Albert Shanker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Albert Shanker | |
|---|---|
 Albert Shanker
|
|
| Born | September 14, 1928 New York City, United States |
| Died | February 22, 1997 New York City, United States |
| Occupation | Labor Leader, AFT & UFT President |
| Spouse | Edith Shanker |
| Children | Carl Sabath Adam Shanker Michael Shanker Jennie Shanker |
Albert Shanker (September 14, 1928 - February 22, 1997) was President of the UFT from 1964 to 1984 as well as President of the AFT from 1974 to 1997.
Contents |
[edit] Early life
Shanker was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan to a Russian-Jewish immigrant family. His father Morris delivered newspapers and his mother Mamie worked in a knitting factory. The experience of watching his mother work 70 hour weeks made Shanker aware of the need for societal changes from an early age.
In 1946, Shanker graduated from Stuyvesant High School where he was the head of the debate team. His academic life continued at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He joined the Congress of Racial Equality. In 1949 he graduated with honors and enrolled in Columbia University. In order to earn money while writing his dissertation, Shanker became substitute teacher at PS 179 in East Harlem.
[edit] Founding the United Federation of Teachers
He began his tenure as a union organizer in 1959 to help organize the Teacher's Guild - NYC's AFT affiliate that was started by John Dewey in 1917. He left his teaching job to organize full time. He felt that a teachers union would be more effective if it was united with a common set of goals. The Teacher's Guild would merge with New York City's High School Teacher's Association to form the United Federation of Teachers or UFT in 1960.
In 1964, Shanker succeeded Charles Cogen as UFT president.
Perhaps Shanker is best known for organizing workers in the Oceanhill-Brownsville district. In 1968, Shanker organized Oceanhill-Brownsville's teaching staff in the mostly black neighborhood. Shanker called for a strike after teachers were purged from the school district due to the city's reorganization plan.
For more than a decade, Shanker authored essay-like advertisements in The New York Times and other publications. Accompanied by a small photograph of Shanker, the columns, entitled "Where We Stand," sought to rationally and dispassionately clarify the union's position on various matters of public interest.
[edit] Activist Legacy
Despite Shanker's organizing efforts, and the fifteen days that he would spend in jail due to his organization, Shanker was branded a racist by critics. Yet Shanker would persist in building the United Federation of Teachers and would be elected president of the American Federation of Teachers in 1974. He was re-elected every two years until his death. Some believed that he gained too much power and became very severe, even extremist, which led to a reference in Woody Allen's 1973 movie Sleeper about Shanker having allegedly fomented a nuclear war.
In 1975 the UFT authorized a five day strike, leading to allegedly saving New York City from bankruptcy after he asked the Teachers' Retirement System to invest $150 million in Municipal Corp.(MAC) bonds.
On September 21, 1981, Shanker had dinner with Leon B. Applewhaite, a personal friend and one of the heads of the Federal Labor Relations Authority. Applewhaite was involved in deciding whether to uphold the decertification of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization for the strike they had called in August of that year. During the dinner Shanker urged Applewhaite not to decertify the union, an action which plainly violated the prohibition on ex parte contact contained in the federal Administrative Procedure Act. Although the contact was not ultimately found to have legal consequences, Shanker's behavior (and particularly his hubris in so blatantly violating federal procedural regulations) were thoroughly criticized by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals in their review of the FLRA's decision. See 685 F.2d 547.
[edit] Later years
Shanker was a visiting professor at Hunter College and Harvard University during the 1980s. He would continue to work to organize teachers throughout his life, attempting to bridge the AFT with the National Education Association. Despite his efforts, he never saw this convergence. He died of bladder cancer at the age of 69.
[edit] Shanker in Popular Culture
In the Woody Allen movie Sleeper (1973) the protagonist is told that the old world was destroyed when a mad man named Albert Shanker got hold of a nuclear device. Shanker was president of the AFT at that time.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Jack Schierenbeck, "Al Shanker's Rise to Power", Class Struggles: The UFT Story, 16 February 1996 (retrieved 15 October 2006).
- Rich Gibson, "The AFT and Albert Shanker", Black Radical Congress, 6 November 2000 (retrieved 15 October 2006).
- Paul Buhle, "Albert Shanker: No Flowers", New Politics, 6(3), Summer 1997 (retrieved 15 October 2006).
| Preceded by David Selden |
President, American Federation of Teachers 1974 - 1997 |
Succeeded by Sandra Feldman |
