Déjà vu: Labor unrest reminds some of tumultuous past

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Woodhaven-Brownstown teachers recently finished a second consecutive year without a contract and signs of distress are obvious. The bargaining crisis isn’t the first in the district, though, and veteran teachers are reminded of tough battles over the past 30 year

by Karen Schulz
Editor, MEA Voice

Woodhaven-Brownstown teachers recently finished a second consecutive school year without a contract and the signs of distress are obvious.

Nearly 90 percent of the teachers in the Wayne County district voted to authorize their union bargaining team to take a vote to act if necessary to settle a contract.

As is the case around Michigan, the bargaining climate in the Woodhaven-Brownstown district is poor. For some educators, the situation is eerily similar to turbulent times 30 years ago when strikes were required to settle several contracts.

The recent vote was a move that teachers hoped they wouldn’t have to take, especially since the district has the money necessary to settle the contract. However, the district has rejected contract proposals from the Woodhaven-Brownstown Education Association, including offers for union members to pay higher deductibles for prescriptions and physician office visits.

“Every time we’ve blinked, it’s not enough,” said Aida Damian, a Brownstown Middle School teacher.

Woodhaven-Brownstown is on MEA’s critical list, meaning negotiations are stalled or unproductive and the school district’s employees feel they need assistance from the community and MEA to reach a settlement. The group’s last contract expired Aug. 31, 2007.

The local association has begun a crisis process with MEA.

 ‘We had a track record’
Veteran teachers like Damian say current bargaining struggles remind them of tough battles in the 1970s, when high unemployment also plagued many communities. And, she said, it’s hard to overlook tactics that make employees feel as if the district is trying to bust the union at a time when private unions, especially those related to the auto industry, are also under attack.

In the 1970s, collective bargaining rights for public employees were still relatively new. After decades of low pay and poor working conditions, teachers fought for professional wages and work environments. Sometimes, they hit the picket lines to force districts to settle contracts and help create better learning environments.

That’s precisely what happened in Woodhaven (the school district was renamed in the 1990s), where strikes in 1974 and 1976 led to better contracts with improved pay.

When the Woodhaven teachers’ contract expired in 1979, they didn’t expect to work nearly a full year without a new one.

The primary stumbling block to a new deal was economics, as is often the case today. At the time, beginning teachers with a bachelor’s degree earned annual salaries of less less than $13,000; the maximum salary was about $21,000. The school board offered a 7.5-percent raise and the union sought a 10.5-percent raise, nearly unheard of in modern bargaining. There were other disagreements, too, about class size, restrictions on personal business leaves and telephones in faculty rooms.

“We had always gone back to work with a contract,” said Stan Chubner, who still teaches in the district. “We had a track record. So we thought why wouldn’t that happen this time?”

By March 1980, Woodhaven teachers along with teachers in three other downriver districts, Romulus, Gibraltar and Southgate were fed up with working without a contract and decided to strike.

Jail time for striking teachers
Ordered a month later by a judge to return to work, the strike took an historic turn when 13 teachers were jailed for refusing to return to work. Chubner was among those jailed, an experience that he recalls as “something you never thought you’d see.”

“You don’t realize your freedom until it’s taken away,” he says now.

Also jailed was Paul Morrison, president of the Woodhaven Education Association in 1980, who now works for MEA. In media reports at the time, Morrison said teachers were treated with respect by deputies, but endured hardships.

“They take everything from you but your shoes and underwear,” Morrison told the local newspaper. “My wedding ring hasn’t been off in eight years. A social worker talks to each prisoner to see if he’s suicidal. It was humiliating.”

Chubner, Morrison and the other teachers fought for their principles and received strong support from their colleagues. No teachers crossed the picket lines during the six-week strike, though many of them were young and without tenure protection.

Unity in tough times
Damian, whose first strike in 1974 occurred before she even set foot in a classroom, said tough times unified teachers.

Though bargaining in the recession has been tough, Damian and others say they don’t see the same unity now.

Some union supporters have said public school employees went from “begging to bargaining” and are now back to begging because of tough economic times.

Some attribute the shift to 1994 legislation that allows stiff fines for striking educators, a move that obviously deters job actions but also hampers bargaining. Some public school employees cite the natural effects of staff turnover as thousands of experienced and novice teachers and support professionals enjoy the benefits of early bargaining wins – without ever having to engage in collective action to settle a contract. Now, those same employees are wondering how the union helps them in an era of single-digit wage increases, health insurance changes and other district-led contract assaults.

“They want to take away everything we went on strike for,” Damian said of district efforts.

Perhaps learning more about the early contract fights – and landmark victories – would help more school employees value the contract provisions they have, Morrison said. More might fight to keep – and improve – conditions, instead of giving in to district demands.

“We didn’t set out to be martyrs,” Morrison said “We were forced into it. As teachers, we tried to instill self-respect in our students and we chose not to abandon our principles during a time of crisis. Public education is in crisis today and we still need to guard our principles because we believe in our cause.”

Updated: June 9, 2009 3:11 PM