INTRODUCTION
        The internship I chose was the American Federation of Teachers Local 420
of
the AFL-CIO in St. Louis.  The site manager at the internship gave me a lot
of autonomy so that I could observe what went on in the organization.  I was
allowed access to grievance hearings, staff meetings, and information
dealing specifically with the union and their plans for the year.  My paper
addresses the problem of their human resource style of management, and
deciphers the organization using the political, psychic and cultural
metaphors.  As I observed using these sociological lenses, I noticed
problems within the union.  Some of these problems contain political
elements.  Other problems are based on the union's ability to become
paranoid of outside groups and the union's rigid hierarchical structures.
Finally, I will make recommendation on how the organization can change.
BACKGROUND
        During the early to mid 1900's, there was a big boom for unions.  More
than
a fourth of every worker in this country was a union member.   A lot of this
had to do with the merger between the AFL and the CIO.  The AFL-CIO was
looking for new members everywhere they could.  Finally they decided to tap
into teaching and the American Federation of Teachers was developed.  Paul
Preisler, a biochemist lecturer and researcher at Washington University, and
a small group of educators, chartered Local 420 on June 11, 1935.  During
the creation of the new union, none of the founders were teaching in the St.
Louis School District.  The cause was the Board of Education, who banned the
teachers from union membership as early as 1917.  If teachers were to
unionize, the penalty was immediate termination.
          Many goals were stated by the early union that were supposed to empower
the teachers in their jobs.  These goals included, securing teaching
positions,  giving teachers academic freedom in their classrooms,
eliminating any salary reductions and to reducing the number of students per
teacher. The first goal of the new teachers union was to change the
non-unionization policy.  After two years of fighting the Board, mostly done
by Preisler and other affiliates of the union, the teachers in St. Louis
could finally join unions.
        The hardest goal ever achieved was on December 8, 1947.  All teachers in
the district that were married were being dismissed by the St. Louis Board
of Education.  The teachers attempted to fight this policy in Circuit Court,
but they lost.  The Union finally decided to take it to the Missouri Supreme
Court.  In order to do this, the union needed money to retain a lawyer.
They started drives for funds and the union attorney, Victor B. Harris, took
the case.  The Missouri Supreme court ruled in favor of the union and said
that the dismissal of married teachers was "unreasonable and arbitrary."
        Now the union boasts thousands of members.  They receive 300 new members a
year.  Election were just held and Dr. Sheryl Hart-Davenport has been
elected as the new president.  The workers at local 420 express their relief
that their union is continuing to grow.  They do admit that during the
Reagan administration they suffered some recruitment costs but they easily
recovered in the early 90's.  They feel this trend is the beginning of
change for how St. Louis looks at unions.
Concept Application
        The style of a management structure defines how rules are established for
an organization.  AFT Local 420 shows a lot of similarities to the human
resource style of management.  The human resource management structure
adopts theory Y of worker treatment which believes, workers will be more
productive if they're treated humanely.  Human resource management
incorporates a  high level of centralization, while autonomy, role
specialization, and standardization vary. The level of these characteristics
depends upon the worker's position at AFT Local 420.
        THE PRESIDENT is given the most control at Local 420.  The authority this
position holds allows for high autonomy because there are no restraints on
her decisions. Because the president is elected to this office, they are
expected to have good decision making skills and to see over all events
within the organization. This gives the president power over all the workers
.  Her duty is to make the final decisions on everything.  For example, if
secretaries want to increase their budget for office supplies, the president
must give approval. Suppose a field rep wants to take a trip to a conference
out of state, they also have to clear it with the president.
         The standardization level is medium.  The position does deal with a lot
of
redundant events.  These events include press conferences, cooperatives with
other organizations, contract negotiations, and meetings with the board,
superintendent, union members and workers.  The uncertainty of these events
is what causes the level of standardization too be medium.  Each meeting is
different from the last because of new information and new members. Contract
negotiations are highly detailed and are always being changed.  Different
organizations, board members, superintendents and workers cannot be dealt
with the same every time because the effectiveness of the position would
suffer.
