A Threat To Union Rights

The American Federation of Teachers has a problem with new guidelines to the No Child Left Behind Act that could eviscerate unions' rights regarding basic conditions of employment.

It has written U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings asking for elimination of a passage that states that schools "must comply with any statutory requirements, notwithstanding any terms and conditions of collective bargaining agreements."

If that provision stands, it would give a cudgel to school systems throughout the country to beat down longstanding protections that Teachers and school administrators have secured at the negotiating table.

The AFT's legislative director, Kristen Cowan, wrote Ms. Spellings that the passage "raises a host of legal and constitutional difficulties because it attempts to impose a retroactive application, it impinges on the sovereign power of states guaranteed by a federal form of government to construct their relationship with their employees, and it impinges on the associated rights of school employees."

At the local level, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and his media acolytes have repeatedly argued that the job protections under the United Federation of Teachers' and Council of School Supervisors and Administrators' contracts have made it more difficult to manage the school system, and caused particularly problems in improving failing schools.

There is undoubtedly validity to that argument. That doesn't mean, however, that the problems would disappear if the Chancellor were given the power to run roughshod over his employees in the name of meeting the tougher standards set by the Federal law.

While the UFT's and CSA's first concern is improving the lives of their members, that does not by any means create a natural conflict with the Chancellor's goals. The disagreements the two sides have about how to achieve those goals become the heart of the bargaining process between them. Despite often-contentious negotiations, both unions have ultimately shown flexibility: the CSA in giving up tenure for Principals several years ago, and the UFT in altering disciplinary procedures and agreeing to have its members work longer days as part of its last two contracts.

Mr. Klein and other Chancellors before him have been freely able to utilize the media to create public support for such changes. What the unions have been able to do in return is receive additional compensation for their members.

This sort of give-and-take is fairer, and more likely to leave employees ready to carry out their duties with some enthusiasm, than giving management unilateral control. Collective bargaining was designed, after all, to afford workers a peaceable way of securing what they needed rather than using strikes to force management to capitulate.

The Bush Administration has sought to eliminate key bargaining and civil service rights at agencies like the Department of Homeland Security by advancing the dubious claim that national security was involved. Notwithstanding the struggles that some public schools throughout the nation are having, no case can be made that there is such a state of emergency that normal bargaining rights should be suspended.