When solidarity doesn’t quite strike: the 1974 Hortonville, Wisconsin teachers’ strike and the rise of neoliberalism

ABSTRACT

As public-sector unions such as teachers’ unions used the boon of post-war liberalism to form their political power, they imported many of liberalism’s key contradictions: its formation of racial contracts, its misappraisal of affective labour, and its opportunistic collective action logics. This article suggests cracks within liberalism weakened the political power of teachers’ unions, disempowering a feminised workforce. Using a historical case study of teachers’ strike in rural Wisconsin in 1974, this article shows how the tenuous solidarity afforded by liberal accords made teachers’ unions more vulnerable to future neoliberal offensives on public education and its workers. The aftermath of the strike generated an opportunistic labour movement in which workers pursued their interests through legal provisions rather than by developing teachers’ broader community and labour solidarities, subverting feminist possibilities of teachers’ unions. This history suggests how teachers defend their rights as workers amidst a rising tide of neoliberalism matters.

KEYWORDS:

• Teachers’ unions
• neoliberalism
• affective labour
• solidarity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Oral History Interview with Ed Golnick, Tape 4/Side 1, WEAC Records, WHS.

2. Also, see ‘Oral interview with Hortonville teachers, Tape 38/Side 1, WEAC Records, WHS’ for a longer discussion of Hortonville’s alternative and experimental pedagogies.

3. Oral interview with Hortonville teachers, Tape 38/Side 1, WEAC Records, WHS.

4. Oral interview with self-identified vigilantes. Tape 56/Side 1, WEAC Records, WHS.

5. Golnick, Tape 4/Side 1, WEAC Records, WHS.

6. Oral interview with Hortonville mill-owner, Tape 54/Side 1, WEAC Records, WHS.

7. Oral interview with Hortonville teachers, Tape 38/Side 1, WEAC Records, WHS.

8. Un-authored letter, Disaffiliation folder, MTEA Archives.

9. Interestingly, despite MTEA’s calls for devolved democratic control, internally they operated using representational system. Only building representatives, for example, were allowed to vote to in disaffiliation debate, leaving the majority of the 5800 teachers in the district without ‘local control.’

10. Oral interview with Hortonville teachers, Tape 38/Side 1, WEAC Records, WHS.

11. Oral interview with unidentified teachers from Chippewa Falls, Germantown, and Stanley, Tape 45/Side 2, WEAC Records, WHS.

12. Notably, an assembly bill (AB 758) proposed in 1974 would have legalised strikes for public-sector employees, provided they notify the employer ahead of time they intended to strike. The bill, however, did not pass.

13. The provision of interest arbitration remained contested for other reasons beyond its alternative to a strike – many school teachers felt it gave employers and school boards the upper hand in bargaining. For more details on this debate, see (Stevens Point Daily Journal 1977).