        The president's position also demands the most flexibility out of all the
workers.  Members will only vote for candidates who have been in most of the
positions and have the most experience prior to their candidacy. The
president is expected to know all of the position tasks.  When a secretary
is out, the president picks up the slack for them.  A school needs to be
visited and all of the field reps are out, the president must represent the
union in the liaison's place.
        THE FIELD REPS are after the president in the chain of command.  They have
the power to tell secretaries what to do, as long as it does not conflict
with the president's wishes.  Amongst each other they are all equal save
one, the senior field rep.  This liaison has been there the longest and is
next in line to being elected to a higher position.
        Field reps have a high role specialization.  They are trained to be
liaison
and that's it.  The secretarial skills they do possess are required for the
positions they hold.  Field reps do not know any of the higher position
duties and are not expected to.  They are hired and paid to be effective
liaisons only.
        As far as autonomy, field reps have freedom on how they deal with routine
cases but more important cases and grievances are expected to be discussed
with the president.  An example of an important case would be if the member
liaison is representing has physically abused someone and is in jeopardy of
being fired or arrested.  The field rep will call the president and will
discuss the correct way of dealing with the situation.
        Similar to the president most of the field rep's assignments are
moderately
routine.  They are expected to go to schools to represent the union members,
attend press conferences, and do paper work for grievances.  All schools,
press conferences, and grievance pose different problems.  One illustration
of this can be seen with the press conferences.  The press conference with
ACORN, which is an organization that promotes equality in school
performance, was directly an attack on the superintendent and the board. It
was to address their poor performance in making tenured teachers available
for non-magnet schools, amongst other concerns.  The next week the Black
Round Table, an organization united with the church for black excellence,
held a conference expressing that the community should get involved with
failing schools to help the students.  Each conference expressed different
concerns and the field reps had to be knowledgeable about these different
concerns before they could give union support.
        THE SECRETARIES are on the opposite level of the president.  Their
decision
making power is limited to office supplies and mail services. They are given
orders by every other member of the union including call messages, copies,
information gathering, and word processing.  They are trained specifically
to be secretaries and are not educated for any other positions within Local
420. Their training makes their role specialized.
        Secretaries are given some freedom on how they do their job.  When it
comes
to secretarial duties, the means are not as important as the end to field
reps and the president. A situation where someone asks the secretary for a
number of a union member, does not focus on how the secretary retrieves the
number, but that the number information is received.  Secretaries are at AFT
Local 420 to increase efficiency.
THE PSYCHIC PRISON
        The metaphor of an organization being in a psychic prison depicts the
organization as trapped in a reality that they have created for themselves.
This reality becomes the only one that the organization knows and its belief
will stay resistant to any changes.  AFT 420, when observed through the
lense of the psychic prison metaphor, can be seen as an "organization and
anxiety."
        The anxiety metaphor views the world as good and bad people.  The workers
of this organization see that the union, and union members are good people.
They view themselves as  a child would look at a hero.  The union sees them
as good and virtuous in their decisions.  On the contrary the superintendent
of St. Louis Public Schools and most of the board members, are viewed as
being bad or evil.
        The AFT's judgement is focused on the board and the superintendent as
being
wrong and so they fight their policies. Let's look at an example.  The new
pay schedule created by the board and implemented by the superintendent
restricts 10 to 11 month employees on the scheduled June 8th date to wait
until June 13th for their pay.  This means the checks they earned May19th to
June 5 will be delayed 5 more days.  As stated on the memorandum, the
superintendent's reason for this was "due to the number of make-up days
extending the school year in June."
        The workers at union 420 believed that this was a direct ploy by the
superintendent to "bust their union," meaning decrease loyalties with the
union causing members to resign.  With this in mind the union sent out a
memo of their own to all of their members stating that the changed scheduled
pay "is further evidence that employees don't matter to this
Administration."  In the union memo it also calls the act "mean spirited"
and union members should insist on being payed at the scheduled time.
