The Value of Labor Unions

Hope you had a great three-day Labor Day weekend!

My mom (nurse) and pops (plumber) were both union folks as well as veterans of WWII.  Unions help everyone, not just union workers. However, unions are under attack today as you know by corporate America.  They don’t like that we speak out when something is wrong or unsafe.  They certainly don’t like paying us a living wage with health benefits.  So many have sacrificed to get our wages and benefits where they are today. 

​These two female teachers were pregnant and on strike in 1975…I can’t even imagine that…for obvious reasons.  Click the photo for the story.

Did you Know...

1. In 1895, CTA supported the first class-size reduction law, limiting the number of students in a class to 80.
2. In 1911,  At CTA’s urging, free textbooks are printed and distributed at state expense.
3. In 1910, CTA calls for the creation of teacher’s pension system which leads to the creation of CalSTRS in 1913.
4. In 1927,  CTA wins legal victory when state Supreme Court rules that a school board cannot fire a female teacher simply because she got married.
5. Those of you that take students or your children to Columbia for a field trip, CTA leads the successful campaign to preserve the historic Gold Rush-era schoolhouse in 1960.  Hundreds of thousands of school children give their pennies, nickels and dimes to the project, raising $40,000 altogether, while CTA contributes $30,000 to finish the job.
6. 1988 – CTA writes Proposition 98 and wins passage at the ballot box which guarantees a minimum portion of state money to fund K-14 education.

 
Martin Luther King once said, “The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old-age pensions, government relief for the destitute, and, above all, new wage levels that meant not mere survival but a tolerable life. The captains of industry did not lead this transformation; they resisted it until they were overcome."