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Watch: "Flunked"

Submitted by dfoley on Mon, 2011-03-14 16:25

While many documentaries on the education system focus on various examples of failure, "Flunked" takes a bit different tack. While certainly acknowledging and exposing the failures of the system, "Flunked" also seeks out individuals and approaches that ARE working in education. The hope is that these points of hope may serve as examples for others working in education. 

Here's the trailer: 

The entire video of "Flunked" is below. If you like it, please think of someone with whom you can share this video. 

Part 1: 

Part 2: 

Part 3: 

 

Part 4: 

 

Part 5: 

 

If you enjoyed "Flunked", please consider sharing the movie with a friend. 

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Chart or Graph

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Analysis Report White Paper

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...

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Video/Podcast/Media

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...

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Primary Document

"The organic act establishing the Department of Labor was signed on March 4, 1913, by a reluctant President William Howard Taft, the defeated and departing incumbent, just hours before Woodrow Wilson took office. A Federal Department of Labor was the direct product of a half-century campaign by organized labor for a 'Voice in the Cabinet,' and an indirect product of the Progressive Movement....

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Argued several years before the Wagner Act was even enacted, this case dealt with the issue of strikes and picketing in front of the American Steel Foundries in New Jersey. The American Steel Foundries alleged that the Tri-City Central Trades Council was "carrying on a conspiracy to prevent complainant from retaining and obtaining skilled laborers to operate its plant."

This economic classic is noted for providing us with terms for and expositions of such key economic ideas as the division of labor, "invisible hand," self-interest as a beneficial force, and freedom of trade.

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In a speech before a gathering of important AFL-CIO members, President Obama declared his support for unions and encouraged them to work together with the business industry. He also encouraged fair standards and practices for the labor movement.

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"When negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement between petitioner employer and the union representing certain of its employees reached an impasse, some of the employees went out on strike, and petitioner then unilaterally granted a wage increase for employees who stayed on the job. Petitioner also advertised for and hired 'permanent' replacements for striking employees. Under...

"In its complaint, the labor board said that Boeing’s decision to transfer a second production line for its new 787 Dreamliner passenger plane to South Carolina was motivated by an unlawful desire to retaliate against union workers for their past strikes in Washington and to discourage future strikes." -...

A Supreme Court decision interpreting the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution, Carter v. Carter Coal Co. ruled the Bituminous Coal Conservation Act unconstitutional and stated that labor boards haves powers over production, but not commerce.

"Section 8(a)(3) of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (NLRA), 49 Stat. 452, as amended, 29 U. S. C. § 158(a)(3), permits an employer and an exclusive bargaining representative to enter into an agreement requiring all employees in the bargaining unit to pay periodic union dues and initiation fees as a condition of continued employment, whether or not the employees otherwise wish to...

A statement by Dwight Eisenhower, released with a 1960 report that highlighted the effectiveness of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act.

Eisenhower wrote, "It is indeed heartening to see how the provisions of this law are being utilized by America's working men and women to safeguard against the corruption and abuses of power it was designed to correct. While such...

"Established minimum wages, overtime pay, record keeping, and child labor standards for private sector and government workers."

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President Franklin Roosevelt's reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on the Wagner Act and the media's coverage to the ruling.

"There is hereby created in connection with the Department of Labor a board to be known as the National Labor Relations Board ....

The National Labor Board created by Executive Order of August 5, 1933, and continued by Executive Order No. 6511 of December 16, 1933, shall cease to exist on July 9, 1934 ....

The National Labor Relations Board shall have authority to conduct all...

"Whereas as a result of a conference of representatives of labor and industry which met at the call of the President on December 17, 1941, it has been agreed that for the duration of the war there shall be no strikes or lockouts, and that all labor disputes shall be settled by peaceful means, and that a National War Labor Board be established for the peaceful adjustment of such disputes:

...

"BY virtue of the authority vested in me under Tide I of the National Industrial Recovery Act approved June 16, 1933 (Public No. 67, 73d Congress), and in order to effectuate the purposes of said Act, it is hereby ordered as follows:

(1) The National Labor Board, created on August 5, 1933, to 'pass promptly on any case of hardship or dispute that may arise from interpretation or...

A letter from President Franklin Roosevelt dispelling the rumor that he was dissatisfied with the Wagner Act. Roosevelt wrote, "I wish to call to your attention the fact that I have no intention of appointing any commission to study the operation of the National Labor Relations Act."

A statement by President Franklin Roosevelt on the signing of the National Industrial Recovery Act.

