Using Contracts and Collective Bargaining:



Using Contracts and Collective Bargaining:

Labor in the Classroom

Background and Directions: As students, you are rarely given much say about the circumstances surrounding the labor you do at school (classroom environment, class work, homework, projects, grading, etc.). This is your opportunity to draw up a list of your demands and present it to us for negotiations (through the collective bargaining process). Using the tactics and strategies (see below) of labor unions during the Industrial Era, your group will draw up a labor contract to present to the union (the class). Then, as a class, you will vote on the demands to be added to the final contract, which you will submit to us for approval or denial. [Keep in mind, the more realistic your demands, the more likely we are to approve them.] Use the guidelines below to develop your group’s contract. In addition, the management (teacher) will draw up a list of demands for the workers (students). During negotiations, the students and teacher will draft, vote on, and sign the final contract.

Guidelines:

1) Preamble: Lay out your group’s overall philosophy about labor in the classroom. What are your overall goals, concerns, etc.? [This should be written in paragraph form, with complete sentences. See first paragraph of the Knight’s of Labor Preamble for an example.]

2) Explain your demands regarding the following aspects of work in the classroom. For each, explain the reasoning behind your demands – why you think your demands are fair, why they will help you learn/succeed in the class, why I should agree with them, etc.:

Job Requirements/Restrictions:

a. Type of work you want to do in the classroom (i.e. group activities, movies, lectures, etc.).

b. Type of homework you “want” to do and/or do not want to do. [Note: a “No Homework” policy will not be approved.]

c. Types of tests and quizzes you want to have and/or not have. [Note: a “No Test” policy will not be approved.]

Compensation:

a. Compensation you want for your work (i.e. what grades should be based on, etc.).

Work Environment:

a. Labor Conditions/Classroom Management (i.e. seating arrangement, bathroom policy, etc.)

b. Other miscellaneous demands, concerns, etc.

Definition of Collective Bargaining: Negotiations between organized workers and their employer or employers to determine wages, hours, rules, and working conditions.

Collective Bargaining Tactics and Strategies:

1) Take a positive, cooperative approach with your demands. Management is not the enemy. Therefore, be positive and cooperative when presenting your ideas. Management will be more receptive to your demands if they feel they are not being attacked.

2) Ask for more than you really want, because management will likely negotiate down from your starting point. However, be realistic. Management will certainly reject “pie in the sky” demands. Workers would not request a 100% pay increase, because management would reject such a demand outright. Management might, however, be willing to consider a 10% pay raise (thus workers could demand 20%).

3) Keep in mind that management is required to follow all local, state, and federal laws. You shouldn’t make a demand that management can’t legally support. For our purposes, keep in mind that management (teacher) is also obligated to follow all school rules.

4) Consider the needs of all workers. Don’t present demands that benefit only a small amount of workers. The idea of collective bargaining is to create working conditions and compensation that are beneficial to all, or most, of union members.

5) Be prepared to negotiate. Maybe your first demand will be rejected by management, so have some backup demands ready to present.

PREAMBLE TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE KNIGHTS OF LABOR (1878)

The recent alarming development and aggression of aggregated wealth, which, unless checked, will inevitably lead to the pauperization and hopeless degradation of the toiling masses, render it imperative, if we desire to enjoy the blessings of life, that a check should be placed upon its power and upon unjust accumulation, and a system adopted which will secure to the laborer the fruits of his toil; and as this much-desired object can only be accomplished by [129] the thorough unification of labor, and the united efforts of those who obey the divine injunction that "In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread," we have formed the * * * * * with a view of securing the organization and direction, by co-operative effort, of the power of the industrial classes; and we submit to the world the objects sought to be accomplished by our organization, calling upon all who believe in securing "the greatest good to the greatest number" to aid and assist us:

I. To bring within the folds of organization every department of productive industry, making knowledge a standpoint for action, and industrial and moral worth, not wealth, the true standard of individual and national greatness.

II. To secure to the toilers a proper share of the wealth that they create; more of the leisure that rightfully belongs to them; more societary advantages; more of the benefits, privileges and emoluments of the world; in a word, all those rights and privileges necessary to make them capable of enjoying, appreciating, defending and perpetuating the blessings of good government.

III. To arrive at the true condition of the producing masses in their educational, moral and financial condition, by demanding from the various governments the establishment of Bureaus of Labor Statistics.

IV. The establishment of co-operative institutions, productive and distributive.

V. The reserving of the public lands--the heritage of the people--for the actual settler; not another acre for railroads or speculators.

VI. The abrogation of all laws that do not bear equally upon capital and labor, the removal of unjust technicalities, delays and discriminations in the administration of justice, and the adopting of measures providing for the health and safety of those engaged in mining, manufacturing or building pursuits.

VII. The enactment of laws to compel chartered corporations to pay their employe[e]s weekly, in full, for labor performed during the preceding week, in the lawful money of the country.

VIII. The enactment of laws giving mechanics and laborers a first lien on their work for their full wages.

IX. The abolishment of the contract system on national, State and municipal work.

X. The substitution of arbitration for strikes, whenever and wherever employers and employe[e]s are willing to meet on equitable grounds.

XI. The prohibition of the employment of children in workshops, mines and factories before attaining their fourteenth year.

XII. To abolish the system of letting out by contract the labor of convicts in our prisons and reformatory institutions.

XIII. To secure for both sexes equal pay for equal work.

XIV. The reduction of the hours of labor to eight per day, so that the laborers may have more time for social enjoyment and intellectual improvement, and be enabled to reap the advantages conferred by the labor-saving machinery which their brains have created,.

XV. To prevail upon governments to establish a purely national circulating medium, based upon the faith and resources of the nation, and issued directly to the people, without the intervention of any system of banking corporations, which money shall be a legal tender in payment of all debts, public or private.

Source:Terence V. Powderly, Thirty Years of Labor, 1859 to 1889 (Philadelphia, 1890), 128-130.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download