About 3,500 health care workers in Rhode Island want to form their own union but a powerful organization is standing in their way: their present union, the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals. The AFT affiliate sought a temporary injunction to prevent the health care workers from disaffiliating. The U.S. District Court refused to grant it, but the case is being revisited today. AFT itself is conducting an investigation into allegations that the union "secessionists' violated AFT's constitution. "There is nothing in the constitution that prevents us from leaving," said Jan Salsich, president of a nurses' local. "We have a democratic right to affiliate or not affiliate. You can't force someone to stay in a union."

The health care workers claim the state union has not kept pace with changes in the health care industry. Rhode Island teachers' union officials claim the dissidents are being misled. "The members who are following the recommendation of the leadership are not terribly well educated with all the issues," said Marcia Reback, president of AFT's state affiliate. "Their welfare is at risk."

Seasoned observers of labor unions are predicting more problems like those described above. Harry Kelber, who writes a pro-union column called Labor Talk, sees this "catch-all" organizing as diluting the power of organized labor. "In the nursing home and hospital field," Kelber writes, "the Service Employees are clearly doing the best organizing job; yet there are a half-dozen unions like the Teachers, Office and Professional Employees, AFSCME (public employees), UNITE (apparel workers) and others, who are competing for health care members, even though countless workers within their own jurisdiction remain unorganized. Even the United Mine Workers has signed up a nursing home."

Kelber says such organizing inflates membership numbers at the cost of focus. "Why, for example, should nurses want to be segregated into a half-dozen different unions, most of which know nothing about their personal and professional needs?" he asks.

Is education reform an oxymoron? Five weeks ago, EIA reported that had California's paycheck protection initiative passed, there would have been no reduction in the income of the state teachers' union. Now comes this headline from the San Francisco Chronicle: "Educators Working Around Prop. 227, Districts plan bilingual programs that don't violate law." Wayne Miller, the bilingual education director for the Mount Diablo Unified School District, described how the district's programs would change under the new law which requires immersion in English for most of the state's limited-English students. "It's essentially the same as what we offered last year," he said.
        
Teacher contract negotiations in Middletown, New Jersey, have gotten so turbulent that the union bought billboards and newspaper advertising to advise prospective home buyers to avoid the area. A billboard ad along Route 36 read, "Moving to Middletown? Think twice." The school board retaliated by imposing a contract. The union has promised to strike on September 1. "The Middletown association has gone as far as suggesting to possible candidates that they not work in the district," said Lynn Maher, spokeswoman for the New Jersey Education Association. "I don't know of another parallel to that."

The Nebraska State Education Association used a little sleight-of-hand on Republican gubernatorial nominee Mike Johanns. The union's board of directors said it would withhold its endorsement until Johanns and his Democrat opponent, Bill Hoppner, announced their stands on a petition drive to limit government spending. Hoppner opposed the initiative and Johanns withdrew his support last month. So last week, NSEA's board endorsed... Hoppner. "This group just does not endorse Republican candidates for governor," said Johanns.

Fill in the blanks. The following news bulletin was sent by officers of a labor union, complaining about the practices of their employer. Can you guess the name of the employer?

"The {BLANK} has adamantly opposed any improved working conditions for its employees and has instead continuously sought to take away benefits contained in our current agreement. Illustrative of {BLANK}'s bargaining stance is its ongoing refusal to agree to such commonly accepted principles as seniority, just cause for discipline of discharge, and increased job opportunities for its own minority and female employees. The {BLANK} has already been found to have committed numerous unfair labor practices in violation of its employees' rights."

The {BLANK} is the National Labor Relations Board. Who watches the watchers?

Higher teacher salaries in California and efforts to reduce administrative spending have led to an unintended consequence: a shortage of principals. The gap between experienced teacher salaries and those of principals is shrinking, reducing the incentive for teachers to get an administrative credential and work an additional 35 days each year.

EIA always applauds those who seek out the source data. High profile school shootings have been in the news for several months. The Justice Policy Institute, a liberal criminal justice think tank, released a report that showed incidents of school violence remaining relatively steady over the past five years. "School is about as safe a place as you can put your kids," said Jason Ziedenberg, co-author of the study. There were 40 shooting deaths last year, up from 25 in 1995-96, but down from 55 in 1992-93. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that students had less than a one-in-a-million chance of dying violently in school.

Quote of the Week #1: "If The Patriot-News proved anything by publishing Antonucci's propaganda as hard news, it only served to support the old cliché about liars and statistics. And if your headlines about the Antonucci ‘findings' are to be treated as valid research, you might do better marketing The Patriot- News at supermarket checkout lines rather than a legitimate newspaper." — Jerald L. Rosenthal of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, responding to a story that the average Pennsylvania teacher earns 65.2 percent more than the average Pennsylvania worker.

Quote of the Week #2: "I don't see how the truth can hurt." — John Gabrielson, president of the Pascack (NJ) Education Association, upon learning his teachers were the highest paid in the state.