Labor disputes have stimulated debate about the respective roles of management and unions in the business world throughout American history. Unfortunately, many tend to view these two important entities in black and white, as either uniformly good or bad. As with most issues, however, there does exist significant nuance within the broader topic of employee-management relations, and it is important to examine each particular dispute with a healthy amount of discretion. Recent events have provided us with two excellent examples to examine: the widely publicized Chicago teachers' strike and the National Football League referee debacle. While both instances have the requisite "union vs. executives" theme in common, the cases were brought about by very different circumstances and thus differ greatly in merit.
The Chicago public school system, to be blunt, is an abject failure. According to the CPS's self-reported statistics, approximately four in 10 students do not graduate. Under one-fifth of all students meet the ACT benchmark for college readiness, and statistics for English and reading are no more promising. Meanwhile, the average teacher salary in Chicago, at over $76,000 without benefits, is the highest of any city in the nation. Clearly, something (or many things) could be fixed in Chicago. So, in a rare departure from his usual position as President Barack Obama's chief stooge, Mayor Rahm Emanuel sought to implement a series of reforms to the broken system, including a slightly longer school day and a stricter, performance-based evaluation system for teachers.
Predictably, the union had a collective aneurysm in response and made the decision to strike, gifting 350,000 children with an eight-day reprieve from, apparently, not learning. The union dismissed the prospect of a seven-and-a-half hour school day and denounced the possibility of layoffs due to underperformance a simple reality in the private sector as unacceptable. Instead, the teachers wanted a 30-percent raise for their efforts, the magnitude of which can only be explained by a severe disconnect with the present-day fiscal situation. Eventually, the two sides brokered a compromise of sorts one that increases salaries by double digits, lengthens the school day and allows for the implementation of an evaluation system less potent than the one originally proposed by the mayor. So, after more than a week of histrionics from the Chicago teachers, a lukewarm and mostly ineffectual agreement was reached one that, instead of improving the future of Chicago's children, kept the mayor from looking totally impotent while giving the union a sly wink and a pat on the back.
The NFL is everything that the Chicago school system is not: namely, a wildly popular and ridiculously profitable enterprise with a highly satisfied clientele. With an annual revenue approaching 10 billion dollars, the NFL is not exactly in dire financial straits. So when the current referees, who are paid less than their counterparts in the other major American sports, asked for a collective raise, one might expect the NFL to at least partially acquiesce. While the sum in question somewhere in the tens of millions was significant, the NFL could have voiced legitimate objections to the demand and attempted a compromise. Instead, the NFL refused to give the refs a larger piece of the pie, and for the first three weeks of the season, chaos ensued. The replacements, who were put in an extremely unenviable and difficult position, had a hard time adjusting to the pace and complexity of the sport. After a series of high-profile and embarrassing mistakes that directly changed game outcomes and affected hundreds of millions of dollars in betting money, the NFL saw the light and thankfully allowed the professionals to come back to work.
One should certainly not condemn the Chicago teachers nor the NFL for defending a favorable status quo, as doing so is simply human nature. Yet, the results of the stubbornness, and perhaps intransigence, that was temporarily displayed by two organizations differing so vastly in both purpose and philosophy provides a valuable lesson. Dedicated and sincere efforts toward compromise, as it turns out, are best attempted before resorting to knee-jerk reactions. Perhaps creating a mutually beneficial shade of gray can cause far less collateral damage than trying to paint in only black or white.