Chapter 5: Who Speaks for Teachers?: Teachers’ Voice and Teacher Unions in a New Era

Drawing on Albert Hirschmann’s (1970) classic framework of exit, voice, and loyalty, scholars have posited that teachers unions provide teachers with a mechanism to exercise their voice within the educational system. However, current trends raise fundamental questions about teachers’ voice and teachers unions, including whether they remain central to how and to what degree teacher voice is activated. The landmark decision of Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (2018) made it more difficult for teachers unions to generate funds and, perhaps more importantly, potentially weakened unions’ claim to speak for teachers. In addition, teachers have successfully organized outside of teachers unions, such as through Red for Ed, which suggests that the importance of teachers unions may be waning. At the same time, the rise of political activism among teachers, the growth of teachers’ engagement with politics, and surging gender-based critiques of the workplace may create opportunities for teachers unions, through advocacy and action, to do what they have done throughout history—join with existing political movements in ways that elevate their import and reach (Causarano, 2012). Most recently, COVID-19 closures and subsequent reopenings have redefined teachers’ working conditions, triggered budget crises throughout the nation, and repositioned unions role in determining how and when teachers will work and under what conditions. Together, these realities and the unpredictable environment in which they are occurring raise new questions about teacher unions’ centrality in public education (Sawchuk, 2020). In short, teachers unions confront a range of challenges and opportunities in the current moment.