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Tournament of ChampBettendorf HW

AFFIRMATIVE FILE

Teacher Unions: General...................................................................................

Teacher Unions: Unfairly Attacked.....................................................................

Teacher Unions: Protect Education....................................................................

Teacher Unions: Protect Teachers......................................................................Peer Review Is Effective....................................................................................

Teacher Unions: More Effective Teachers...........................................................

Teacher Unions: Higher Quality Schools.............................................................

Teachers Dont Get Paid Enough........................................................................

Public Employees More Efficient/Motivated........................................................

Public Employees Have Sense of Duty................................................................

Unions Protect Rights: General..........................................................................

Unions Protect Rights: Employee Voice..............................................................

Unions Protect Rights: Women/Minorities...........................................................

Unions Protect Rights: Immigrant Labor.............................................................

Unions Protect Rights: Prison Labor...................................................................

Unions Protect Rights: Right to Unionize............................................................

Unions Increase Safety Standards......................................................................

Unions Protect the Poor....................................................................................

Public Sector Unions Help Develop Small Business..............................................

Public and Private Sector Have Same Unions......................................................

Public Sector Unions Make Government Efficient................................................

Government Contractors Are Not Reliable..........................................................

Public Sector Unions Share Information.............................................................

Benefits Higher Since no Social Security............................................................

IND


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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

TEACHER UNIONS: GENERAL

(__) Unions have given teachers a voice in policy making, which has been dominated by politicians in the past.Cooper and Sureau write in the journal of Educational Policy1:

Similarly, as American public education has become larger and more standardized, the rise of the teacher labor movement in the 1930s was understandable in major urban centers, although it was not until the 1960s

teachersworking with other public employeesgot 32 states to start passing collective bargaining legislation. The great irony of teacher unionization, as we shall argue, is that these unions helped toinstitutionalize the teacher role, giving these professionals parity at the bargaining table and a greater voice school policy making and implementation. Unions , it seems, are ultimately at work to support and defend publiceducation, not to destroy it as many opponents of unionization and unions have been arguing since the 1850s when industrial labor began to grow. Now the question becomes, where and how can teachersunions help keep public education publicand slow down the charter school and voucher movements that create schools where collective bargaining is not as likely to occur?

(__) Teachers work to make society better. Cooper and Sureau write in the journal of Educational Policy2:

People do not go into teaching for the money but to make a contribution to society. Therefore, teachers operate on two levPersonally, they hope to prepare themselves to make a difference and to act as educational professionals with theirstudents; collectively, they long ago abandoned worrying about professional identity and worked to improve their

political status as active union members at all three levels of government.Nationally, the NEA and AFT have become one of the strongest, m

active, fastest-growing unions, and if and when they merge, they will become the largest public sector union in the nation.

(__) Organized teachers use their unions to create better schools. Pantuosco and Ullrich write in the Journal ofEducation Finance3:

Our investigation overlaps at least two strands of literatureteachers unions' impact on productivity and the affect of labor unions on productivity. The impact of teacher's unions on productivity can be addressed thr

the literature known as the "two-faces" of (teachers) unions. The proposed positive face of unions highlights how the collective voice of organized teachers canenhance the educational production function through their internal insight of student and school needs. Withthe student in mind, organized teachers lobby for smaller class sizes, lucrative compensation packages toattract and retain better quality teachers, and greater classroom resources of technology and supplies. The state hotheir financial commitment to education will yield a harvest of productive citizens who contribute to society in measures of professionalism, social awareness, and diversification, and, we propose, a greater gross statproduct per employee.

(__) A litany of studies4 have shown that teacher unions have increased performance in schools:

While this result sounds disheartening, Eberts and Stone (1987) claim the decline of test scores would be worse without the teacheunions.9 They posit that unionized districts are seven percent more productive for average students than non-uniondistricts. Freeman and Medoff(1979) explain that teachers unions improve productivity by inspiring higherwages that maintain and attract faculty. Stone (2000) calculates that teachers unions improve teacher salaries by5.1% over non-unionized teachers of comparable education and experience.10 Other researchers add that unions championsmaller class sizes, and that these smaller classes benefit students. They reference the four-year longitudinal Student Teacher Achievement Ratio (STproject which shows average per pupil performance increases when class size is diminished.11 The National Education Association (NEA) concurs that theunions' objective to limit class sizes and lobby for state-of-the-art resources improves students' educationalexperience.

1Cooper, Bruce S., and John Sureau. "Teacher Unions and the Politics of Fear in Labor Relations." Educational Policy 22.1 (2008). SAGE. Web. 7 Apr. 2010.

2Ibid

3Louis J. Pantuosco and Laura D. Ullrich. "The Impact of Teachers Unions on State-Level Productivity." Journal of Education Finance 35.3 (2010): 276-294. Project MUSE. 21 Feb. 2010 .

4Ibid


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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

TEACHER UNIONS: UNFAIRLY ATTACKED

(__) Teacher unions are not to blame. The attacks on teachers come from political pundits that wish to draw attentiaway from the failure of politicians. Bob Zaslavsky of the Sunday Times5 writes:

One of the favorite whipping boys for the political right is the teachers union.Blaming teachers unions for the ills that beset our educational system is like blaming the EPA for global po llution or the cop on patrol for an increase in shoplifting.

Nonetheless, repeatedly, we hear complaints that teachers unions stand in the way of meaningful change. Are unions flawless? They certainly are not. However, we should never make the mistake of condemning a wbecause of the corruption of some of its parts. We do not conclude from the vast numbers of badly written sonnets that Shakespeares sonnets are written badly.

In particular, teachers unions have moved teaching from a job with a subsistence income and no benefits to job with at least a lowermiddleclass income and welldeserved health and pension benefits.

While one might argue that unions need to do even more for teachers, one cannot deny that their failure to dso is less their fault than the fault of an intransigent education system and insensitive legislators.

(__) The corporate elite attacks teacher unions disproportionally since they are the most organized and effective

unions. Shamus Cooke of Workers Action

6

writes:

Additionally, U.S. unions are strongest in the public sector, making them a special target of the organized corporatelite. Amongst public sector workers, teachers are the best organized and most cohesive. The corporate crosshairs are thus

steadily aimed at the head of the teachers unions, with Obamas Race to the Top acting as a highcaliber rifle.