Although the memo is trying to unite the group and fight the board, this
belief distorts their ability to cope with other problems
        Another example of AFT 420 as an organization of anxiety can be seen with
their support of specific board members.  Two candidates met with the union
and promised to support the ideas of the union in board meetings, and to
uphold honesty and fairness when creating policies for the district.  The
union members described these people as "on our side" and decided to make a
memo asking for members' to support of the candidates.  In the memo it gives
a blunt command to the members stating, "don't let other decide what is best
for you," insinuating that by not voting for these candidates you are being
controlled and you are not doing what you should do.  This gives an
underlined message to the recipients of the document that if you are not for
us then you are against us.
THE POLITICAL METAPHOR
        Unions were created so that workers would have power at the workplace.
AFT
Local 420 was created for the same reason. One way local 420 achieve its
power is through politics.  When using the political metaphor we see
organizations as political systems, where political activity is used to
persuade others to do something.  The next sections will focus on local
420's use of different types of power over members and other organizations.
Power Over The Members
        The union uses its decision making power in order to achieve its
interests.
For instance, the memos concerning sponsorship for candidates were sent out
by the union president and vice president.  In the letter, officials urged
those union members to support specific candidates.  They said that if the
union supported these people they would aid the union in decisions with the
board and superintendent.  These memorandums went to every member of the
union. When the votes were in, these candidates won thanks to significant
union votes.
        The union also has the power of formal authority.  Unions elect their
officials, and members are expected to follow this leader by union law. This
form of authority is called legal power.  The decision making power is set
in hierarchy by union laws, the commands come from the president down. The
highest elected official, the president, meets with the vice president,
secretaries, and the other position holders at local 420 to make decisions.

Power Over Other Organizations
        Unions have power over the school district since they have loyalty from
many of its workers.  In contract negotiations of 2000, the scare of 2500
teachers striking at once was a big problem for the district.  If the strike
or "blue flu" happened, the education programs across all of St. Louis would
be immobilized, and classes would have to be canceled.  If classes were
canceled then the district would lose money and that was the last thing the
district wanted.  The district decided to finally grant the teachers the pay
increase they wanted to terminate the threat of a strike.
        AFT also has affiliations with other organizations.  Alliances can be used
with outside organizations to create change and power over other
organizations.  Recently, a deal between the local businesses of St. Louis
and the St. Louis School District was created in order to start a compact
school.  This project is known as the Vashon Compact.  The project will be
privately funded  privately governed by a board.  The union president,
Sheryl Davenport sits on the governing board for this compact.  It is her
intent to influence the rest of the board to use union teachers.  Because
the project is privately governed, her position on the board will give the
union great influence in their hiring practices and will alleviate any
authority that Local 420 antagonists or the superintendent could have.
THE CULTURE METAPHOR
         In the cultural metaphor, an organization uses leaders to maintain shared
values, beliefs and bodies of knowledge between associates.  Local 420's
shared belief states that "the union should look out for the interests of
its members and encourage unity amongst them", as quoted by the president.
In order to do so the union looks toward two leaders to preserve the
organization's belief.  The culture of Local 420 is seen as a family, and
the leaders are the mother and father figure that aid the rest of the
workers
        The maternal figure is the president Dr. Sheryl Davenport.  Dr. Davenport
shows her respect, appreciation, and compassion for her fellow workers
through different ways.  When the president was finally elected last year,
she sent a card out to the office stating "she wanted to thank everyone for
supporting her through the election process" and she "was proud to be
working with great people."  Whenever the office atmosphere has been
stressful and she feels the members could use a break, the president takes
her employees out for drinks.  Taking the members out is an example of how
she tries to ease the emotional strains and show her appreciation.
        By being the maternal figure in the organization, she has the
responsibility to reprimand inappropriate operations.  The office is
littered with notes, and some of these are from the president telling her
workers what to do, and what not to do.  One can be found above the printer
that says "Make sure the printer is off before you leave, thanks."  Another
one is on the doors of all the field reps that says "Don't forget to fill
out your budget forms by June 31."  These notes are similar to how a mother
gives her children chores to do.
        The paternal figure is the senior field representative, Mr. Dubois. Mr.
