Union leader, born in New York City, New York, USA. He was a confrontational president of New York City's United Federation of Teachers (196486), leading repeated teachers' strikes and becoming a major force in city politics. As national president of the American Federation of Teachers (1974) he supported public-school reform, and his weekly column in the New York Times served as a much-quoted forum for ideas on education.
Albert Shanker (September 14, 1928 - February 22, 1997) was president of the American Federation of Teachers from 1974 to 1997.
Early life
Shanker was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan to a Russian-Jewish immigrant family. The experience of watching his mother work 70 hour weeks made Shanker aware of the need for societal changes from an early age.
In 1946, Shanker graduated from Stuyvesant High School where he was the head of the debate team.
Founding the United Federation of Teachers
He began his tenure as a union organizer in 1959 to help organize the Teacher's Guild - NYC's AFT affiliate that was started by John Dewey in 1917.
In 1964, Shanker succeeded Charles Cogen as UFT president. Sandra Feldman succeeded Shanker as UFT president.
Perhaps Shanker is best known for organizing workers in Oceanhill-Brownsville. In 1968, Shanker organized Oceanhill-Brownsville's teaching staff in the mostly black neighborhood. Shanker called for a strike after teachers were purged from the school district due to the city's reorganization plan.
For more than a decade, Shanker authored essay-like advertisements in The New York Times and other publications.
Activist Legacy
Despite Shanker's organizing efforts, and the fifteen days that he would spend in jail due to his organization, Shanker was branded a racist by critics. Yet Shanker would persist in building the United Federation of Teachers and would be elected president of the American Federation of Teachers in 1974. Some believed that he gained too much power and became very severe, even extremist, which led to a reference in Woody Allen's 1973 movie Sleeper about Shanker having allegedly fomented a nuclear war.
On September 21, 1981, Shanker had dinner with Leon B. During the dinner Shanker urged Applewhaite not to decertify the union, an action which plainly violated the prohibition on ex parte contact contained in the federal Administrative Procedure Act. Although the contact was not ultimately found to have legal consequences, Shanker's behavior (and particularly his hubris in so blatantly violating federal procedural regulations) were thoroughly criticized by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals in their review of the FLRA's decision.
Later years
Shanker was a visiting professor at Hunter College and Harvard University during the 1980s.
Shanker in Popular Culture
In the Woody Allen movie Sleeper (1973) the hero is told that the old world was destroyed when a mad man named Albert Shanker got hold of a nuclear device. Shanker was president of the AFT at that time.
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