Negotiating the Great Recession: How Teacher Collective Bargaining Agreements Change in Times of Financial Duress

• In Event: Teachers, Politics, and Policy

Abstract

This paper examines how teacher collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) changed during the Great Recession. Using a district-level dataset of California teacher CBAs that includes measures of overall and sub-area contract strength from 2005-2006, 2008-2009, and 2011-2012 tied to district-level longitudinal data, we estimate difference-in-difference models examining contract strength pre-, during- and post-recession for districts that should have been more or less fiscally constrained. We find that the overall contract strength of financially constrained districts was not significantly impacted by recessionary pressures. However, certain CBA subareas (compensation, school days/hours, evaluation, grievances, and non-teaching duties) change in ways that suggest teachers’ unions exacted benefits for their members when financial conditions began to improve.

Authors

• Katharine Omenn Strunk, University of Southern California

• Bradley Marianno, University of Southern California