5Bob Zaslavsky [Retired Humanities Teacher]. Teachers Unions Not to Blame. The Sunday Paper. September 16, 2007. Accessed March 27, 2010.

6Shamus Cooke [Social Service Worker, Trade Unionist, and Writer for Workers Action]. Why Teachers Unions Matter. CounterPunch. March 16, 2010. Accessed April 4, 2010.


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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

TEACHER UNIONS: PROTECT EDUCATION

(__) Without the safeguards set by teacher unions, teachers who strive to protect the standards of education are at riof being attacked by ignorant community members. In order to avoid another Scopes trial, teachers must be protectby unions and fix what politicians and the Texas Board of Education have brought upon students.

(__) Private school teachers are not held accountable to Constitutional standards like public school educators.Whereas private institutions may integrate religious texts as education, public schools and unions have beencommitted to providing a neutral, secular lens to education. The proliferation of opinions that erode the spirit ofscientific inquiry, such as intelligent design, have been halted thanks to public education.

(__) Teacher unions protect the quality of education that students receive. The American Prospect writes7:

But abolishing unions would hardly catapult the interest of students to the top. Instead, it would increase thepower of other adults in the system -- superintendents, who sometimes jettison promising educational prografor which they cannot personally take credit; principals, who sometimes are lax on discipline because they don't want their

suspension numbers to look bad; and parents, who usually look out for the interests of their own childrenrather than what's good for all kids.

7American Prospect, September 2007, http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=a_world_without_teacher_unions


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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

TEACHER UNIONS: PROTECT TEACHERS

(__) Without the safeguards set by teacher unions, teachers who strive to protect the standards of education are at riof being attacked by ignorant community members. In order to avoid another Scopes trial, teachers must be protectby unions and fix what politicians and the Texas Board of Education have brought upon students.

(__) The NEA has protected teachers right to free speech by defending whistleblowers in legal cases. MichaelSimpson from the NEA Office of General Counsel, writes:

For NEA member Bob Posey, it was always about student safety. As security specialist for Sandpoint High School in Sandpoint, Idaho, making suare safe isor washis job.

But Bob Posey got fired. For what? For blowing the whistle on dangerous conditions at his school.

His sinunforgivable in the principals eyeswas writing a 13-page letter to his superintendent detailingproblems at the school: student discipline, alcohol and tobacco use, weapons, and other issues. He wrote the letter and mwith the superintendent during off-duty hours.

His principal,Jim Soper

, wasnt happy about the letter or the meeting. So, when the school district reorganizedJune 2004, Poseys position was eliminated. After nine years of dedicated service and excellent evaluationshe was out of work.

As an education support professional, Posey didnt have any tenure or just cause protection, so his onlylegal recourse was to sue in federal court for a free speech violation. With assistance from NEA and the IdaEducation Association, he did just that.


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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

PEER REVIEW IS EFFECTIVE

(__) Instead of unilateral action, cooperating with unions on firing bad teachers creates a productive environment foactual reform. Martin Malin, a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law8, writes:

Peer review has been successful in large part because of teacher involvement through their unions indeveloping the evaluation standards. Teachers are forced to reflect on what constitutes good teaching and expressstandardsin terms that are accessible and acceptable to their peers. Having actively participated in developing the standards, the union is molikely to view its role as protecting the standards of teaching instead of protecting individual teachers from evaluaunilaterally imposed from above. Peer reviewers spend considerable greater time than administrators with the teachers underreview, and when reviews are negative, they generally produce a record that is very compelling. Although the teachers remaincontractually or statutorily entitled to union representation to challenge negative results, the thoroughness of the peer review record makes it unlikely that such challenged will succeed.

(__) Incorporating teacher unions into the firing process with peer review is more effective than unilateral action.Martin Malin, a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law9, gives an empirical example:

When the union serves as a vehicle for collective employee voice in the evaluation and discipline of

employees, the union can be transformed from an impediment to effective government into a contributor. Sucbeen the case with teacher peer review. One of the earliest and most notable examples of teacher peer review was in the ToledoOhio Public Schools. The Toledo system employes an Internal Board of Review (IBR), consisting of five union and four district representatives. New teachers participate in a two-year intern prwith an IBR consulting teacher. The IBR also oversees a plan for tenured teachers whose substandard performance led to a joint referral by the teacher's principal and union building representative. Evidencesuggests that more probationary teachers and tenured teachers with performance problems leave the systemthan under a system of review and discipline unilaterally controlled by management. A similar system in theCincinnati, Ohio Public Schools was examined by the Secretary of Labor's Task Force on Excellence in State and Local Government Through Labor-ManagementCooperation and found to have led to a greater percentage of probational teachers and teachers in remediationleaving the system when reviewed by peers than when reviewed solely by administrators.

8Malin, Martin H. [Professor of Law and Director, Institute for Law and the Workplace, ChicagoKent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology.] "The Paradox of Public Sector Labor Law." Indiana Law Journal 84 (2009)

Springer. Web. 16 Apr. 2010.

9Ibid


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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

TEACHER UNIONS: MORE EFFECTIVE TEACHERS

(__) As teachers are compensated more for their efforts, they become more effective teachers. Pantuosco and Ullricwrite in the Journal of Education Finance10:

State and local governments dedicate a large percentage of their financial and human capital toward educatiIn general, the pledge of resources is more pronounced in states where teachers unions thrive. In 2000, average per pupil spending over $7,500 in states where teachers unions were allowed to bargain. In states where unions do not have bargaining power, per pupil spending was only $6,450.1 Teachers unions espouse that highercompensated, organized teachers better prepare students forthe challenges incumbent on the modern workforce. They rationalize that inreturn for the states' investment in schools, the union will help produce a well-rounded, socially informedstudent who makes a positive contribution to society.

