Burgess: Banning strikes won’t stop them
Here we go again. A Republican State Senator is pushing a bill to ban strikes by college teachers. Apparently the Senator doesn’t know his history. Back in the day, all strikes by public employees—teachers, custodians, office workers, etc.—were illegal. But it didn’t stop people who were woefully underpaid and overworked from saying, “Enough is enough!” and walking off the job.
In those bad old days, Ohio had one of the toughest anti-worker laws in the country, the Ferguson Act. It required public employers to fire anyone who went on strike. But, after you’ve fired the employees--then what?
Going way back in history, no workers had the right to strike, whether they worked for government or private business. And working conditions in factories, mines, and railroads were awful. But over time, workers asserted their rights and went on strike anyway against railroads, steel mills, and other businesses. Strikes were often put down with violence, by thugs hired by business owners or troops supplied by governments.
The first Republican President, Lincoln, was quoted as favoring a workers right to strike. And progressive Republican President Theodore Roosevelt reportedly threatened to throw a coal mine owner out of a White House window when owners refused to negotiate with miners.
Republicans of the late 1800s had taken the lead in developing civil service reform, which resulted in standards for the hiring and evaluation of some public employees. But strikes continued in various industries, typically with violence, mostly by management.
The Wagner Act, signed by Franklin Roosevelt in 1935 as part of the Democrats’ New Deal, gave private sector, non-farm workers the right to join unions and to strike.
Then, the rights of public employees took a great leap forward when President Kennedy, in 1961, issued an executive order granting federal employees the right to join unions and bargain with their employers.In the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, public employees in cities across the nation began bargaining with employers and sometimes going on strike.
Teacher strikes became common in Ohio, from South Point, to Toledo, to Columbus, in 1975. The strikes were not just about higher pay. They were about teaching and learning conditions, as well. In Toledo, striking teachers carried signs that read, “Teachers Want What Students Need!”
Columbus teachers struck in January of ’75, picketing in the cold. I helped lead it. At the end of the week, Judge Flowers threatened me with, “Mr. Burgess, if the teachers are on strike Monday, you’ll be in jail.” I was the chief negotiator, but there was no way I could force those teachers back to work, even if I’d wanted to. I thought of my two boys, and me in jail. Sadly, the state had no mechanism for arbitration, conciliation, or whatever. Lucky for me, the school board made an offer we could accept, and the teachers voted to return to work.
Things got a whole lot better in 1983, when Democratic Governor Celeste signed a law for public employment that established an Office of Collective Bargaining, giving all public employees in Ohio the right to bargain with their employers, to strike with notice—except police and firefighters who would be subject to arbitration. And it provided the state with tools such as the State Employee Relations Board and a staff trained in labor relations. Since passage of this progressive law, the number of strikes by public employees has been small and manageable.
In ’83, when we were testifying in favor of the bargaining law, one Republican State Senator said, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” He apparently thought the old law was okay. He was wrong. The punitive Ferguson Act, which required public employers to fire strikers, was totally unworkable—imagine replacing all the teachers in a school district or a university overnight.
So I say now to my Republican friends at the Statehouse, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Jack Burgess is a retired history teacher who also served as Executive Director of the Columbus Education Association, 1971-81.
This article originally appeared on Chillicothe Gazette: Burgess: Banning strikes won’t stop them
