Albert Shanker

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Albert Shanker

Albert Shanker
Born September 14, 1928(1928-09-14)
New York City, United States
Died February 22, 1997 (aged 68)
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 United Federation of Teachers from 1964 to 1984 as well as President of the American Federation of Teachers from 1974 to 1997.

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[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[1] 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 Ocean-Hill Brownsville district. In 1968, Shanker organized Ocean-Hill Brownsville's teaching staff in the mostly black neighborhood. Shanker called for a strike after white teachers were purged from the school district by the recently appointed administrator.

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 joke in Woody Allen's 1973 movie Sleeper about Shanker having supposedly 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. In 1991, President Bush appointed him as an original member of the Competitiveness Policy Council. He died of bladder cancer in 1997 at the age of 68.

Shanker was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998 by President Bill Clinton.[2]

[edit] Shanker in Popular Culture

In the futuristic Woody Allen movie Sleeper (1973) the protagonist is told that the old world was destroyed when "a man named Albert Shanker got hold of a nuclear device." Shanker was president of the AFT at that time.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Schierenbeck, Jack (1996-02-16). Class Struggles: The UFT Story. Retrieved on 2007-11-01.
  2. ^ Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients. United States Senate. Retrieved on 2007-07-26.

[edit] External links

Organized Labour Portal
Preceded by
David Selden		 President, American Federation of Teachers
1974 - 1997		 Succeeded by
Sandra Feldman