Public Sector Strikes WK4

Please read the Case Study in Chapter 8 dealing with “Faculty Negotiations in Chicago” that refers to the 2012 strike. On October 17, 2019, the Chicago Teachers Union went on strike for the first time since 2012. Please answer the following questions in an essay that is 500-750 words in length:

• What were the issues that led to the 2019 strike? Were any of the issues the same as those that led to the 2012 strike?The 2019 strike lasted 11 days. Based on your research into the strike was one party of the other at fault for the strike (read the text material relating to “faulty negotiations”).If the 2019 strike was a result of faulty negotiations, describe and discuss who was at fault and why. Be specific and provide examples to support your thoughts.If the 2019 strike was a result of fundamental differences over the principal reasons for the strike, explain the fundamental reasons. Be specific and provide examples to support your thoughts.

You likely will need to conduct Internet research to gain background information about the 2012 and 2019 strikes. Be sure you are using reputable sources. Properly cite all sources using APA formatting.

Please create your assignment in Microsoft Word and save the file to your computer before you use the form below to upload your assignment.

LHR435: Labor Relations in the Public
Sector
Week 4: Union Impacts: Personnel Processes and
Politics; Strikes in the Public Sector
“Red for Ed”: Successful Strikes in States That Prohibit Public
Sector Work Stoppages
Making public sector strikes illegal does not mean that public employees won’t engage in work stoppages.
In the years immediately before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the country saw a wave of public-school teacher
strikes in states where teachers lacked the right to strike, including in Arizona, Colorado Kentucky, Oklahoma, and North
Carolina. These strikes, which ranged from one day walkouts to protracted work stoppages, came to be known as “Red
for Ed” because the striking teachers—wearing red shirts at their rallies—were largely successful because of the
immense amount of community support for the teachers. The strikes were in large measure the result of grassroots
activism, sometimes occurring apart from any ongoing collective bargaining.
Arguably the most prominent Red for Ed strike occurred in 2018 in West Virginia, where, despite the fact that they
technically did not have the right to strike, teachers walked off the job (https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/3/17074824/wes
t-virginia-teachers-strike-justice-union) . The strike closed every school district in the state. In fact, the teachers persisted with
their strike even after union leaders reached an initial agreement with the state because they felt the terms of the
agreement could be improved, which they later were. In going on strike, the teachers explained that they were undeterred
by what the law permitted because they felt they had nothing to lose with such low pay. Crucially the teachers also had
broad public support for their strike, in part because they effectively communicated how bad conditions had become.
(Many teachers worked second jobs at fast food restaurants to make ends meet.) As a result, West Virginia’s legislature g
ave a 5% pay raise to teachers (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/06/us/west-virginia-teachers-strike-deal.html) and other state workers.
West Virginia’s governor also agreed to create a task force to address teachers’ increasing health care costs.
LHR435: Labor Relations in the Public
Sector
Week 4: Union Impacts: Personnel Processes and
Politics; Strikes in the Public Sector
Job Security Provisions
Just Cause
Just as in the private sector, public employees are subject to layoffs, discipline and dismissal. The contract clause dealing
with protection for employees is generally referred to as a just cause provision. A prototypical just cause clause states:
“No employee shall be laid off, disciplined, dismissed, or reduced in rank or compensation without just cause.”
As you may have learned in other courses, just cause requires a valid, supportable reason to act against an employee.
When discipline for an infraction occurs, it should be progressive and appropriate to the offense. If, for example, a night
custodian in a school is found to be napping on the job, the employee might first receive a written infraction that is placed
in his/her personnel file. Repeated offenses would bring more severe discipline in the form of an unpaid suspension from
work. If the behavior continues, dismissal could then be possible. If, however, the person napping on the job were the
operator of a subway train, where the behavior could result in serious harm to the passengers, dismissal might be
immediate. The punishment must be relevant to the offense.
Teacher Tenure
Another type of job security provision exclusive to public K-12 education is teacher tenure. In higher education, both in
the public and private sector, tenure is usually earned over a five-to-seven-year period where the professor needs to
demonstrate effective teaching and demonstrate appropriate scholarly commitment though publications or research. In
public schools, teachers earn tenure after three to five years of teaching after being observed by administrators who
determine whether they demonstrate sufficient classroom skills.
Tenure for public school teachers came about because of actions that made employment in public schools subject to the
whim of school board members. Teachers could lose their jobs because they were affiliated with the wrong political party,
dismissed because someone’s son or daughter needed a job, and, in the case of women, because they married or
became pregnant.
In most states, tenure for public school teachers has been established through legislation. Tenured public-school
teachers can be disciplined and discharged. For example, in Pennsylvania, a tenured teacher may be dismissed for
incompetence, intemperance, immorality, and willful and persistent violation of school rules or policies. However, the
charges must be substantiated, and due process must be followed (i.e., there must be just cause). The growing
emphasis on test scores and teacher evaluation and accountability has brought the concept of teacher tenure to the
forefront of the news in recent years.
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PAUL CLARK: Nurses historically have been reluctant to join unions, and they’ve certainly been reluctant to
engage in strikes. But if you look at the statistics, the number of nurses joining unions has grown steadily over
the last 10 or 15 years. And I think that’s largely because nurses have realized that they can have a very positive
impact on the workplace. They have a lot to say about patient care. But the only way they can get hospital
administrations to give them a voice is by using their collective strength and by unionizing.
In most cases, the most effective argument that nurses’ unions use to convince nurses to join a union is that if
they really want to do everything they possibly can to improve patient care, to take care of their patients in the
way they’ve been taught to do so, then they need to gain a voice in the workplace. Nurses see themselves as
patient advocates. And I think unions are effectively making the argument that to be the best patient advocates
they can, they need to use their collective strength.
So when unions do organize nurses, and when they do go to the bargaining table, what we see today is that
nurses focus a lot of their attention on improving patient care, on giving nurses a greater voice in patient care
issues. They focus on under staffing. They focus on mandatory overtime, on floating practices, all of which
prevent them from providing the most effective patient care.
So while nurses historically have been reluctant to go out on strike, particularly about wages and benefits
because they see that as selfish and self-centered, if the issue is how can they use their collective strength to
improve care for their patients, then they are willing to do so. They’re willing to go out on strike. And as I say,
most strikes we see today are over issues like staffing.
And in that case, nurses believe that they are really not only fighting for gains that are going to help them. They
think they’re fighting for their patients as well. And I think giving nurses a greater voice in the workplace
probably is an effective way to improve patient care. And actually, they have a positive impact on the American
health care system. Because no one knows more about the day-to-day care of patients– and I don’t think
anybody cares more about the care of day-to-day patients– than RNs.
LHR435: Labor Relations in the Public
Sector
Week 4: Union Impacts: Personnel Processes and
Politics; Strikes in the Public Sector
Public Sector Strikes and the Bargaining Environment
The bargaining environment affects the effectiveness of any strike, whether in the public or private sector. However, in
the public sector, the bargaining environment is particularly important because of the public’s unique role in public sector
employment relations. As we’ve discussed, public sector employers ultimately belong to the public and the managers of
these employers—elected officials—are accountable to voters.
Unlike in the private sector, a public sector strike generally does not inflict economic “pain” on employers by slowing or
stopping the ability to earn revenue. Taxes and fees are generally still collected regardless of a strike. Instead, a public
sector strike serves to provide notice to the public by interrupting a public sector service. If teachers strike, for instance,
public school parents will need to find alternative child care arrangements. If sanitation workers strike, trash may not get
collected.
The effectiveness of a public sector strike, therefore, depends in large measure on public support for the union and their
reason for striking. A public sector strike that has the public’s support is likely to be effective because voters, the people
who have the power to remove elected officials from office, want management to meet the union’s bargaining demands.
In the below video, Penn State professor Paul Clark describes how nurses have used strikes to win better patient care,
an issue that resonates with the public.
Conversely, if the union lacks public support for a strike in the public sector, the employer will feel emboldened to
continue resisting the union’s bargaining demands because there is little to no penalty for doing so – revenue continues
to get collected and voters support a hardline stance against the striking employees and their union. Perhaps the most
famous example of this situation is the 1981 PATCO strike, described in this week’s reading.
Video Discussion: Paul Clark
Paul F. Clark is a Professor of Labor and Employment Relations. His research interests include employment relations in
the U.S. healthcare industry; union structure, government, and administration; union member commitment and
participation; and new union member orientation and socialization. He is the author of four books, including Building More
Effective Unions, first published by Cornell ILR Press in 2001, second edition 2009. His research has appeared in the
leading scholarly journals in industrial and labor relations and applied psychology. Clark regularly teaches undergraduate
and graduate courses on employment relations. He holds a Master’s degree from the Cornell ILR School and a Ph.D.
from the University of Pittsburgh. He has served as a visiting professor at the University of St. Andrews
(Scotland, U.K.), the University of Strathclyde (Scotland, U.K.), the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (Australia),
Monash University (Australia), the University of Melbourne (Australia), Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand),
and the University of Arizona (U.S.). He holds a Master’s degree from the Cornell ILR School and a Ph.D. from the
University of Pittsburgh.
Video
LER435 008 PaulClark

