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Labor history law stumps teachers (UPDATE)

By Paul Snyder

When Ken Germanson began his lobbying effort in 1995, the union historian envisioned teachers spending days covering the history of organized labor.

Nearly 15 years later, Germanson has his law requiring labor history be taught in Wisconsin’s public schools. But there are no guarantees his vision will play out in classrooms.

“We were looking for a concrete mandate,” said Germanson, president emeritus of the Wisconsin Labor History Society, of the original effort behind the law.

He didn’t get it.

According to the law, social studies teachers in public schools must teach the history of organized labor and the collective bargaining process in America. But the law neither defines how much time should be spent on the subject, nor establishes any means of enforcement.

“It’s still a victory,” Germanson said. “I suppose if all we had was a mandate, it’d be up to us to monitor all these school districts and make sure they were teaching it.

“With what was passed, I think it’s still on us to work harder to motivate (the Department of Public Instruction) and teachers to get this taught.”

The motivation might not be there for teachers. Val Crofts, a history teacher at Milton High School, said labor history is part of his curriculum, and his American history class devotes about two weeks per year to the subject. He said he likely will stick to that plan.

Others are withholding commitment but considering their options.

“We kind of review American history through World War I, and we touch on a couple of workers’ strikes,” said Josh Hansen, a history teacher at Viroqua High School. “I’m sure there’s more that can be incorporated into some of what we do, but I’m still looking into it.”

The state Department of Public Instruction this year is expected to determine the content that should be put into history curriculums, and the Wisconsin Labor History Society is ready to help, Germanson said. In April, the group will hold a conference with speakers from labor unions, a professor from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and staff members of DPI.

“We’re not interested in pro forma teaching or telling people what they should and shouldn’t teach,” Germanson said. “But we have a number of resources teachers can use, and we feel we have an opportunity to get teachers interested in the subject.”

State Sen. Dave Hansen, D-Green Bay, wrote the bill and has been trying to get it passed since 2001. He said he envisioned more definition, but he’s satisfied with the result.

“I agreed with the compromise in the end,” he said. “Sometimes the legislative process has a way of changing bills, and that’s fine. We’re not asking for a whole unit on labor history or looking at a whole week’s worth of work. We just want them to cover it in some way.”

Germanson said he wants students to learn about the millworkers’ strike of 1898 in Oshkosh or the day in 1886 when seven striking workers were killed by state militia, prompting the eight-hour workday.

“And I would have no quarrel with a teacher who wanted to present another part of our history,” he said. “Certainly there’s been corruption, and that’s fine. That’s part of human history.”

Viroqua High School’s Hansen said he doesn’t know if he or other teachers will go into that much detail.

“We already have a lot of state standards to meet,” he said. “And with so many other things on our priority list, I don’t know that teachers will focus on a vague law.”

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Comments

  • Ken Van Doren says:

    One hopes that the teachers will be honest, and include accurate descriptions of the property damage, thuggery, racism, sexism, and corruption that are a REAL part of labor history, right up to the present day.

    Posted on 02/23/10 at 11:30 am
  • Steven Cupery says:

    I have been part the labor movement for over thirty years. Along with many of my colleagues in the labor movement we have fought to end racism and sexism in the work place and have done so sometimes facing violence from police and thugs hired by employers. The history of the Farm workers union is replete with such recent modern day examples. The history of Pullman porters in the 1900′s and A. Phillip Randolph’s efforts to end racism in the railroad industry present more examples.

    In public education where I currently work with one of the teachers’ unions, I arbitrated a case involving an African-American MPS employee where we successfully argued that his discharge was due to standards that were racially biased, and he was returned to work as a result. Our union ended the practice of requiring female teachers were fired by employers when they became pregnant. Many of our laws in society on racism and sexism, and discrimination for many other reasons (disabilities, etc) were enacted to protect the public against actions primarily committed by EMPLOYERS.

    As with any group in society (churches, corporations, businesses, political parties), there have been individuals associated with organized labor who have done things that are not legal or appropriate. But to paint the entire movement or imply that such stereo types are characteristic of what organized labor stands for, only reinforces our position that there is a significant need to educate students about labor history in a fair and balanced fashion.

    Steven Cupery, President Wisconsin Labor History Society

    Posted on 02/24/10 at 2:13 pm
  • BBaker says:

    Ken Van Doren says: One hopes that the teachers will be honest, and include accurate descriptions of the property damage, thuggery, racism, sexism, and corruption that are a REAL part of labor history, right up to the present day.

    Teachers will probably have a hard time being totally honest due to the graphic nature of Labor history. The horror of government and corporate killings would most likely be objected to by parents. The “real truth” includes incidents such as:

    The Morewood Massacre in Westmoreland, PA where on April 2, 1891, at the nearby Morewood Mines of the H.C. Frick Coke Co., sheriff’s deputies killed seven strikers; two more died later. These were among some 16,000 workers striking for higher wages in the coke region.

    The Homestead Strike of 1892 in Homestead, Pennsylvania. Although the Carnegie Steel Co. was making massive profits—a record $4.5 million just before the confrontation — management wanted workers to take huge cuts in pay, even though the workers had already taken pay cuts three years before. Andrew Carnegie and his chairman, Henry Frick, were furious workers had a voice with the union so they did what plenty of 19th-century businessmen did when they were battling unions. They hired the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, which was notorious for breaking strikes using whatever means necessary. At the end of the mayhem on July 6, many men lay dead or wounded. Declaring victory, Carnegie shrunk th daily wages of the highly skilled workers at Homestead by one-fifth between 1892 and 1907 and increased their work hours from eight hours to 12.

    The Italian Hall disaster (sometimes referred to as the 1913 massacre), a tragedy which occurred on December 24, 1913 in Calumet, Michigan.
    Striking miners and their families had gathered for a Christmas party sponsored by the Western Federation of Miners when a member of the union-busting group called the Citizens Alliance (the “Alliance”) falsely yelled “fire.” Seventy-four men, women, and children, mostly striking mine workers and their families, were crushed to death in the rush to leave the building.

    The Ludlow (Utah) massacre refers to the violent deaths of 20 people, 11 of them children, during an attack by the Colorado National Guard on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado on April 20, 1914.

    This is but a few incidents from the other side of the coin, Mr. Van Doren. While your “property damage, thuggery, racism, sexism, and corruption” accusations can also be applied to owners/management/corporations, the blood of men, women and children lies solely at the feet of these owners/management/corporations.

    Posted on 02/25/10 at 7:41 am

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