Topic: Labor History
Retrospective: Organizing to win in tumultuous times
Reflecting on five years of union gains for UC librarians and lecturers
By Mia McIver, President, University Council-AFT
When I was elected president of University Council-AFT in 2017, I never could have predicted that the next five years would be as tumultuous as they turned out to be. I also could never have foreseen how our union of University of California lecturers and librarians would organize, build power, win contracts, and accomplish gains that far exceeded my hopes and expectations.
Elders Speak! project preserves union history for future generations
AFT Local 2121 marks 50th anniversary with oral history
By Bill Shields
Janitors organize live onstage, in multiple languages. A domestic worker ponders the meaning of life as she mimes ironing clothes. Dancing hotel workers tell how they won a good contract. These stories emerged from an oral history project called Work Tales produced by the Labor and Community Studies Department at City College of San Francisco. I spent 25 years teaching in this department.
Teaching social justice and labor history: A how-to for K-12 educators
Kids' Book Reviews
Reviews by Bill Morgan
It used to be hard to find quality non-fiction, especially history, for kids. It was dumbed-down, or poorly formatted, or biased, or written in dry adultese, or some combination of these. Thankfully, that has changed.
A new generation of high-interest, attractively packaged kids’ books dealing with social justice issues and using leveled vocabulary are now available. This is a group of some of the best recent ones that I have used in my years teaching social studies for social justice.
A brief AFT history of paras, classified employees, and social justice
VIDEOS: How paraprofessionals and support staff became an integral part of AFT
In the early summer of 1919, when the American Federation of Teachers found out that the Boston Men Teachers’ Union were intent on ensuring that the Boston Women Teachers’ Union would never achieve equal pay to them, the AFT sent a stern letter telling the men that is not what unionism is about and to stop their actions. The men left the union and even though the AFT knew losing members was dire in 1920, it was the right thing to do.
State’s oldest AFT local shares 100th Birthday with CFT
United Educators of San Francisco, 1919-2019
Editor’s note: With uniquely linked histories, the CFT and AFT Local 61 both celebrate their 100th Anniversaries in 2019. What follows is a capsule history of the oldest local union in the California Federation of Teachers. From the search for true union representation in 1919 to the quest for affordable housing for union members 100 years later, the history of AFT Local 61 — the United Educators of San Francisco — is one of proud support for educators, their unions and students.
Movie Review: American Factory
Community as union, union as community
By Bill Morgan
I know, you’ve seen them before: hard-hitting documentaries about workplaces, filled with candid interviews and tough, unstinting footage of workers organizing and management tactics to forestall them. The problem is, the unions usually lose these days, one way or another. We are left with those fleeting moments of courage and solidarity as our only inspiration.
Unions weather the storm and look to build a brighter future
Happy Labor Day 2019
FIRST PERSON | Jim Miller
These last few years have been particularly challenging times for the American labor movement as we’ve faced everything from a host of anti-labor policies coming from Washington to a Supreme Court decision designed to gut public sector unions. The good news is that despite all of that, the union movement has persevered and the number of Americans who support unions and say they would like the opportunity to join one is the highest it has been in decades.
100 Years Union Strong, Part 4 – The Schools our Students Deserve
May 31, 2019
Watch the final installment in CFT’s four part series, celebrating our 100 year anniversary! From Proposition 30 to the historic UTLA strike, the CFT fights for the future of public education in California.
100 Years Union Strong, Part 3 – Against Austerity
May 31, 2019
Watch part three of CFT’s four part series, celebrating our 100 year anniversary! From Prop. 13 to Arnold Schwarzenegger, CFT defends our schools and our rights.
100 Years Union Strong, Part 2 – The Fight for Collective Bargaining
May 31, 2019
Watch part two of CFT’s four part series, celebrating our 100 year anniversary!
100 Years Union Strong, Part 1 – The Early Years
May 31, 2019
Watch part one of CFT’s four part series, celebrating our 100 year anniversary!
California governors wish CFT Happy 100th Birthday!
May 31, 2019
Governors Gavin Newsom and Jerry Brown send birthday wishes. Brown talks about signing the collective bargaining bill for teachers and classified employees in 1975.
Happy 100th Birthday, CFT! #2
May 31, 2019
Elected officials and other state dignitaries wish CFT Happy 100th Anniversary!
Happy 100th Birthday, CFT! #3
May 31, 2019
California elected officials and other dignitaries offer the CFT their centennial greetings!
Commemorating 40 years of collective bargaining
The difference one law makes for teachers and classified employees
Editor’s note: California Teacher published this article in 2015, 40 years after K-14 teachers and classified staff won collective bargaining rights in California.
By Elaine Johnson
On May 20, 1976, I cast the first vote for teachers’ collective bargaining in the state of California. TV cameras recorded the event at Redwood High School in Larkspur, and in those pre-DVR times, the family watched it that evening on the 6 o’clock news.
Memoir of a Union Lobbyist: 50 Years Looking Back
Editor’s note: This memoir was originally published as “30 Years Looking Back” in August 1999 by the Institute of Industrial Relations in CPER, A Periodical of Employee Relations in the Public Sector.
By Mary Bergan
I begin with Robert Reich’s admonition that a memoir is not a history. It chronicles events as the writer remembers them. This is a memoir.
What To Do Between Strikes
An essay by Raoul Teilhet
Editor’s note: This essay was presented to CFT Convention on March 9, 2002. Because of Raoul Teilhet’s Parkinson’s disease, it was read by then-Vice President Greg Camacho-Light, a drama teacher from the Gilroy Federation of Teachers and Paraprofessionals. Gov. Gray Davis attended convention that day and officially named it Raoul Teilhet Day.
The birth of a statewide Federation
A piece of our history is revealed for the first time
By Dennis Kelly, United Educators of San Francisco
On May 16, 1918, J.P. Utter wrote to the president of the AFT to remind him that a year earlier Utter had asked about chartering a local. In that year, the Vallejo teachers had organized 57 of 58 teachers and principals, had elected two officers, created a salary committee that delivered a raise, demanded and won 12 monthly paychecks, and had created a temporary organization. Utter enclosed $10 for the charter fee.
California Senate honors CFT’s 100th Anniversary
On May 16, the California Senate presented CFT leaders a resolution in honor of the Federation’s 100th Anniversary. The text of the resolution follows.
Whereas, The CFT was founded in 1919 to provide a labor union alternative for classroom teachers and celebrates its 100th year anniversary on May 31, 2019;and
Whereas, the CFT is a union of professionals affiliated with the more than 1.7 million member American Federation of Teachers, and through it with the AFL-CIO; and
CFT 100th Anniversary Store
Get your #CFT100 commemorative gear!
Get your #CFT100 commemorative items emblazoned with the classic slogan “Union Strong” while supplies last. You will also find the CFT classics reimagined – Rosie the Riveter, Students are My Special Interest, Fighting for California’s Future, Activate Labor for Justice, and Organize Resist!
Here’s a sampling of items in our online 100th Anniversary Store.