Teacher Power and the Politics of Union Organizing in the Charter Sector

• In Event: 2020 Politics of Education Yearbook. School Choice Policy and Politics Around the Globe: Sociological Contributions

Abstract

Charter-school unions have received growing media attention (Loewus, 2017), yet comparatively little empirical research. Some researchers have examined the impact of charter school unions on student outcomes (Matsudaira & Patterson, 2017), and the legal context surrounding charter schools and collective bargaining (Green, Baker, & Oluwole, 2015; Kauffman, 2013; Superfine & Woo, 2018). Some qualitative case studies examine the motivations for or process of union organizing in particular schools, in New Orleans (Beabout & Gill, 2015), and Los Angeles (Montaño, 2015). Our work extends prior case studies to examine the political and power dimensions of organizing, and the framing of unions by both teachers and administrations.

Drawing on interview data from two cities (Detroit, MI and New Orleans, LA) with active charter-school union movements, our study examines teachers’ motivations for and the process of charter-school organizing. We connect our key findings to literature in organizational sociology regarding union organizing and management responses to organizational change, and we identify how the different political and policy contexts in Detroit and New Orleans influenced the nature of union organizing. Given the paucity of research in this area, we aim for this work to help situate the issue of charter-school unions in the broader literature on teacher labor markets and teachers’ unions, and identify some key issues raised by this movement.

Our findings build on previous case studies, which indicate that teachers turn to unionization to address salary discrepancies, teachers’ lack of input in schoolwide decision making, transparency around retention, an excessive workload, and a fear of speaking out (Beabout & Gill, 2015; Montaño, 2015). These concerns emerged in our interviews as well, though we also found differences in organizing motivations depending on the school and the local context. Moreover, our findings indicate some of the ways in which charter unions depart from traditional unionism. In both Detroit and New Orleans, teachers framed their motivations for organizing in terms of their concern for students. Even when they negotiated about pay, benefits, and work hours, all traditional union concerns, teachers emphasized that their goal was to create a stable school environment that would maximize student learning. Teachers’ concerns often transcended the “bread and butter” issues of most union contracts; specifically, and in line with charter school rhetoric, teachers wanted more autonomy, voice, and control over what they taught, greater opportunities for decision making, and the resources and staff to meet the needs of their more vulnerable students, including English Language Learners, students with special needs, and students who had experienced trauma. This is far from traditional union discourse about ensuring the dignity of workers and standardizing working conditions, though those issues emerged as well. Finally, we found significant differences across the two political contexts that influenced the rise of union activity.

As the charter sector continues to grow, understanding why teachers want unions and how those unions differ from traditional public school unions is crucial to analyzing the long-term viability of these schools and the career trajectories of the teachers who work in them.

Authors

• Huriya Jabbar, The University of Texas at Austin

• Jesse Chanin

• Jamie Haynes, Austin Independent School District