Four conditions are necessary for a union and school district to move toward professional unionism: understanding change's inevitability, keeping politics at bay, moving beyond anger, and believing in teacher professionalism. Professional unionism cannot grow in permanently contested terrain or amid standardized, centralized work rules. Many…

Most frequently made collective-bargaining errors include mistaking rhetoric for reality, negotiating every teacher demand, settling too soon, failing to resolve board conflict, allowing unions to define the comparison base, accepting ambiguous solutions, circumventing the bargaining team, not seeking counsel, waving "red flags," and trusting the…

"Authorized" genetic testing may be obtained from employees with coercion or threat. Unless protections are put in place, employers and health insurers will use genetic screening to hire and fire. (JOW)

Reports the results of a study on the usefulness of four online electronic journal directories and two online union catalogs in accessing electronic journals. Findings point to different functions served by directories and catalogs and highlights difficulties in maintaining these sources in the Internet environment. Strategies for improvement are…

A union perspective of major issues in higher education labor law in the 1990s includes the 11th Circuit Court cases on whether Congress abrogated states' 11th Amendment immunity for suits under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Analyzes contract issues of protection around age…

Teacher professionalization is a recent field of study in France that developed in conjunction with establishing the Instituits Universitaires de Formation des Maitres (UFMS) in 1989 and other changes that have brought elementary and secondary teachers into closer relationship. Both groups now have similar training and unionization modes.…

Unions are increasingly advocating for teaching as an occupation and for public education as an American institution. New and improved unionism is replacing teachers as industrial workers with teachers as knowledge workers empowered to devise educational solutions from the classroom up. Unions' new vision will be organized around quality,…

Describes the need to reform teacher unions, highlighting the Rochester (New York) Teacher Association's commitment to union and school reform and examining the Teacher Union Reform Network (TURN). Created by the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers, TURN redesigns teachers' unions so they can be more effective…

Presents the history of the Newark Teachers Union, explaining how it reached out to teachers who had previously kept their distance by emphasizing professionalism and collective bargaining. However, 25 years later, teachers are disappointed because the Newark schools continued to decline despite the union victory, and the union itself became…

Discusses the results of a workplace survey of Australian library workers. Topics include age profile; pay issues; enterprise bargaining; unionization; casualization of the profession, including the consideration of part-time positions; attitudes to change, including job satisfaction; and professional security. (LRW)

A Canadian involved in trade union education reflects on the application of Freire's ideas in his work and the ways in which the labor movement has diverged from these ideas. (SK)

The seven papers use data from particular industries to examine the nature and causes of recent changes in earnings equality in the United States. They provide perspectives from banking, telecommunications, semiconductors, steel, grocery, truck driving, apparel, and imaging industries on recent debates regarding the influence that technological…

Although a Canadian training project was conducted by a union with a progressive philosophy, it construed unemployment as a personal rather than a public issue. Analysis using a social/cultural capital framework uncovered four areas of tension: organizational structure, educational content, diversity, and the "good employee." (Contains…

In "Corporate School Takeovers," the National Education Association expresses indignation over profit making by private companies providing services to schools. Argues that profits are a way of recognizing costs that exist in all school settings. The seeking of profits is no more selfish than the seeking of higher salaries, promotions,…

Proposes that college unions are places and organizations of learning characterized by an environment of dialogue and team learning. Suggests techniques for initiating dialogue and staff training based upon an expanded definition of the principle of respect that includes safety, practicing praxis, inclusion, immediacy, and engagement. (DB)