(__) Unions have given teachers a voice in policy making, which has been dominated by politicians in the past.Cooper and Sureau write in the journal of Educational Policy11:

Similarly, as American public education has become larger and more standardized, the rise of the teacher labor movement in the 1930s was understandable in major urban centers, although it was not until the 1960s

teachersworking with other public employeesgot 32 states to start passing collective bargaining legislation. The great irony of teacher unionization, as we shall argue, is that these unions helped to

institutionalize the teacher role, giving these professionals parity at the bargaining table and a greater voice school policy making and implementation. Unions , it seems, are ultimately at work to support and defend publiceducation, not to destroy it as many opponents of unionization and unions have been arguing since the 1850s when industrial labor began to grow. Now the question becomes, where and how can teachersunions help keep public education publicand slow down the charter school and voucher movements that create schools where collective bargaining is not as likely to occur?


People do not go into teaching for the money but to make a contribution to society. Therefore, teachers operate on two levPersonally, they hope to prepare themselves to make a difference and to act as educational professionals with theirstudents; collectively, they long ago abandoned worrying about professional identity and worked to improve theirpolitical status as active union members at all three levels of government. Nationally, the NEA and AFT have become one of the strongest, mactive, fastest-growing unions, and if and when they merge, they will become the largest public sector union in the nation.



12Ibid


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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

TEACHER UNIONS: HIGHER QUALITY SCHOOLS

(__) Organized teachers use their unions to create better schools. Pantuosco and Ullrich write in the Journal ofEducation Finance13:

Our investigation overlaps at least two strands of literatureteachers unions' impact on productivity and the affect of labor unions on productivity. The impact of teacher's unions on productivity can be addressed thr

the literature known as the "two-faces" of (teachers) unions. The proposed positive face of unions highlights how the collective voice of organized teachers canenhance the educational production function through their internal insight of student and school needs. Withthe student in mind, organized teachers lobby for smaller class sizes, lucrative compensation packages toattract and retain better quality teachers, and greater classroom resources of technology and supplies. The state hotheir financial commitment to education will yield a harvest of productive citizens who contribute to society in measures of professionalism, social awareness, and diversification, and, we propose, a greater gross statproduct per employee.

(__) A litany of studies14 have shown that teacher unions have increased performance in schools:

While this result sounds disheartening, Eberts and Stone (1987) claim the decline of test scores would be worse without the teacheunions.9 They posit that unionized districts are seven percent more productive for average students than non-uniondistricts. Freeman and Medoff(1979) explain that teachers unions improve productivity by inspiring higher

wages that maintain and attract faculty. Stone (2000) calculates that teachers unions improve teacher salaries by5.1% over non-unionized teachers of comparable education and experience.10 Other researchers add that unions championsmaller class sizes, and that these smaller classes benefit students. They reference the four-year longitudinal Student Teacher Achievement Ratio (STproject which shows average per pupil performance increases when class size is diminished.11 The National Education Association (NEA) concurs that theunions' objective to limit class sizes and lobby for state-of-the-art resources improves students' educationalexperience.


14Ibid


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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

TEACHERS DONT GET PAID ENOUGH

(__) Teacher unions limit the competitive market by requiring certification. This has a twofold benefit in bothincreasing the quality of the teaching pool and wages and benefits of those employed. Cooper and Liotta write in thjournal of Education and Urban Society15:

And, in part, unions realize that like doctors, teachers should control the number of teachers certified--limit themarket--and thus drive up salaries and benefits. As Ballou and Podgursky (2000) explained, "By limiting the number ofpractitioners, licensing boards restrict competition and put upward pressure on salaries. This is a strategy thhas been followed successfully by many professions, the most notable (and widely emulated) being physicians" (p. 77).

(__) Teachers dont receive security benefits, and already have a low middle class income. Unions have significantimproved the living conditions from low pay and no benefits to a decent income with deserved health and pensionbenefits. Large pensions are also deserved since teachers often spend decades in their jobs.

15Cooper, Bruce S., and Marie-Elena Liotta. "Urban Teachers Unions Face Their Future: The Dilemmas of Organizational Maturity." Education and Urban Society 34.1 (2001): 101-18. SAGE. Web. 7 Apr. 2010.


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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

PUBLIC EMPLOYEES MORE EFFICIENT/MOTIVATED

(__) Public employees participate in their work as a form of public service. Morely Gunderson writes in the JournaLabor Research16:

Voice can also be encouraged by loyalty--the third part of the exit-voice-loyalty trilogy, Loyal employees may use voice to improve the workplace and the institution to which they are committed out of loyalty.

Public sector employees may have entered "public service" in part out of loyalty to their clientele (as in the teaching, care, and "caring" professions in general). They may also have a stronger sense of public duty and civic responsibilities and haveentered public service in part since it provides the opportunity to "do good" (Reder, 1975: 28). All of these loyalty-related attributes may inthe use of voice either directly (because loyalty fosters voice to improve the work environment) or indirectly (because loyalty reduces exit and hence increases the demand for voice).

(__) Public employees are more aware of their costs and how they affect their organization, leading to greater cost-savings and efficiency. Brendan Martin writes in the Review of Labor and Research17:

Under the Komanco approach, when a decision has been taken to setup a project in a workplace, all the employees areinformed and then divided up into groups of between 8 and 12 people, each with an appointed leader. Then the groups spend as long as 1months analysing their organisation, identifying its strengths and weaknesses and finding ways to build on t

former and eradicate the latter.Komancos brochure stresses that creativity needs elbow room and that work for change takes time. Almqvist explains:

The members become researchers in their own jobs. They discuss how to improve quality, where responsibility lies and shouwhat are their training needs. They measure the costs of specific tasks, so that each person knows the costs associated withtheir own job.

(__) See: TEACHER UNIONS: MORE EFFECTIVE TEACHERS

16Gunderson, Morley. Two Faces of Union Voice in the Public Sector. Journal of Labor Research XXVI.3 (2005). Springer-Velag. Web. 25 Mar 2010.

17Martin, Brendan. "Delivering the goods - trade unions and public sector reform." Review of Labour and Research 3.14 (1997): 14-33. Print.


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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

PUBLIC EMPLOYEES HAVE SENSE OF DUTY

(__) Public employees participate in their work as a form of public service. Morely Gunderson writes in the JournaLabor Research18:

Voice can also be encouraged by loyalty--the third part of the exit-voice-loyalty trilogy, Loyal employees may use voice to improve the workplace and the institution to which they are committed out of loyalty.

