Unions

Growth of Public Employee Unions

While unions involved in private sector bargaining are governed primarily by federal law, unions working with public sector organizations, including public education, are governed by state law. In 1958, New York City Mayor Robert Wagner's Executive Order 49 permitted public employees to participate in collective bargaining for the first time. In 1959, Wisconsin became the first state to enact legislation authorizing unionization for public employees.

On the federal level, in 1962, President Kennedy's Executive Order 10988 gave national expression to the trend in establishing a policy recognizing governmental employees unions, thereby providing a major impetus for teachers' unions and collective bargaining. Subsequently, in 1970, President Nixon's Executive Order 11491 reinforced Kennedy's Executive Order by establishing a structure to administer federal labor relations.

A strike by public school teachers in April 1962, even though it just lasted for 1 day, led to the first collective bargaining agreement between a teacher association and a school board. Currently, the majority of states allow teachers to collectively bargain. At present, only a handful of states, including North Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia, prohibit collective bargaining by employees of public school boards.

While private sector labor union membership has decreased over the past 30 years, public sector union membership, especially among teachers, has risen sharply over the same period. In education, the largest and most powerful unions representing educational employees are the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA). The AFT was founded in New York City, partly as a result of the 1962 strike, and from its inception was a [Page 846]union organized by and composed of teachers. The AFT has more than 1.4 million members. In contrast, the NEA was originally founded as a professional organization for school administrators in the mid-19th century. However, over time, the NEA has grown to become one of the largest public sector unions in the United States, with a current membership of over 2.7 million members. Within the United States, current estimates indicate that over 80% of all public school teachers are members of the AFT, NEA, or local organizations affiliated with one of the two.

Agency Fees

One of the most litigated issues involving public sector unions has been whether they have the legal right to use nonunion member agency fees for political or ideological purposes unrelated to the union's collective bargaining responsibilities. Agency fees are fees that nonunion employees are required to pay in lieu of union dues paid by union members. In Abood v. Detroit Board of Education (1977), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a teachers' union could require non-member teachers to pay agency, or service, fees to cover expenses associated with bargaining activities but could not require them to pay expenses associated with the support of the union's political or ideological activities. According to the Court, the First Amendment prohibits public sector unions from using nonunion members' agency fees for advancing unions' political or ideological causes that are unrelated to their collective bargaining duties and responsibilities.

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