|
|
|
Advocate Online
In the Know
White Collars and Labor Unions
The AFL-CIO finds that the working world
is increasingly white collar—and highly skilled professional and
technical employees a growing force in the labor movement.
.
For many, the word "union" enduringly
evokes images of blue collar workers crowded together in smoky union halls.
But according to The Professional and Technical Work Force: A New Frontier
for Unions, a report by the AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees,
this stereotype not only is historically inaccurate, but is less true
today than ever before.
"At the beginning of the last century,
the most skilled workers—printers, musicians, machinists—were
forming and joining new style labor organizations, and leading the way
to unions for millions of American workers," writes Jack Golodner,
president of the AFL-CIO Professional Employees Department.
Today, says Golodner, history is repeating
itself. Spurred by wrenching changes in their industries, teachers, professors,
information services employees, nurses, doctors, and other professional
workers are forming new style unions—organizations that not only
bargain wages and benefits, but that work to win members a voice for themselves,
their professions, and the people they serve.
In 1900, white collar workers represented
only 18 percent of the U.S. work force. Today these workers account for
60 percent of the work force. And the percentage is growing rapidly.
At the same time, while overall union representation
has fallen to less than 14 percent of the total U.S. work force, union
representation has grown among those employed in professional and technical
work to 23 percent.
The AFL-CIO report offers an industry-by-industry
breakdown of growing unionization trends, along with well-researched material
on the issues that appear to be fueling the trends.
In discussing education—primary through
post-secondary—the report emphasizes the vehicle of advocacy that
modern labor organizations are providing to members.
There's ample data on wage gaps between
union and nonunion educators, but the report highlights the success teachers
and university professors have had in using their labor organizations
to gain a strong voice in the debate over issues such as the growth of
non-tenure track and adjunct university employment, and the increasing
use of graduate students to teach college courses.
For a complete copy of the report, contact
the AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees at 202/637-5000. Single
copy price: $12.
| From The
Lectern |
|
I choose to teach at a community college because it celebrates committed, passionate teachers. You get credit for working intensively with people, not with paper, researching, and writing. Your professional stock rises in proportion to your caring about your students' learning. To define myself as a teacher and not a scholar would be an absurd dichotomy, one not possible for the community college professor, although I seldom get credit for my out-of-classroom "product." We do research for publications and presentations at conferences, too. What's different? We devote much of our discussions at department and faculty meetings to who our students are and how we teach them.
—Ellen
Olmstead, 1999 Community College Professor of the Year, Chronicle
of Higher Education, May 25, 2001
|
|
 |
|
