Teacher Unionism in America - Lessons from the Past for Defending and Deepening Democracy

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Stanley

Teacher Unionism in America examines how the activism and collective action of teachers has historically shaped U.S. political life, while also colliding with labor-law limits, institutional racism, and recurring fiscal crises. Drawing on the legacy of teacher strikes across the 1960s–1980s, it argues that revitalizing democracy requires member-driven unions and stronger coalitions with surrounding communities. It also explains how Supreme Court actions and anti-public-education agendas can weaken teacher organizing.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Historical lessons from teacher strikes

Court threats to agency and fair-share fees

Rebuilding democracy through organizing

Teacher Unionism in America Lessons from the Past for Defending and Deepening Democracy By Jon Shelton I n 2017, I published Teacher Strike!: Public Education and the Making of a New American Political Order.1 The book was my scholarly attempt to understand how the hundreds of teacher strikes in the United States in the 1960s,’70s, and ’80s affected American politics. I argued that, even in an era more favorable to public employee unions than ours is today, teachers’ activism still collided with misguided labor law, institutional racism that sometimes pitted teachers against the communities in which they taught, and a tragic wave of fiscal crises. Activist teachers’ critics—mostly on the Right but sometimes on the Left—often used these conflicts to try to discredit teacher unions. I used historical examples to develop my conclusion, where I argued that to transcend these legacies, organized teachers must forge powerful connections between their interests in the classroom and the needs of the broader community. I made my final edits in October 2016. When I wrote the conclusion, I did not yet know what would transpire on November 8. Given President Trump’s first year in office, it isnot hyperbole to say our democracy faces its biggest crisis since at least the Great Depression, and perhaps since the Civil War.* In a deeper sense, however, the forces behind Trump’s election have simply exacerbated the efforts by the Right over the past 40 years (the roots of which I document in Teacher Strike!) to undermine broad economic opportunity, workers’ rights, and Jon Shelton, an assistant professor of democracy and justice studies at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay, is the author of Teacher Strike!: Public Education and the Making of a New American Political Order. He is the vicepresident of higher education forAFT-Wisconsin. public education. Had Trump lost theelectoral college vote, I would still have argued that forging member-driven unions and abroader coalition with our communities is more important than ever. As we face the racism, sexism, and unmitigated class warfare of the Trump administration, however, it is quite possible that teachers’ efforts to wage successful political action represent the fulcrum through which we will either revitalize our democracy or slip even more drastically into authoritarianism. To rebuild our democracy, working people must organize. And teachers, as professionals central to instructing our future citizens, share a special responsibility. By becoming more active in their own unions, they can build alliances with other working people in their communities. Unfortunately, the framework in which most teachers have organized over the past half century—a framework that was already under threat—is likely to be dealt a severe blow as a consequence of Republicans’ theft of a Supreme Court seat. For years, the National Right to Work Committee (NRTWC) and other shadowy organizations have tried to stop public employee unions from negotiating “fair share fee” or“agency fee” arrangements in which workers contribute to the costs of representing them. This argument has often been in the name of the First Amendment rights ofa handful of workers who oppose the union (even though these workers only pay for representation costs and not for the campaigns of politicians).2 Indeed, outlawing fair share fees would be like making federal income taxes optional. The conscientious would pay them out of a sense of obligation, but many others *For more on this topic, see “Hope in Dark Times” and“History and Tyranny” in the Summer 2017 issue of American Educator, available [at www.aft.org/ae/](at www.aft.org/ae/)[ ](at www.aft.org/ae/)[summer2017.](summer2017.) would receive the same benefits of citizenship without contributing. In 2016, the Supreme Court seemed poised to overturn the constitutionality of agency fees in the case of Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, but when Justice

FAQs

What historical problem does the article link to teacher unionism?

It links teacher activism to political effects formed through conflicts with labor law, institutional racism, and fiscal crises, which critics have used to undermine unions.

How does the Supreme Court factor into the argument?

The text describes efforts to overturn agency-fee arrangements through cases such as Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association and Janus v. AFSCME, warning that eliminating these fees would weaken teacher organizations.

Why does the article emphasize local politics and community alliances?

It argues that democratic politics remains largely local and that teachers’ successes come from decentralized educational institutions and alliances that connect classroom interests to community needs.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Stanley