Public sector employees may have entered "public service" in part out of loyalty to their clientele (as in the teaching, care, and "caring" professions in general). They may also have a stronger sense of public duty and civic responsibilities and haveentered public service in part since it provides the opportunity to "do good" (Reder, 1975: 28). All of these loyalty-related attributes may inthe use of voice either directly (because loyalty fosters voice to improve the work environment) or indirectly (because loyalty reduces exit and hence increases the demand for voice).


People do not go into teaching for the money but to make a contribution to society. Therefore, teachers operate on two levPersonally, they hope to prepare themselves to make a difference and to act as educational professionals with theirstudents; collectively, they long ago abandoned worrying about professional identity and worked to improve theirpolitical status as active union members at all three levels of government. Nationally, the NEA and AFT have become one of the strongest, mactive, fastest-growing unions, and if and when they merge, they will become the largest public sector union in the nation.




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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

UNIONS PROTECT RIGHTS: GENERAL

(__) Without unions to protect workers, labor rights have been exploited; particularly those of women and minoritiWade Henderson, a professor of public interest law20, writes:

Over the past four decades, employers have, with increasing aggressiveness, sought to keep unions out of the American workplace. By exploiting weaknesses in our labor laws thallow businesses to coerce workers with virtual impunity, employers have made a mockery of the right to form a unionAs a result, workers have endured rising income inequality and diminished rights and dignity in theworkplace. Today I would like to focus on the particularly strong negative impact the decline of our labor movement and our inadequate labor laws have on women and minorities in the workplace. LCCRfounder A. Philip Randolph, the longtime leader of the African- American Sleeping Car Porters union, embodied the idea that a broad pro-worker agenda, with a strong labor movement as its cornerstone, was essentpromoting racial equality in our nation. Following in Randolph's footsteps, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when he marched in support of striking Memphis sanitation workers, recognized that it was not racial prejudicealone, but the joint effects of racial discrimination and economic privation that denied economic opportunity to poor African-American workers. As King realized, unions hold forth the promise of bringing us closer

society where all Americans enjoy economic opportunity. Unions markedly improve wages and benefits for those trapped at the bottom the economic ladder, who disproportionately are women and minorities. They also make workplaces fairer amore humane through the enforcement of contract provisions addressing issues like sick leave and workplacsafety - measures which help all workers but are of particular benefit to women and minorities. Moreover, one of the twentieth century's great champions of civil and human rights in our nation, Eleanor Rooserecognized that the right to organize was instrumental to securing human rights domestically and globally. Roosevelt led the efforts to draft the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which laid the foundatio

international human rights standards. The Declaration states that "[e]veryone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests." Women and minorities need unions now more than ever.

The current economic downturn is a particularly strong threat to low wage workers.Indeed, whatever modest economic gains wom

minority workers have garnered in recent decades may be wiped out if they are unable to push back against wage and benefit cuts and to fight for better job security. The Employee Free Choice Act, a bill to be introdsoon in the 111th Congress, presents the best opportunity in a generation to restore workers' right to unionize. If we do not bring fairness back to the process by which workers form a union, we will lose perhaps our chance to preserve recent economic gains for women and minorities, and to give them a better path to economic prosperity for themselves and their children.

20Wade Henderson, President, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, professor, public interest law, March 10, 2009, Testimony, p. online


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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

UNIONS PROTECT RIGHTS: EMPLOYEE VOICE

(__) Unions serve as a vehicle to represent the collective voice and will of employees. Without unions, employees aleft without an effective organization to push for better working conditions, wages, and benefits.

(__) Since public employees often do not have alternative jobs in the private sector, they deserve increased voice anrepresentation that unions provide. Morley Gunderson writes in the Journal of Labor Research21:

The addition of a un ion wage premium (when unions are present) over and above the pure public sector wage premium discussed previously, further enhances the lower exit from the public sector compared to the pr

sector. Exit from the public sector is reduced even further because many public sector jobs do not have alternatives inthe private sector--at least the range of alternatives is reduced. Since reduced exit increases the desire for voice,employee demand for voice should be greater in the public compared to the private sector. This is true for both the communform of voice to deal with their working conditions and issues, as well as the muscle-flexing and influence-peddling form of voice to protect the rents.

(__) Greater employee voice leads to greater productivity in the workplace. Morley Gunderson writes in the Journaof Labor Research22:

In contrast, in the public sector, employees appear to have been fairly successful in using their influence form of voice to have a prominent impact on managing the organization. Freeman and Medoff (1984) argued t

the positive effect of voice depends on management co-operation. They and others have also documented that managementresistance to unions is much less in the public sector compared to the private sector, suggesting thatmanagement willingness to workwith unions on other aspects of organizational governance and performance should also be greater in thpublic sector. This in turn suggests that, in theory, any potential positive voice effects on performance andproductivity should also be greater in the public sector.


22Ibid


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AFFIRMATIVE FILE

UNIONS PROTECT RIGHTS: WOMEN/MINORITIES

(__) Without unions to protect workers, labor rights have been exploited; particularly those of women and minoritiWade Henderson, a professor of public interest law23, writes:

Over the past four decades, employers have, with increasing aggressiveness, sought to keep unions out of the American workplace. By exploiting weaknesses in our labor laws thallow businesses to coerce workers with virtual impunity, employers have made a mockery of the right to form a unionAs a result, workers have endured rising income inequality and diminished rights and dignity in theworkplace. Today I would like to focus on the particularly strong negative impact the decline of our labor movement and our inadequate labor laws have on women and minorities in the workplace. LCCRfounder A. Philip Randolph, the longtime leader of the African- American Sleeping Car Porters union, embodied the idea that a broad pro-worker agenda, with a strong labor movement as its cornerstone, was essentpromoting racial equality in our nation. Following in Randolph's footsteps, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when he marched in support of striking Memphis sanitation workers, recognized that it was not racial prejudicealone, but the joint effects of racial discrimination and economic privation that denied economic opportunity to poor African-American workers. As King realized, unions hold forth the promise of bringing us closer

society where all Americans enjoy economic opportunity. Unions markedly improve wages and benefits for those trapped at the bottom the economic ladder, who disproportionately are women and minorities. They also make workplaces fairer amore humane through the enforcement of contract provisions addressing issues like sick leave and workplacsafety - measures which help all workers but are of particular benefit to women and minorities. Moreover, one of the twentieth century's great champions of civil and human rights in our nation, Eleanor Rooserecognized that the right to organize was instrumental to securing human rights domestically and globally. Roosevelt led the efforts to draft the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which laid the foundatio

international human rights standards. The Declaration states that "[e]veryone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests." Women and minorities need unions now more than ever.

