State’s Rival Teachers Unions Courting, May Tie the Knot

After spending millions of dollars and enormous energy fighting each other for decades, leaders of the two major teachers organizations in California are now holding unpublicized but promising peace talks.

“We’re at the heavy petting stage now, and marriage is a real possibility,” one insider observed.

If the two rival statewide unions do bring most California teachers together into a single organization, their increased strength and harmony could, and certainly should, serve as a model for teacher unity for the entire nation.

Los Angeles is the only area in the United States where the major teachers unions are not at least technically at war with one another.

The two Los Angeles organizations merged in 1970 into the United Teachers-Los Angeles, but they did not set a pattern. A statewide merger would have significantly more effect at the national level and on local teachers groups around the country.

The effect of unity was seen here last Thursday, when around 80% or more of Los Angeles’ 32,000 teachers joined a one-day classroom boycott. If the traditionally quiescent teachers here can maintain that kind of unity, it could help get more money for the school system and for the teachers themselves. That, in turn, would give hope to teachers elsewhere.

It would be unfortunate if a full-fledged strike has to be called to further dramatize the teachers’ needs. A compromise is possible. But a strike by 20,000 or more teachers cannot be broken by anyone except the teachers themselves.

The effect of a strike would be tremendous, because it would be impossible to break it in the near future by hiring strikebreakers--there already is a serious shortage of certified teachers.

Almost every study of education by conservatives and liberals alike stresses that our schools need more money. And there is little disagreement over whether teachers should have salary increases, not only to meet their own needs but to attract talented men and women into a profession that suffers badly in comparison to other professions requiring comparable training and education.

The agreement breaks down, of course, when it comes to providing the funds.

While many political leaders these days say they want education budgets increased, thousands of teachers here, and millions nationally, could be of invaluable help in getting those increases if they spoke with a united voice and spent less time fighting one another.

In fact, California teachers have strong potential allies in State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig and members of the Los Angeles school board. Honig is waging a bitter struggle against Gov. George Deukmejian’s education budget, trying to get more money for the schools.

Los Angeles school board members say they, too, are on Honig’s side. But first, the teachers want to get this year’s contract settled. They think there is enough money in the school district pot to get the raises they are seeking, and the teachers can’t wait to see if Honig’s campaign works out for the long run.

The merger talks between the two California teachers organizations have not been officially disclosed because they are still in a preliminary stage, though prospects of success are good.

But the discussions are being followed closely by leaders of the two rival national teachers organizations, and it is most unlikely that a merger in California could be accomplished without the approval of the two parent organizations, both based in Washington.

While the battle costs in California have been high, the money spent on similar fights between the national organizations, and their affiliates in the other 49 states, is incalculable.

There are no serious differences in philosophy between the 150,000-member California Teachers Assn. and the California Federation of Teachers, with about 30,000 members. And there are no personality conflicts, either.

In contrast, there are both personal and ideological differences at the national level between leaders of the independent National Education Assn., which is the parent of the California Teachers Assn., and the American Federation of Teachers, the parent of the California Federation of Teachers. The Los Angeles UTLA members can belong to either national organization.

While some issues must be resolved before the two California organizations can merge, it will be easier than bringing about a merger at the national level.

One lingering issue has blocked agreements at all levels over the years: Should the independent NEA and its affiliates be linked in some fashion to the national AFL-CIO, a federation of 92 unions around the country, including the AFT?

The issue is something of a hangover from the early days of the NEA, when it was controlled mostly by school principals and superintendents.

Many rank and file teachers and most leaders in NEA were appalled by the idea that they might be considered union members. Most insisted that they were “professionals,” not ordinary “workers” who joined unions to help improve their wages, benefits and job conditions.

But the NEA today, with 1.8 million members, is as much of a union as the rival 500,000-member AFT.

Both engage in collective bargaining, negotiating contracts with school boards. Members of both organizations go on strike when necessary to try to improve their lot in life. They take similar positions on most political issues.

But still the NEA and its affiliates are not part of the “House of Labor,” as the 13.5-million-member AFL-CIO is often called. That is still an unresolved issue.

While they haven’t worked out the answer yet, leaders of the two teachers organizations in California no longer see it as an insurmountable obstacle to merger despite so many failures over the years.

Ever since the AFT was chartered as a nationwide union 71 years ago and elected the philosopher and educator, John Dewey, its first president, the organization has been doing battle with its older, larger rival, the NEA.

For the first 59 years of its existance, the NEA, founded in 1857, was unchallenged as the country’s major representative of teachers. It is still the world’s largest professional education organization.

Although Dewey was one of America’s most influential thinkers, his puny teachers’ union, the AFT, was an insignificant rival from the time of its founding in 1916 until 1961, when New York teachers, determined to get better pay and classroom conditions, elected the AFT as their representative. This was mainly because the AFT unhesitatingly advocated collective bargaining for teachers and, if necessary, strikes to make gains for them and the schools.

After the AFT’s New York victory, the old-line conservatives in NEA either changed or were pushed aside in favor of those willing to meet the AFT challenge by getting rid of the school superintendents and principals who were dominating their organization. It, too, became primarily a representative of classroom teachers.

By making that radical change, the NEA has been able to head off many other AFT victories, and better serve its members, although the AFT today represents teachers in most major cities. The NEA transformation also means it should be much easier to unite the two.

A national merger would help teachers in their efforts to focus more congressional attention on the nation’s school needs. State and local mergers would do the same in state legislatures and school boards.

A united teachers’ front might not turn the tide. But it is worth trying again to end the 71 years of warfare between America’s two major teachers organizations.

Battling Nuclear Tests

Unions generally have avoided getting into the struggle for a nuclear test ban, but that is changing substantially, especially in Southern California.

More than 100 labor unions and individual labor leaders in the Southland have added their voices to the growing pressure on President Reagan to ban all nuclear tests.

Under the banner of the Southern California Unions for a Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, the signers hope their efforts will spur more unions around the country to join in the campaign.

Despite protests both in and outside Congress, the U.S. Department of Energy conducted its first underground nuclear test of 1987 in Nevada on Feb. 3.

It may take an act of Congress to force the Reagan Administration to stop the dangerous nuclear testing, but, happily, it looks as though Congress will do just that now that the Democrats have a majority in the Senate. The House approved a test ban last year.

Among the local unions joining the long-overdue labor protest here are those affiliated with the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, the National Assn. of Letter Carriers, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the International Assn. of Machinists, the Service Employees International Union and the National Federation of Government Employees.