losing their job. If a person does lose their job for whatever reason, unions usually have people in place to help you fight for that job back.

The Canadian labour movement consolidated an educational system between 1956 and 1972, the first purpose of which was training the fewer than 5% of organized workers who became active in their unions as stewards, committee persons and local officers (Taylor, 143). During this time, political education courses taught trade unionists why it was in their best interest to support the NDP and trained activists to work on party election

California Teachers Association, , a suit brought by 10 non-union California teachers who say that making them pay “fair share fees” to a union, even if only for the reason of collective bargaining, requires them to support an organization they oppose politically, and this is a violation of their free speech rights. The Supreme Court adjudged to be affirmed opinion per curiam. The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided Court; which left the lower court ruling as the controlling final decision in which they sided with the union. on April 8 2016, a petition for rehearing was filed; on April 13 the Supreme Court has distributed the case for conference on April 29, 2016. An opposing ruling in Friedrichs could call for public unions to function in all 50 states as they do in the 25 right-to-work states that prohibit unions from collecting dues from non-members, even though those unions bargain collectively for members and non-members alike. Right-to-work legislation means a death of unions via the "free rider problem." The capability to be represented by a union for no cost has led to a rise in employees who obviously gain the benefits of the union without having to pay their fair share. Not only do unions lose the agency fees that help keep their doors open, but many workers who otherwise may have joined the union because of the often small difference in cost between agency fees and union dues simply decline to pay anything at

In his article “Worker Rights as Human rights: Organized Labor and Rights Discourse in Canada”, Larry Savage says that pursuing workers’ rights as human rights threatens, “to depoliticize traditional class-based approaches to advancing workers’ rights in Canada because they will rely primarily on elite-driven judicial strategies, and does little to address the inequalities in wealth that polarize Canadian society along class lines”. In a capitalist economy like Canada, the power of labor flows from their political power, not from rights. So having workers’ rights reframed as human rights would not adequately replace the power of mobilizing a group of workers as a tool to negotiate for what they want. (Savage, 2009)

In the past, labour unions in Canada were significant as they provided better working conditions such as health insurance, reasonable working hours, job safety, and pension cover for employees and their families. However, current labour union membership has continuously lost popularity, and this situation is expected to worsen in the future (Hunter). The reduced popularity is associated with the negative views held by the Canadian millennia. Most people lack the motivation to join labour unions in modern times due to a variety of reasons, which include current policies and laws, gender differences, and fear of identification by industries and companies.

It is evident that curtailing the power of unions by reducing membership will not give employees more freedoms. It is also too risky to wait and see if right-to-work laws create new jobs opportunities. Throughout history unions have been the driving force in achieving positive changes for employees against companies that to this day are still putting “profits ahead of workers”. Unions battled and won the eight-hour day, child labor laws, overtime pay, pensions, and workplace safety regulations. So when companies cannot be persuaded to provide for their workers, unions become the organized force behind the

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) was founded in April 1916 by eight local teachers in Winnetka, Illinois. The union began to rise and drew more members during World War I when school boards were pressuring and intimidating teachers to resign from the union. From this time, the union fought for tenure laws and academic freedoms of teachers whose belief were investigated, following the “Red scare” hysteria. Fast forward to the 21st century, now governed by elected officers and delegates to the union’s biennial convention, the AFT represents about 80,000 early childhood teachers and 250,000 retiree members. The national union represents 1.6 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel;

Studies were done using the same worker to eliminate individual qualities of the worker such as skill so that the results would show a direct correlation between unionization and wage increase. These studies that were conducted show that the same worker’s wages increase on average ten percent when they take a unionized job. Along with these studies, more recent specific group research showed that the wage difference is somewhere between 8 and 12 percent. However, there was a Canadian Study, which specifically examined whether this percent change in wages was actually due to unionization, or whether some of it came from immeasurable human skills. This study showed that having more valuable skills accounted for over three fifths of the higher wages, not from the union itself. This means that the difference between union and non-union wages almost has nothing to do with unions themselves, which shows that they are not needed and hurt the

employees, usually in the form of a union, in order to form an agreement on whatever issues the

The conditions that the American Federation of Teachers fights for are important not only for the well-being of teachers, but also for the success of students. This union does not focus solely on their own benefits, wages, and other measures of wealth, but they fight for the causes that they are passionate about. Fortunately, the American Federation of Teachers is an impactful union that has the ability to make a difference in the issues that are most concerning. This kind of power is unique to unions, because when people bind together to fight for a mutual benefit, the impact is much greater. However, the American Federation of Teachers individually develops a voice that cannot be ignored.

In the present-day some of the elements of the state’s intervention are similar to that of the period between 1907 and 1914. The government still in some cases regulates labour in favour of the employers. Although coercion involving militia are very rare, there is a different type of coercion that exists to this day. York University’s strike of 2008 is a prime example of coercion by the government. Tanya Talaga (2009) mentioned that “ The provincial government will force an end this morning to the three-month strike at York University and allow 45,000 students to resume classes Monday with the expected passage of legislation ordering 3,340 contract professors back to work.” (p. 1). The provincial government did not help to resolve the conflict

In the United States approximately 60% of teacher have join the union. The unions continually have issues with negotiating proper wages for their members. When most employees file a grievance against their employer it end up being about some form of wages issues. The teachers union has increase dramatically over the past decade, since state official has pass the new law that encourage school regions to bargain with teachers union in the way of duty to bargain. Duty to bargain law was created for unions that are seeking power during collective trading process; however the union made it unlawful for school districts to reject any bargaining with them due to arbitration would be needed if both parties were deadlock. A significant number of teachers join the union due to the new law of duty to bargain which result in a number of bargaining contracts (Lovenheim, & Willen, 2016).

In this time of increased expectations and decreased funding, schools are under fire more than ever to produce results. In an effort to produce these results, schools are being asked to examine all of their practices and to revamp the system. Certainly, as part of this exploration process, teachers’ unions and the system for collective bargaining has undergone intense scrutiny. What use to be considered the standard for teachers, joining the union, has now become more of a choice and in some districts an unavailable option. In contradiction, some other districts have move to a non-right-to-work policy where teachers are required to join the union, although most allow for teachers to opt out of the union’s political agenda.

Because current and proposed government initiatives seek not just to extract concessions in wages and benefits, but to also diminish unions and collective bargaining in the public sector, we must consider the implications for public sector employees and how this could affect their employment in the public sector and the services that their provide for the public. Gov. Scott Walker's attempt to roll back public employees' pensions and benefits, while stripping most of them of their right to collective bargaining, is beginning to look like a national struggle over the future of organized labor itself.