The current economic downturn is a particularly strong threat to low wage workers.Indeed, whatever modest economic gains wom

minority workers have garnered in recent decades may be wiped out if they are unable to push back against wage and benefit cuts and to fight for better job security. The Employee Free Choice Act, a bill to be introdsoon in the 111th Congress, presents the best opportunity in a generation to restore workers' right to unionize. If we do not bring fairness back to the process by which workers form a union, we will lose perhaps our chance to preserve recent economic gains for women and minorities, and to give them a better path to economic prosperity for themselves and their children.

(__) Public sector unions were vital to the passage of comparable worth legisation. Morley Gunderson writes in theJournal of Labor Research24:

Public sector unions are also a main force behind the passage of comparable worth legislation in both theUnited States (Evans and Nelson, 1989; Wesman, 1988) and Canada (Gunderson, 1995; Hart, 2002). Such initiatives have been applied mainly in the public sector and invariably through union complainitiatives which are viewed by unions as ways of injecting additional funds into the "pot" over and above those achieved through collective bargaining. For that reason, public sector unions hatried to keep comparable worth settlements separate from bargaining settlements, so that comparable worthsettlements are not subject to the give-and-take of the bargaining process where, for example, higher settlements i

female-dominated jobs would have to come from lower settlements in male-dominated jobs. Public sector unions have alsto have comparable worth settlements not advertised as such so that employees may think they are settlements won by the union. In Iowa in the 1980s, public sector unions effectively lobbied for alterations in compaworth awards that were initially announced but that would have led to pay cuts to male union members. The lobbying led to an infusion of additional public funds as well as a reallocation of the awards towards malemembers (Orazem and Mattila, 1990). Unions have also been able to obtain exemptions for seniority in comparable worth legislation (Weiner and Gunderson, 1990:112), effectively allowing male-female wage diffeif they are the result of seniority. In Ontario, they have even obtained an exemption for "bargaining strength." That is, after comparable worth has been achieved, pay differences between male and female jobs are allif they result from differences in bargaining strength (Gunderson, 2002).


24Gunderson, Morley. "Two Faces of Union Voice in the Public Sector." Journal of Labor Research. XXVI.3. (2005) Springer. April 29, 2010.


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UNIONS PROTECT RIGHTS: IMMIGRANT LABOR

(__) Unions have supported the rights of the commonly disenfranchised, such as immigrants. Jack Fiorito writes inthe Journal of Labor Research25:

In terms of political issue orientation,unions maintained a strong emphasis on union rights and workers rights to form unions.secondary, but still strong, emphasis was on other worker rights (e.g., minimum wage, workplace safety, privacy vs.drug testing) and more general social and economic rights such as health care and voting rights among thehave nots (e.g., minorities, immigrants, pensioners, and unemployed workers as well as the working poor). There were notable changes in union political orientation on three broad public policy issues in19802005 era. First, unions became more supportive of immigrant rights, recognizing that employers often use illegaimmigrant workers vulnerabilities to divide and conquer, and to suppress organizing efforts by calling inimmigration authorities to deport illegals who threatened unionization. Second, the 1980s roughly marked the end of an era in which unionforeign policy stances centered on anti-communism. The collapse of the Soviet Union meant the end of its support for communist labor unions and their perceived threat to free unions that long concerned U.S. uni

Finally, union political orientations shifted from outright opposition to trade liberalization, after repeated defeats, to an emphasis on fair trade,trying to ensure that trade agreements included meaningful labor provisions to protect U.S. workers from forecompetition that exploited foreign workers and hastened a race to the bottom.

25Fiorito, Jack. "The State of Unions in the United States." Journal of Labor Research XXVIII.1 (2007). Springer. Web. 15 Apr. 2010.


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UNIONS PROTECT RIGHTS: PRISON LABOR

(__) Texas Prison Labor Union helps prisoners26.

The Texas Prison Labor Union (TPLU) was established in 1995 by Texas prisoners and outside supporters.

The state had just completed a $1.5 billion prison expansion program, and it now incarcerates close to 150,000 prisoners in a vast network ofmore than 100 prisons. One-hundred percent of Texas prisoners are forced to labor for the state and none arpaid. Not a cent.

The TPLU seeks to organize Texas prisoners and their supporters into a single body to promote social justichuman rights, and workers' rights. Among their basic goals are:

(__) Mississippi Prison Labor Union helps prisoners27.

The Missouri Prison Labor Union was organized by prisoners and supporters in the hope of bettering theliving and working conditions in the state of Missouri prison system. One of our goals is to establish minim

wages for all prisoners in Missouri and to stop all prison abuse.We were lawfully given recognition by the Secretary of state in Missouri on August 3rd

1998 and since our arrival on the scene, members have been subjected to all forms of abuse and harassment by the Missouri Department of Corrections and the prison officials of Potosi Correctional Center, JeffersonCorrectional Center and Crossroads correctional Center.

The MPLU is an organization that fights against oppression, repression, torture, brutality, rape, corruption aexploitation of prisoners both male and female. In this struggle we seek to regain our human dignity. We will seek to remove legislation which acts as a barrier to a prisright to vote. We'll work to p rocure the minimum wage pay scale for all prisoners - to abolish all abuses of prisoners throughout the US and around the world.

(__) California Prisoners Union helps prisoners28.

In an historic turn of events Californias prisoners and parolees have formed their own union. Under the auspices of VoterCorrections Reform Coalition the membership of this statewide organization has voted nearly nine to one infavor of the formation.

At $5 per month per member, the target is a $78 million per year budget to educate voters and influence public policy. Presently 1 in every 116 Californians is either incarcerated or on parole and under the jurisdictio

the Department of Corrections. Most of those 308,700 inmates, parolees, and wards have several family members who arealso permitted to join the union and contribute dues.

We opened up membership to the 1.5 million inmates and family members because they remain the least represented and most oppressed segment our population, says Matt Gray, a Lobbyist for VCRC. Together we hope to provide meaningful reform and rehabilitation within a malignant correctional system, while also funding prevention andintervention programs for our youth.

