Who Needs Unions? Texas High School Students Find Out Why They Do
Ed Sills, director of communications for the Texas AFL-CIO, recently went back to school—high school. He spent a day observing a veteran union organizer get students involved in a hands-on educational experience on the crucial role of unions in their working lives.
“We’ll just let these two ladies clean the bathroom because that’s a woman’s job,” declared Lee Medley, president of the Galveston County AFL-CIO, with a sly glance toward the men.
It was play-acting, but with a purpose. In economics classes at Santa Fe High School, high school women were practically leaping out of their chairs at that point to enter into negotiations for better pay and benefits in a scenario aimed at involving students in hands-on collective bargaining.
Medley, a member of the United Steelworkers (USW), which represents workers in area refineries, uses this and other techniques to introduce high school students to unions during high school visits.
With the cooperation of teachers like Geoff Rupp (who describes himself as an “economic libertarian” who wanted his students to be exposed to another point of view) and Dustin Dyer, Medley visits economics classes at the school every year to explain what unions do. In Texas, where union density is less than 6 percent of the workforce, unions need explaining because the textbooks certainly aren’t doing the job.
In the classes Medley visited on May 22, the textbook had the imprimatur of The Wall Street Journal and limited itself to two points about unions that might have come straight from the right-wingers at the National Right to Work Foundation: that “some evidence” suggests higher union wages drive down nonunion wages and, using the long-obsolete and inapt example of “caboose men,” that unions have engaged in “featherbedding,” or the creation of unneeded jobs. There was nary a stray fact about unions’ role in the creation of the 40-hour workweek, the National Labor Relations Act, Social Security or other programs workers take for granted.
As Medley tells each class:
Many of you know me because my children have gone to this school, but you probably don’t know what I actually do for a living.
After explaining his role in the union movement, Medley then asks who has a job (most hands rise) and quizzes students on their rights. “Do you have to have a break during the day?” (Students think that’s the law, but it’s not the case in Texas.) “Can you be fired because the bosses don’t like your shirt?” (Yes, in this “at will employment” state, unless you have a contract.) “Can they make you sign a waiver when you’re injured before you get medical help?” (Yes.)
After asking a few more questions about students’ individual jobs—one hears that “they work you very hard” at Discount Tire but will “take care of you” if you’re injured—Medley gets to the heart of the class. He starts by asking for the most “ruthless” student. Sometimes fingers will point. Other times, he will call up someone he knows is from a union family or a talkative one in the back of the room.
That first person is the “owner” of a chemical company. Another “evil” person serves as the management attorney. Medley first gets the pair to specify wages for workers. One owner tries to pay $3 an hour, which becomes an opportunity to mention minimum wage laws. One offers $16 an hour, and immediately hears rumbles of “shareholder discontent” and possible management shuffles. Owners then decide whether employees will have health care and who will pay (usually the employees to start with), who will pay for uniforms, safety devices and boots and how much, if any, paid vacation employees will receive.
Four negotiable items is enough to get rolling, but as the day progresses, different classes raise different issues, including retirement plans, sick pay and holidays.
After management’s position is established, Medley alters the scenario. The economy is bad. Management is dropping pay by $2 an hour; no more employer-provided uniforms; and yes, while Joe over there is a buddy of the owner and gets to play golf with him, the women will have to take over the cleaning of the bathrooms. Medley asks:
You want to organize a union?
When the first hand shoots up, Medley turns to the “owner” and says:
Okay, she’s going to have to be fired, right?
A student in a first-period class asks”
But isn’t that illegal?
“It is,” says Medley, but he goes on to explain how Bush appointees to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regularly have voted against workers’ cases, described the long lag time for justice and discussed how some employers will view any penalty as a mere cost of doing business. Medley asks:
Who else wants to organize?
Most hands are up by now, and Medley grants “certification” and picks three or four students to come forward and negotiate on behalf of workers. He also gives the students some information on pay levels in local refineries and chemical plants.
What follows is a classic back-and-forth on all of the issues on the table. Medley has to stop “management” from reneging on some offers, pointing out that that’s a classic example of bad-faith bargaining. The students recognize the interplay of all the issues: a $2-an-hour pay increase might cost them a week of vacation or 10 percent of the cost of health care. When necessary, Medley provides “leverage” by clarifying the facts. After several minutes, Medley suggests that management has submitted its “last, best and final” offer.
Now does the union negotiation team get to make the decision on whether to accept the contract? Certainly not. Every union member gets to vote on this.
A vote to support the pay package occurs. Invariably, the package is significantly better for workers (and management has something to tell shareholders about how it held down the initial requests).
That is the lesson of the class, and it’s a powerful, efficient lesson delivered in less than 45 minutes.
At the end of class, students asked questions, and a few who planned to enter the workforce after high school received union materials and instructions on how to connect with an area apprenticeship program.
In Texas, school visits occurred with regularity some 30 or 40 years ago, when the Texas AFL-CIO operated a Speaker’s Bureau to introduce unionism to classrooms. But over the years, such visits have become more haphazard, although some activists still get calls from social studies teachers.
Medley said he has found the hands-on approach to be effective in reaching teenagers.
You can go in and lecture on the history of the labor movement and how unions work. But for students who aren’t in the adult workforce, you’re not going to reach them. It’s too abstract. This gets students involved and sometimes gets their blood boiling.
Medley suggested and has agreed to participate in a workshop at the next Texas AFL-CIO Constitutional Convention to demonstrate his classroom presentation and discuss how to build access to schools in other parts of the state.
Texas AFL-CIO President Becky Moeller and Secretary-Treasurer Paul Brown hope the workshop will reignite the school-outreach program they believe never should have receded into the background. As Medley puts it:
The labor movement recognizes the seriousness of the obstacles to organizing and delivering our message that accompanied the decline in the Texas curriculum on labor unions.
Union members who visit schools are doing important work to build the future of labor. With polls showing that young people are increasingly receptive to the union message, these classroom programs are as timely and valuable as ever.
