Last In, First Out: When A Policy's Shortcoming Is Its Strength

Eric Horowitz:

I've been making my way through Richard Kahlenberg's biography of Albert Shanker, and one of the recurring themes that jumps out at me is the way long-lasting policies can emerge from the confluence of short-lived circumstances. Previously I wrote about this kind of "policy stickiness" in the context of higher salaries for teachers with master's degrees, but you can also see it play out with regard to dismissing teachers based on seniority, a practice known as "last in, first out" (LIFO).

Recently, reformers have attempted to do away with LIFO because it's an arbitrary, albeit straightforward, way of determining whom to dismiss. But according to Kahlenberg, 30 years ago the climate of discrimination in the country was so bad that Shanker felt we needed LIFO because it was arbitrary.

Shanker and the AFT argued that seniority was worth preserving. Seniority "has proven to be the most effective mechanism for protecting workers--regardless of race, religion, sex or age--against capricious and arbitrary actions of their employers," the union said. Seniority prevented racist employers from firing blacks first. And it also protected workers "from the whims and prejudices of their employers" not related to race. Finally, seniority was important as a union principle because it "prevents divisiveness among working people by distributing scarcity in a way that is objectively fair and therefore perceived to be fair." (p. 241)

Posted by Jim Zellmer at May 8, 2013 12:22 AM
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