Juxtaposition and Counterbalance

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

The Seattle teachers union joined forces Friday with the AFL-CIO in a move to bolster its leverage in debates on health care, pensions, education and other public policies.

As part of the move, the Seattle Education Association, which represents 5,500 Seattle Public Schools teachers and staff members, joined the Martin Luther King Jr. County Labor Council, gaining a role in the council's political activities, such as evaluating political candidates.

"We have a lot that we can work on together," said Maggie Crain, the union's associate executive director.

If teachers strike, they could gain more help from the broader labor movement. Other unions, for example, could be more likely to honor a Seattle Education Association picket line.

Compare that to this from the mission statement for the Teachers Union Reform Network, of which the Seattle Education Association is a member:

TURN (Teacher Union Reform Network) is a union-led effort to restructure the nation's teachers' unions to promote reforms that will ultimately lead to better learning and higher achievement for American's children. TURN will rely on models drawn from a variety of research, internal initiatives, and the experience of some industrial trade unions which have been forced to begin to transform themselves.

TURN members, 21 presidents of large AFT and NEA locals, recognize that reversing a century of hostile labor relations and replacing them with a compact that says "we are all in this together," will be difficult. But, succeeding in this new and unpredictable environment can only be assured by the mutual effort of administrators, union leaders and teachers, and the creation of a new social framework to hold it together.

So on one hand we have the idea that it's good to join up with the AFL-CIO because it gives them more leverage in the next strike. On the other, we're talking about putting the old unionism behind us and marching bravely towards a new tomorrow.

Methinks the SEA has gone bipolar.