26Prison Legal News. "US: Texas Prison Labor Union." CorpWatch. (1998). April 29, 2010.

27Williams, Sidney. "Missouri Prison Labor Union." MPLU. (2003). April 29, 2010.

28Voter Corrections Reform Coalition. "California prisoners form union, statewide representation." (2005). April 29, 2010.


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UNIONS PROTECT RIGHTS: RIGHT TO UNIONIZE

(__) Unions have supported the rights to unionize. Jack Fiorito writes in the Journal of Labor Research29:

In terms of political issue orientation,unions maintained a strong emphasis on union rights and workers rights to form unions.

secondary, but still strong, emphasis was on other worker rights (e.g., minimum wage, workplace safety, privacy vs.drug testing) and more general social and economic rights such as health care and voting rights among thehave nots (e.g., minorities, immigrants, pensioners, and unemployed workers as well as the working poor). There were notable changes in union political orientation on three broad public policy issues in19802005 era. First, unions became more supportive of immigrant rights, recognizing that employers often use illegal immigrant workers vulnerabilities to divide and conquer, and to suppress organizing efforts bycalling in immigration authorities to deport illegals who threatened unionization. Second, the 1980s roughly marked the end of an era in which union foreign policy stances centered on anti-communism. The collapthe Soviet Union meant the end of its support for communist labor unions and their perceived threat to free unions that long concerned U.S. unions. Finally, union political orientations shifted from outright opposittrade liberalization, after repeated defeats, to an emphasis on fair trade, trying to ensure that trade agreements included meaningful labor provisions to protect U.S. workers from foreign competition that exploited fworkers and hastened a race to the bottom.



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UNIONS INCREASE SAFETY STANDARDS

(__) Unions have had a strong emphasis on workplace safety. Jack Fiorito writes in the Journal of Labor Research3

In terms of political issue orientation,unions maintained a strong emphasis on union rights and workers rights to form unions.

secondary, but still strong, emphasis was on other worker rights (e.g., minimum wage, workplace safety, privacy vs.drug testing) and more general social and economic rights such as health care and voting rights among thehave nots (e.g., minorities, immigrants, pensioners, and unemployed workers as well as the working poor). There were notable changes in union political orientation on three broad public policy issues in19802005 era. First, unions became more supportive of immigrant rights, recognizing that employers often use illegal immigrant workers vulnerabilities to divide and conquer, and to suppress organizing efforts bycalling in immigration authorities to deport illegals who threatened unionization. Second, the 1980s roughly marked the end of an era in which union foreign policy stances centered on anti-communism. The collapthe Soviet Union meant the end of its support for communist labor unions and their perceived threat to free unions that long concerned U.S. unions. Finally, union political orientations shifted from outright opposittrade liberalization, after repeated defeats, to an emphasis on fair trade, trying to ensure that trade agreements included meaningful labor provisions to protect U.S. workers from foreign competition that exploited fworkers and hastened a race to the bottom.

(__) Unions have worked to protect workplace safety. Wade Henderson, a professor of public interest law 31, writes

Over the past four decades, employers have, with increasing aggressiveness, sought to keep unions out of the American workplace. By exploiting weaknesses in our labor laws that allow businesses to coerce workervirtual impunity, employers have made a mockery of the right to form a union. As a result, workers have endured rising income inequality and diminished rights and dignity in the workplace. Today I would like to foon the particularly strong negative impact the decline of our labor movement and our inadequate labor laws have on women and minorities in the workplace. LCCR co- founder A. Philip Randolph, the longtime leadthe African- American Sleeping Car Porters union, embodied the idea that a broad pro-worker agenda, with a strong labor movement as its cornerstone, was essential to promoting racial equality in our nation. FollowRandolph's footsteps, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when he marched in support of striking Memphis sanitation workers, recognized that it was not racial prejudice alone, but the joint effects of racial discrimination aneconomic privation that denied economic opportunity to poor African-American workers. As King realized, unions hold forth the promise of bringing us closer to a society where all Americans enjoy economic

opportunity. Unions markedly improve wages and benefits for those trapped at the bottom of the economic ladderwho disproportionately are women and minorities. They also make workplaces fairer and more humanethrough the enforcement of contract provisions addressing issues like sick leave and workplace safety - measureswhich help all workers but are of particular benefit to women and minorities. Moreover, one of the twentieth century's great champions of civil and human rights in our nation, Eleanor Roosevelt, recognized that the to organize was instrumental to securing human rights domestically and globally. Roosevelt led the efforts to draft the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which laid the foundation for international human

standards. The Declaration states that "[e]veryone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests." Women and minorities need unions now more than ever. The currenteconomic downturn is a particularly strong threat to low wage workers. Indeed, whatever modest economic gains women and minority workersgarnered in recent decades may be wiped out if they are unable to push back against wage and benefit cuts and to fight for better job security. The Employee Free Choice Act, a bill to be introduced soon in the 111thCongress, presents the best opportunity in a generation to restore workers' right to unionize. If we do not bring fairness back to the process by which workers form a union, we will lose perhaps our best chance to prerecent economic gains for women and minorities, and to give them a better path to economic prosperity for themselves and their children.




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UNIONS PROTECT THE POOR

(__) Unions have worked to protect low income and minority workers. Wade Henderson, a professor of publicinterest law32, writes:

