I’m a third generation Idahoan whose family has been union or union sympathizers all that time. My maternal grandfather was a Finnish immigrant miner in the Morning Mine in Mullan, Idaho. My father belonged to the Woodworkers Union in Washington State. I was president of the local teachers union in the 1970s when we negotiated the first Master Contract in our school district.
It was one of the best in the state with a formidable grievance procedure and a maintenance of standards clause. I began work in this school district in 1971 for $500 a month (I have a master’s degree and had 17 years of experience at that point.) When I retired in 1994 I was making 5 times that much. I wonder what I would have been making if the local teachers’ union hadn’t come into existence in the meantime. I wonder if without the union I could have even kept my job for that 22 years, given my “radical views” and that I was teaching English and later the high school librarian. This district is in one of the reddest counties in Idaho. Being gay also added to my vulnerability. That we had a union in this right to work state is a tribute to teachers in my district and all over Idaho who worked their butts of in the 60’s and 70’s to make this happen.
It’s all for naught now. That master contract is only good for starting fires. Next year our school board can unilaterally tell each new teacher what he or she will be making. Teachers will have one or two year contracts which the board can renew or not, at will. This is because last week the Idaho State Legislature passed SB 1108, effectively stripping teachers of collective bargaining rights.