Dubois is viewed with respect and seen as wise by the other members.  An
incident involving a teacher who struck a child at a highschool was given to
Mr. Dubois because "he deals with the sensitive cases" as quoted by an
employee. The other field reps look to him for advice because of his
experience, and because they respect his opinions. Out of all the field
reps, he is given the most autonomy because they know he'll get the job
done.  Just like a father, he is the person looked to for guidance like a
child asking his dad how to throw a football.
        He also has a compassionate side for his fellow co-workers.  Whenever Mr.
Dubois goes on vacation, he always comes back with gifts for everyone in the
office.  For example, when his last trip to New Orleans came to an end, he
returned with beads and other trinkets for everyone in the office.  Mr.
Dubois pays attention to his fellow workers problems and expresses concern.
One of the employees was going to the hospital over the weekend and Mr.
Dubois told him/her to be careful and that he would pray for him/her.  Then,
the senior field rep sent flowers and a card to the employees home when they
got out of the hospital.  These acts of kindness reflect Mr. Dubois to be
sympathetic to his peers and responsibility to do something for them just as
a father would raising a child..
Recommendations
A Remedy for Anxiety
        As indicated in the psychic prison metaphor, the American Federation of
Teacher's Union Local 420 is seen as an organization as anxiety.  The idea
that their organization could perform different tasks and programs with aid
from the superintendent and the board of education never crosses the union's
mind.  These congregations are deemed corrupt by the union which gives them
reasons to act directly against them.  The idea that AFT cannot work with
these two groups, limits their cooperative power.
        My suggestion to rid the union's problem of refused teamwork with specific
groups, is taken from Germany's union and management cooperation style
called co-determination.  Co-determination means labor and management make
policies of organizations together.   If the union and the superintendent
could work together on a program using co-determination, it could benefit
more schools then their independent efforts.  An example of this could be a
press conference where the superintendent, and the union president, asked
the St. Louis area to support their schools by proposing new taxes for
schools, helping children get to buses, etc.  The two groups working
together may send a strong political message to the citizens that if these
groups are willing to consolidate their efforts for our children, we should
also.
Suggestions for Management Structure
         The management structure of the union is hierarchical.  The human
resource
structure is highly centralized and does not allow for the final decisions
to be made by the entire organization.  This can cause feelings of
alienation from workers who feel their opinions do not count. The problem
lies in the human resource level of centralization.  To fix this problem, I
am  recommending a participatory style of management.  Participatory
structured organizations assume that the workers know what is best for the
business and thus are included in all decisions.  The centralization level
is low, meaning that any worker can give their ideas to upper management
without penalties.  The low level of centralization also means everyone has
access to information so ideas can be spread easier and discussed with all
the members of the organization.  If the union was going to use the
participatory style of management, member agreement on decisions would be
increased because they would assume the decisions were made fairly by member
consensus, not high officers.
        The new structure would reduce feelings of alienation and encourage
awareness of responsibility to the organization because members would
understand they personally affect the organization's success and failure and
not an individual member.  For example, when the superintendent decided to
push back the pay for all the teachers in the district, the president's
protection of her members was ridiculed.  If the participatory management
was used instead of human resource management, the members wouldn't have
blamed the president solely, but shared the responsibility.
Changes in Power
        Under the participatory structure elements of the political metaphor are
changed.  The union is originally ruled as an autocracy with the president
holding the most power.  The power the president has over all the members
would be relinquished, under the new structure, and the political system of
the organization would turn into a direct democracy.  An organization using
a direct democracy allows all the people directly involved with the
organization to have equal power in the organization.  Governed by direct
democracy, one person's beliefs would be overridden if a majority decided
against it.
CONCLUSION
        The American Federation of Teachers local 420 can be observed through a
myriad of sociological observations but the intern position allows a great
opportunity to study the employees in their own environment.  During the
internship, I was able to apply the culture, political, and psychic
metaphors to the organization.  I also observed their style of management
was human resource.  With these observations I suggested recommendation for
Local 420 some based on the assumption that scientific management is
incorrect for an organization.  These included spreading out power among the
members and dissolving anxieties against the superintendent.  Again,
assuming that a mechanistic organization with a scientific style of
management is something to avoid Local 420 is a safe distance away from this
extreme.  Still, like every organization there is room for improvement.