Video 8.2, Time: 00:03:22 Strikes in the Public Sector with Paul Clark Video Transcript
Transcript
PAUL CLARK: Nurses historically have been reluctant to join unions, and they’ve certainly been reluctant to
engage in strikes. But if you look at the statistics, the number of nurses joining unions has grown steadily over the
last 10 or 15 years. And I think that’s largely because nurses have realized that they can have a very positive
impact on the workplace. They have a lot to say about patient care. But the only way they can get hospital
administrations to give them a voice is by using their collective strength and by unionizing.
In most cases, the most effective argument that nurses’ unions use to convince nurses to join a union is that if
they really want to do everything they possibly can to improve patient care, to take care of their patients in the
way they’ve been taught to do so, then they need to gain a voice in the workplace. Nurses see themselves as
patient advocates. And I think unions are effectively making the argument that to be the best patient advocates
they can, they need to use their collective strength.
So when unions do organize nurses, and when they do go to the bargaining table, what we see today is that
nurses focus a lot of their attention on improving patient care, on giving nurses a greater voice in patient care
issues. They focus on under staffing. They focus on mandatory overtime, on floating practices, all of which
prevent them from providing the most effective patient care.
So while nurses historically have been reluctant to go out on strike, particularly about wages and benefits
because they see that as selfish and self-centered, if the issue is how can they use their collective strength to
improve care for their patients, then they are willing to do so. They’re willing to go out on strike. And as I say, most
strikes we see today are over issues like staffing.
And in that case, nurses believe that they are really not only fighting for gains that are going to help them. They
think they’re fighting for their patients as well. And I think giving nurses a greater voice in the workplace probably
is an effective way to improve patient care. And actually, they have a positive impact on the American health care
system. Because no one knows more about the day-to-day care of patients– and I don’t think anybody cares
more about the care of day-to-day patients– than RNs.