The Need

Over the past thirty years and across all sectors, union membership has steeply declined and with it, workplace quality and worker compensation. Teachers aren’t wholly exempt from this trend, but we are still the most unionized profession in the United States. This is part of the reason for the well organized attack on teachers’ unions. Conservatives and neoliberals attack unions not only to dilute our political and financial power, but also to develop a compliant and unquestioning workforce, unwilling to challenge initiatives that are harmful to educators and students.

It’s not enough to tell our young members to “study your union history.” Rather, telling our new members to “go study” would have the opposite effect. It’s dismissive, and potentially deleterious to the goal of organizing new members. I compare it to telling my history students to respect history solely by reading about it. Whenever I teach my students that way, they disengage and feel disrespected. We can expect first-year educators and new members to respond the same way.

Similar to good professional development, any new member engagement strategy must offer both support and opportunities for autonomy. A new member engagement plan should be informative, supportive, inclusive, transformative, and ultimately self-sustaining. The goal is not only to educate, but also to empower members and humanize unions and unionism.

Outreach

It makes the most sense to engage pre-service teachers in discussions before they enter the classroom. There are very practical reasons for this, not the least of which is that corporate education reform groups like Teach for America, Students for Education Reform (organized by Democrats for Education Reform), and StudentsFirst are already doing outreach on college campuses. The National Education Association has student chapters which vary in their degree of activity, but club members often describe it as insurance protection for when one starts student teaching. Chapters rarely host discussions, speakers, or events that are historically grounded or offer a union perspective.

Teachers and their unions must be more intentional in how we educate and organize incoming members. Union locals must consider ways in which they can strategically develop relationships with schools of education to sponsor events and activities that allow for pre-service teachers to access both union leadership and rank-and-file members.

Outreach that is structured in this way can clarify questions and develop young members’ political agency. Even among locals where this may be difficult or cost prohibitive, we can encourage and support our rank-and-file members to do outreach to their former schools of education on their own. This form of organizing can be as empowering for members as for the young people they speak to or meet at events.

At the very least, we must do outreach to pre-service teachers when they enter our buildings for credentialing and student teaching. If we are the first connection they have to teacher unionism, what can we do to address their many concerns about the profession they are about to enter?

The most basic questions might not be the most interesting, but they are the most urgent, and when we are not helpful in answering new members’ most immediate concerns, we risk complete disengagement. Young teachers often want answers to questions longtime educators may take for granted: What is a union? Who is part of a union? How is it organized? How does a union operate? What is a contract? What is tenure and how is it different from seniority?

Each semester I teach an after-school seminar called Unionism 101 for all the credentialing teachers placed in my building. Central to the seminar is a new member welcoming kit I use to help explain unions’ functions, membership, and structure. I usually include a copy of the most recent contract, current legislation to watch, a Frequently Asked Questions page, and a leadership and decision-making flow chart (which also describes how the individual member is situated within the union). I also explicitly invite seminar participants to the next publicized union action, and ask them to bring their friends and colleagues.

Support Through Mentorship

Nearly half of the educators who enter the profession leave after five years, according to the researchers David Perda and Richard Ingersoll. Many cite the lack of support. This is something the union can easily provide, by connecting new educators to veterans. Many unions already have in place mentor-mentee pairing for new members, and participation is crucial for developing agency.

Unions should offer choices for mentors and mentees, such as the “speed-dating” model, or partnership building, in which participants get to know many mentors and mentees in a social setting and list preferences based upon wants, needs, and affinity with other participants. Under these circumstances, mentees have a better chance to develop a supporting relationship with an experienced educator-unionist rather than if someone was chosen for them without any input.

Mentoring, when done well, can also help combat implicit and overt ageism, sexism, and racism among members, further strengthening the capacity of educators to work together towards common goals. It’s especially important to combat ageism, because there is an oft-perceived rift between newer members and more experienced members. However, this is most often due to structures that encourage ageism and diminish all teachers’ ability to recognize and develop solidarity despite differences. Young members may also come in to the profession with a belief that they know what teaching is and doubt they can learn from educators who have been in the classroom for years. Supportive mentorship creates conditions of empathy and empowerment between generations of educators who want what is best for the profession and the people engaged in it.

Socialize in Order to Mobilize

To be attractive to young members, unions need to be accessible, flexible, and responsive. This requires a shift in unionism from the service and organizing model to what I call the engagement model of unionism.

Chicago teachers have creatively incorporated varying interests into their union. To name a few: The American Federation of Teachers Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff Local 4343 running club, civic and cultural parade participation (floats and marches), the CTU Motorcycle Riders Club, and teacher-artist galleries. Social activities allow educators to connect their professional identities to their personal lives, and young members begin to see the union as part of their identity. This can help tear down perceived barriers between union brothers and sisters.

Young members must see unions as relevant and valuable, or unionism will perish. The goal cannot simply be to engage new teachers for reasons of political action or financial sustainability, however. New teachers will see through this shallow approach. But if young members see unions as vehicles for democratic decision-making and an improved quality of life — for themselves and their students — then they’ll have a deeper involvement and commitment.

We must allow and encourage young teachers to participate and transform unions in new and creative ways. This will take certain flexibility on the part of union leadership, which is often prone to inertia. But it’s the only option. Continued inflexibility and lack of engagement with new members will quicken the death of teachers’ union locals across the country.