Over the past four decades, employers have, with increasing aggressiveness, sought to keep unions out of the American workplace. By exploiting weaknesses in our labor laws that allow businesses to coerce worker

virtual impunity, employers have made a mockery of the right to form a union. As a result, workers have endured rising income inequality and diminished rights and dignity in the workplace. Today I would like to foon the particularly strong negative impact the decline of our labor movement and our inadequate labor laws have on women and minorities in the workplace. LCCR co- founder A. Philip Randolph, the longtime leadthe African- American Sleeping Car Porters union, embodied the idea that a broad pro-worker agenda, with a strong labor movement as its cornerstone, was essential to promoting racial equality in our nation. FollowRandolph's footsteps, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when he marched in support of striking Memphis sanitation workers, recognized that it was not racial prejudice alone, but the joint effects of racial discrimination aneconomic privation that denied economic opportunity to poor African-American workers. As King realized, unions hold forth the promise of bringing us closer to a society where all Americans enjoy economic

opportunity. Unions markedly improve wages and benefits for those trapped at the bottom of the economic ladderwho disproportionately are women and minorities. They also make workplaces fairer and more humane through the enforcement of contract provisions addressing ilike sick leave and workplace safety - measures which help all workers but are of particular benefit to women and minorities. Moreover, one of the twentieth century's great champions of civil and human rights in ounation, Eleanor Roosevelt, recognized that the right to organize was instrumental to securing human rights domestically and globally. Roosevelt led the efforts to draft the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Righwhich laid the foundation for international human rights standards. The Declaration states that "[e]veryone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests." Women and minorities need

unions now more than ever. The current economic downturn is a particularly strong threat to low wage workers. Indeed,whatever modest economic gains women and minority workers have garnered in recent decades may be wipout if they are unable to push back against wage and benefit cuts and to fight for better job security. The EmployeeChoice Act, a bill to be introduced soon in the 111th Congress, presents the best opportunity in a generation to restore workers' right to un ionize. If we do no t bring fairness back to the process by which workers formunion, we will lose perhaps our best chance to preserve recent economic gains for women and minorities, and to give them a better path to economic prosperity for themselves and their children.



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PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS HELP DEVELOP SMALL BUSINESS

(__) Public sector unions and small businesses have a mutual interest in each other. David Hess writes in the journaAnthropological Quarterly33:

One of the unforeseen implications of the unraveling of the social liberalism of the New Deal and Great Society is that the petite bourgeoisie may be drifting away fromhalf-century of alliance with conservative politics, states' rights rhetoric, and opposition to centralized government represented bsocial liberalism. There is already some evidence that public employee unions see their fate tied to the success of thelocal business sector and that the entrepreneurs of the BALLE organizations are concerned with employee ownership, livingwages, and other traditional labor issues. The potential to connect small capital and labor, as well as theenvironmental and social justice movements, provides some political opportunities for a new era ofprogressive politics. Theorists of neoliberalism would do well to pay attention to possibilities for political reconfiguration that decades of privatization, deregulation, and devolution have engende

33David J. Hess. "Declarations of Independents: On Local Knowledge and Localist Knowledge." Anthropological Quarterly 83.1 (2010): 153-176. Project MUSE. 2 Mar. 2010 .


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PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR HAVE SAME UNIONS

(__) The same unions represent public and private sector workers. Norma Riccucci writes in the Review of PublicPersonnel Management34:

In addition, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)originally chartered as the Building Service Employees International Union by the in 1921 to represent such private sector workers as janitors, elevator operators, and security guardsalso represents a high percentage ofpublic employees (16.4%). The SEIU is the largest and fastest growing union in North America, and it is thnations largest union of health care workers (Service Employees International Union [SEIU], 2005).

As seen in Table 2, traditionally private sector unions such as the Teamsters (IBT), the United Auto Workers (UAW), and thCommunications Workers of America (CWA) also are representing a growing number of public employees. Alththe IBT, for example, only represents 2% of public employees, it is the type of worker that the union represents, which indicates the breadth of private section representation. The IBT represents nonly police, fire, and corrections officers but also nurses, court officers, architects, clerical and nonsupervisuniversity workers, and general state workers and administrators.

(__) The same unions represent public and private sector workers. Norma Riccucci writes in the Review of Public

Personnel Management35:

Finally, as seen in Table 2, traditional teachers unions such as the National Education Association (NEA) and the AmericanFederation of Teachers (AFT) represent close to 25% of state and local government employees. The NEAs anAFTs constituents here are not teachers but rather white-collar county workers, general unit workers in sucdepartments as Parks and Recreation, and other types of general municipal employees. In addition, the NEA, which historically has been seen as theprofessional counterpart to the AFT, represents such workers as school cafeteria employees.

(__) The same unions represent public and private sector workers. Norma Riccucci writes in the Review of PublicPersonnel Management36:

Table 3 provides data on union membership of teachers and professors. It is not surprising to no te, the preponderance of these employees at public institutions is represented by the NEA or the AFT (67%). However,

array of other unions representing teachers and professors is quite interesting. Historically private sector unions such as the Teamsters, the UAW, athe Transport Workers Union (TWU) account for close to 10% of union membership by teachers and professorThe SEIU, CWA, and AFSCME represent about 25% of the teachers and professors at public schools and univerthroughout the nation. Finally, the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) and police and fire unionsincluding the FOP, theInternational Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), and the Police Benevolent Association (PBA)are nowrepresenting teachers and professors.

34Riccucci, Norma M. "The Changing Face of Public Employee Unionism." Review of Public Personnel Administration 27.71 (2007). SAGE. Web. 6 Apr. 2010.

35Ibid

36Ibid


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PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS MAKE GOVERNMENT EFFICIENT

(__) Cooperating with unions, government has become more efficient. Martin Malin, a professor at the Chicago-KeCollege of Law37, writes:

There is good reason to believe that giving employees, through their unions, an institutional voice in the initial decision makinwill increase the likelihood that they will become agents of, instead of obstructions to, effective change.Studies in the private sector show that when unions are strong and have a cooperative relationship with management,they provide independent employee voice that plays a crucial role in the successful development andsustenance of high performance workplace practices. These findings are consistent with the general social-psychology procedural justice literature which findspositive outcomes associated generally with employee voice, that is, having an opportunity to be head concerning decisions that affect them, evenwhen the outcomes are not what the employees desired.

(__) By competing with private sector workers, public unions unite and become more efficient workers. MartinMalin, a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law38, writes:

An alternative topublic employers avoiding collectively represented employees by

contractingtheir jobs

to the private sector is to empower thosworkers to compete against private contractors for the work. One example of such empowerment, highlighted by theSecretary of Labor's Task Force, occurred in the Massachusetts Highway Department. When the state decided to subcontrachighway maintenance, the unions who represented the employees who had been performing those duties formed a coalition and bid against thecontractors. They were awarded the job and assumed responsibility for organizing and managing it. Theresulting improvements included a sixty percent reduction in workers' compensation claims, a seventy percereduction in overtime and a 49.5% reduction in sick time. Improved efficiency saved the state more than $7million. Road sweeping and cleaning of gutters became more regular. Worker suggestions for improvedmaintenance of equipment enabled the purchase and lease of new equipment. As with teacher peer review, the role of the union changeddramatically. The Secretary of Labor's Task Force quoted one union official involved, "My job used to be to go around and ask people what grievances they had. My job is now to go around asking people what ideashave to improve this job."

