Are Teachers Laborers or Professionals?

NEA calls for national summit on labor-management collaboration

The Teachers Unions (AFT, NEA and their local affiliates) are sending mixed messages about how teachers view themselves and how they want to be treated.

The Unions proclaim teachers are "professionals" and want to be treated like other professionals, such as doctors, lawyers, accountants and architects.

But if teachers are professionals, why are AFT President Randi Weingarten and NEA President Dennis Van Roekel calling for a National Summit on Labor-Management Relations?

 
When was the last Accountants National Summit on Labor-Management Relations? Are doctors "laborers?" 

I have always disliked the term "labor" when referring to a group of people- it diminishes their intellectual contribution. In the knowledge economy, very, very few jobs involve just manual labor.

Now in the steel, airlines and auto industries,the labor-management schism clearly delineates how those employees want to be treated. They are "labor" and the other side is "management."

Their relationship is confrontational and adversarial. And we see where that approach has taken the people employed in those industries. United Auto Workers membership has declined from 1.5 million in 1979 to 390,000 today.

Teachers and their Unions need to choose - are teachers "laborers" or "professionals?" 

One is either a "professional" - distinguished by education, experience and paid according to ability and performance. 

Or one is "labor" distinguished by union representation, undifferentiated compensation and postured as an adversary to "management" - management for teachers ultimately being the taxpaying public, I guess.

The Unions can't have it both ways - switching from one to the other when most convenient.

I hope teachers see themselves as the professionals they are and demand their Unions end the 20th century mindset of "Labor-Management Relations." 

Background on the Teachers Unions:

THE AFT UNION: The American Federation of Teachers is an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, and represents 3,000 local affiliates nationwide, 43 state affiliates and 1.5 million members. It's tag line is "A Union Of Professionals."

THE NEA UNION: The National Education Association is the "national voice of more than 3.2 million public education employees." Tag line - Great Public Schools for Every Student. 

Union Tag Line Mashup - "Professional Laborers in Great Schools"

 

Comments

[Bob Compton]

Only 7% of the private sector workforce is unionized, down from 20% in the 1970's.

By contrast, 34% of government workers are unionized. Is government such a scary employer?

Most private sector employees have learned how to represent themselves and to be flexible in a dynamic world economy.

I cannot name a single U.S. unionized industry that is globally competitive and growing.

I would argue that U.S.and European airlines are going to go the way of GM and Chrysler - into bankruptcy in the face of global competition. Driven there in part by the unions.

[M Waid]

My husband is a pilot, represented by a union, does that mean he is not a professional! In any situation, a union is there to communicate for the worker, professional or otherwise, who is not given a voice in decisions made on their working conditions. Teachers definitely fit that category.

[Amber]

Teachers WANT to be viewed and treated as professionals (ie "education, experience and paid according to ability and performance"), but they are unfortunately treated as laborers (ie "undifferentiated compensation"). Anyone in the teaching profession on the salary ladder will tell you this...