In Philadelphia, the teachers union forced the school district to reverse a decision to reopen schools last winter by refusing to report to their buildings over COVID-19 concerns.
In Chicago, teachers threatened to go on strike in February after its members were ordered to go back to their schools as the pandemic raged.
And in Pittsburgh, teachers lobbied school officials for months to delay the start of in-person instruction until its members could receive COVID-19 vaccinations.
The focus on education over the past 18 months has thrust teachers unions into the spotlight perhaps more than ever before as they have fought for the safety of their members while facing pressure from school administrations, members of the public and some politicians. But labor leaders and experts say the organizations are fulfilling their purpose.
“We knew it was going to happen more in the public, in headlines, but we needed to get our voices heard on this important issue,” said Rich Askey, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association. “What we’re doing is what we’ve always done.”
Teachers unions are among the largest and — even before the pandemic — most influential labor organizations in the United States. The National Education Association is the biggest union in the country, with 3 million members nationwide, including 178,000 in Pennsylvania.
Despite the size of teachers unions, the overall power of labor in the U.S. decreased over much of the past century and particularly during the Reagan administration in the 1980s.
“Unions have waned in power over the years ... back in the ’30s and ’40s, more than 50% of the labor force was unionized,” said Risa Kumazawa, an economics professor at Duquesne University. “Now if you look in 2021, it’s only about 10.5%.”
Lou Martin, a history professor at Chatham University, said Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 as a response to the growth of union power. The act gave states the ability to pass “right-to-work” laws and allowed employers to speak directly to workers during unionizing campaigns.
Between the new laws and the deindustrialization of the U.S. between the 1940s and 1980s, the number of union workers declined. Then in 1981, President Ronald Reagan locked out air traffic controllers who were striking for better wages and shorter work hours, sending a “shock wave” through labor, and he placed anti-union judges on the National Labor Relations Board, Mr. Martin said.
Changes have occurred since then that brought some improvements for unions, but what occurred in the 1980s is still being felt today, according to Mr. Martin.
Teachers unions, however, became influential organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic, often shielding their members from what they believed to be unsafe working conditions. The stances unions have taken during the pandemic affected thousands of families and brought the unions both positive and negative attention.
The Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers battled Pittsburgh Public Schools administrators for months over the return to school buildings.
In January, the federation’s executive board unanimously adopted a resolution urging the superintendent and the board to delay the start of in-person learning until school staff could receive both vaccine doses. A little more than a week later, the school board voted to extend remote learning to early April.
By the time schools reopened in Pittsburgh, all district staff members had the opportunity to receive their first vaccine dose.
The actions of teachers unions to keep instruction remote or utilize hybrid instruction models drew ire from politicians and some parents who demanded in-person learning.
“Science is not the obstacle. Federal money is not the obstacle. The obstacle is a lack of willpower,” U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, the minority leader, said in February. “Not among students. Not among parents. Just among the rich, powerful unions that donate huge sums to Democrats and get a stranglehold over education in many communities.”
But the criticism of teachers unions this year has gone beyond the remote-schooling issues.
Conservative politicians and groups have attacked the unions for defending teachers who they believe have included critical race theory in their lessons.
“The United States has come a long way in its effort to promote equality, and CRT is both divisive and detrimental to the progress our nation has made,” Republican Sens. Marsha Blackburn, Marco Rubio and Tommy Tuberville wrote in a July letter they sent to the NEA. “Simply put, CRT reinforces divisions on strict racial lines.”
But teachers unions have vowed to defend their members who come under attack.
In July, the PSEA said in a statement that “Pennsylvania’s educators are professionals who teach their students the facts about American and world history, literature, and culture. Educators, not politicians, know how best to teach their students. They are the experts, and they should decide how to approach the difficult task of designing factually-based, age-appropriate lessons for students about our shared history.”
The PSEA went on to say that “some politicians and talking heads are stoking fears about how our schools teach students in order to push a political agenda. It is a stunt intended to divide communities along racial and party lines for purely political purposes.”
Mr. Martin, the Chatham history professor, said he believes the brunt of the criticism that teachers unions have taken over critical race theory and other issues is not a new phenomenon. He sees it as another attempt to undermine the public school system so that more public money can be shifted to private schools.
“I don’t see it as so much part of a backlash as yet another chapter in an ongoing assault on unions,” Mr. Martin said. “Many of the recent issues, like critical race theory, have been contrived for creating more controversy and really trying to confuse people about what’s actually happening in our school system.”
Although teachers unions have been in the public eye a great deal during the pandemic, taking strong positions on behalf of their members, Mr. Martin could not say whether they will end up becoming more powerful or if the criticisms levied against them will start to diminish them.
“One of the ironies of history is that we never know if we’re at a turning point, if we’re at a high point, or a low point when we’re in the middle of it,” he said. “So I don’t know which way we’re going from here.”
Andrew Goldstein: agoldstein@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1352. CNN contributed.
First Published: September 6, 2021, 9:45 a.m.