(__) Here are seven examples of how public sector unions have increased government efficiency. Martin Malin, aprofessor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law39, writes:

Partnering between the Internal Revenue Service and the National Treasury Employees Union tomodernize and restructure the IRS, resulting in measurable improvements in customer service and jobsatisfaction.

A partnership between American Federation of Government Employees Local 3973 and Defense Contract ManagementCommands Raytheon Missile Systems facility resulted in an overwhelming improvement in customer service ratingsworkload increased 100% and the workforce downsized, with $900,000 saved from the reduction in labor-management litigation.

The U.S. Mint and the AFGE Mint Council engaged in joint strategic planning, resulting in the U.S.Mints consistent ranking near the top of the American Customer Satisfaction Index and its production ofrecord numbers of coins and return of record profits to taxpayers.

37Malin, Martin H. [Professor of Law and Director, Institute for Law and the Workplace, ChicagoKent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology.] "The Paradox of Public Sector Labor Law." Indiana Law Journal 84 (200

Springer. Web. 16 Apr. 2010.

38Ibid

39Ibid


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The Social Security Administration (SSA) and the AFGE partnership reengineered practices related to SSAstoll free number, resulting in SSA outscoring all other organizations for 800 number customer satisfaction in1995 and in a 1999 customer satisfaction rating of eighty-eight percent.

Partnerships between the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital and the AFGE Local 547, the Florida NurseAssociation, and the Tampa Professional Nurses Unit reduced delivery time for critical medication from

ninety-two minutes to twenty minutes, cut turnaround time for x-ray reports from eight days to one day, andreduced processing time for pension and compensation exams from thirty-one days to eighteen days.

A National Treasury Employees Union and Customs Service partnership designed a seven-stepstrategy to increase seizures of illegal drugs. During the six-month life of the joint action plan, narcotics seizuresincreased by forty-two percent and drug currency seizures increased by seventy-four percent.

A partnership between the Defense Distribution Depot in San Joaquin and AFGE Local 1546 saved$950,000 per year by reducing workplace accidents by twenty percent and ergonomic injuries by fortypercent, reduced overtime expenses from $9.8 million to $1.4 million, and reduced production costs from$25.42 per unit to $23.48 per unit.


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GOVERNMENT CONTRACTORS ARE NOT RELIABLE

(__) Without unions, there is no political force pushing for regulation and accountability, enabling contractors to wowithout any oversight. Richard Kearny writes in the Review of Public Personnel Administration40:

The George W. Bush administration will probably go down in history as many things, including as one of the most antilabor of all. One of President Bushs first official actioon taking office was to revoke President Clintons Executive Order 12933, which mandated LaborManagement Partnerships in allfederal agencies. The Presidents Office of Personnel Management and Office of Management and Budget pursued Bushs freedom to manage doin attacking union rights, membership, and resources along a variety of fronts (Masters, 2004; Thompson, 2007), including an effort to hanoff some 425,000 federal civil service positions to firms (Tobias, 2004). As Bush and his cronies exited in January 2009, they left behind ththe next administration a depleted, beaten down federal civil service that was less unionized than eight years before. In the words of publicadministration scholar Paul Light (2008),

President Obama is about to inherit a deeply dysfunctional government: the appointment process is nasty, brutish and not at all short; departmeare clogged with red tape and reporting chains to nowhere; the civil service system fails at nearly every taskundertakes; and contractors roam freely under the loosest oversight.

(__) Public sector workers are held accountable by the government. Private contractors have near zero oversight anperform the least work for the lowest price. Public sector workers take pride in their work and feel that they have aresponsibility to the nation in their work.

40Kearney, Richard C. "Public Sector Labor Management Relations: Change or Status Quo?" Review of Public Personnel Administration 30.1 (2010): 89 -111. SAGE. Web. 7 Apr. 2010.


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PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS SHARE INFORMATION

(__) Information is shared on a vertical and horizontal level in public sector unions, as opposed to the private sectorThis creates greater in-organization efficiency. Without unions as a level of organization, we lose this valuableresource to make government more effective.

(__) Public employees are more aware of their costs and how they affect their organization, leading to greater cost-savings and efficiency. Brendan Martin writes in the Review of Labor and Research41:

Under the Komanco approach, when a decision has been taken to setup a project in a workplace, all the employees areinformed and then divided up into groups of between 8 and 12 people, each with an appointed leader. Then the groups spend as long as 1months analysing their organisation, identifying its strengths and weaknesses and finding ways to build on tformer and eradicate the latter. Komancos brochure stresses that creativity needs elbow room and that work for change takes time. Almqvist explains:

The members become researchers in their own jobs. They discuss how to improve quality, where responsibility lies and shouwhat are their training needs. They measure the costs of specific tasks, so that each person knows the costs associated with

their own job.

41Martin, Brendan. "Delivering the goods - trade unions and public sector reform." Review of Labour and Research 3.14 (1997): 14-33. Print.


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BENEFITS HIGHER SINCE NO SOCIAL SECURITY

(__) Benefits of public employees are not overly generous since they often stay at their jobs for a long period of timlike teachers, and they do not receive other benefits such as social security. John Kilgour writes in the CompensatioBenefits Review42:

The remaining issue is that public sector pension benefits are overly generous. When compared to what has happened in the private sector, this point has considerable appeal. It must beremembered, however, that most public sector employees pay for a large portion of their retirement benefit andthat they tend to stay with their employer for a long time. Furthermore, many public sector employees,especially teachers, police officers and firefighters, are not covered by Social Security. Their employers arenot subject to the 6.2% tax on payroll, and the employees do not get the Social Security retirement benefitavailable to almost everyone else.

42Kilgour, John G. "Public Sector Pension Plans in California: How Big Is the Problem?" Compensation Benefits Review 39.16 (2007): 16-26. SAGE. Web. 5 Apr. 2010.

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