Pynes Casey Reactions to Casey;

Pynes Casey

Reactions to Casey; Pynes & Lafferty

The Educational Value of Democratic Voice by Leo Casey

Teachers are among the most frequently challenged collective labor groups in the United States. Teachers unions often face considerable pressure from public office holders, from budgetary decision-makers and from members of the public. Such pressures place into direct contrast the goals of education and the professional rights of educators. As Leo Casey's chapter reports on, this contrast emerges between what teachers require to provide meaningful education to their students and the limitations imposed upon them by salary freezes, pension pilfering and diminishing classroom resources.

This is central to the chapter's overarching thesis, that the power of teachers unions to engage in collective bargaining on behalf of educators is essential to the ability of teachers to defend the priorities of education against political and economic imposition. Casey reports that in spite of criticism levied against them, teachers unions are necessary apparatus in our current educational system. To the reader, the most valuable assertion to emerge from Casey's argument is that "a proper understanding of the ways in which teachers unions promote the common good of their members demonstrates that they do far more than look after the narrow economic self-interest of their members, as their critics charge. When unions function as instruments of solidarity, they provide what one might call 'democratic voice' for members." (Hannaway, p. 182)

This denotes that the union is intended to function as a vessel through which the profession can channel its frustrations, so that rather than be controlled by political processes, educators themselves can engage in such processes.

Striking in the Public Sector by Pynes & Lafferty

The right of a labor union to strike is considered one of the core functions of the democratic process. The ability of workers to engage in collective bargaining to bring about suitable conditions, equitable pay and commensurate benefits all are essential checks to a privatized economic scenario. However, even in such capitalist contexts as the United States, the single largest population of employees is actually commissioned to public agencies and works. The chapter by Pynes & Lafferty in discussion here delineates how regulatory oversight is employed to protect the balance between the right of workers to defend their interests and the need to ensure that public functions such as firefighting, community nursing, sanitation and policing remain constantly in place even as labor disputes are resolved.

For the reader, this provides an illuminating discussion on the exceptions to labor rights that are specific to those working in the public service. Often, Pynes & Lafferty indicate, there are limitations in place that are designed to restrict certain groups of public employees from striking. Moreover, we learn from this chapter that at the state level, public unions attempting to strike against these limitations risk being fined or reprimanded. Consequences for this could extend beyond the otherwise protective insulation of unions and impact individual employees.