Roosevelt said, in part, "History probably will record the National Industrial Recovery Act as the most important and far-reaching legislation ever enacted by the American Congress. It represents a supreme effort to stabilize for all time the many factors which make for the prosperity of...

In his Statement on Signing the National Labor Relations Act, President Franklin D. Roosevelt lauded the Act's promise. "A better relationship between labor and management is the high purpose of this Act. By assuring the employees the right of collective bargaining it fosters the development of the employment contract on a sound and equitable basis. By providing an orderly procedure for...

The National Labor Relations Board was preceded by the National Labor Board. President Roosevelt created the Board in 1933 in conjunction with the NIRA. This statement reveals Roosevelt's NLB appointees.

A statement by President Harry Truman, attached to the veto of the Taft-Hartley Labor Bill. The veto was overridden on June 23, 1947 and the Labor Management Relations Act passed into law.

"What is euphemistically called collective bargaining by union leaders and "pro-labor" legislation is of a quite different character. It is bargaining and the point of a gun. It is bargaining between an armed party, ready to use its weapons, and an unarmed party under duress. It is not a market transaction. It is a dictate forced upon the employer."

A message to Congress by President Jimmy Carter calling for labor law (specifically the National Labor Relations) reform. Carter said, "I have pledged to make Federal regulatory agencies more responsive to the people they serve. Government regulation only works well if it is fair, prompt and predictable. Too often this has not been the case with the regulatory process that governs collective...

This legislation was the first of two acts that have amended the National Labor Relations Act.

The Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act was the second act (after the Labor Management Relations Act) to amend the National Labor Relations Act.

"The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) guarantees employees 'the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, § 7, and makes it an unfair labor practice for an employer 'to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees' in the exercise of their § 7 rights, § 8(a)(1). Petitioner Lechmere, Inc., owns and operates a retail store located in a shopping plaza in a...

Composed and signed by a handful of Senate members, this letter urges President Obama to reject the NLRB's actions against the Boeing Company. The senators argue that the actions against Boeing by the President's own NLRB nominees clearly contradict the President's ambition to outperform the rest of the world in economic progress and job creation.

In a Labor Day statement, President Lyndon Johnson lauded the Wagner Act's role in America's economic triumphs. "America's record prosperity stands as a monument to labor's unflagging efforts to guarantee working men and women, and their families, their rightful stake in our national life.

It was not by mere accident that America's major thrust for social justice came after the Wagner...

The National Industrial Recovery Act of June 16, 1933 was a forerunner of the Wagner Act. Signed by President Franklin Roosevelt, the Act was implemented by the National Recovery Administration and the Public Works Administration until it was ruled unconstitutional, in part, in May of 1935.

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS ACT

cited NLRA or the Act; 29 U.S.C. §§ 151-169

[Title 29, Chapter 7, Subchapter II, United States Code]


FINDINGS AND POLICIES

1.[§151.] The denial by some employers of the right of employees to organize and the refusal by some employers to accept the procedure of...

Compiled to mark the 75th anniversary of the National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act), this piece gives a concise history of the events leading up to and following its passage. This collection also details the various pieces of labor-related legislation that preceded the Act.

"Respondents were members of a multiemployer bargaining group with a history of successful bargaining. After the union struck another member of the group, which continued operations using temporary replacements, respondents locked out their employees and utilized temporary replacements to continue business operations. The National Labor Relations Board found that, while the use of temporary...

National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation was a U.S. Supreme Court case that reversed the judgment of the Circuit Court of Appeals and ruled the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 constitutional.

"The Circuit Court of Appeals has jurisdiction to entertain a petition for rehearing, filed at the same term and in time under its rules, of a judgment denying an application of the National Labor Relations Board for enforcement of an order, and the three months within which a petitioner must apply to this Court for certiorari to review the decision in such case runs from the date of the order...

According to Oyez, the details surrounding this case concerned the following:

"The union representing employees at a New Process Steel plant in Butler, Indiana failed to reach an agreement over a new contract with New Process Steel. The union subsequently filed unfair labor practices claims with the...

"In the circumstances of these cases, the nondiscriminatory refusal of the employers to permit distribution of union literature by nonemployee union organizers on company-owned parking lots did not unreasonably impede their employees' right to self-organization in violation of § 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act, because the locations of the plants and of the living quarters of the...

"The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) certified unions as bargaining agents for lay teachers in schools operated by respondents, which refused to recognize or bargain with the unions; the NLRB issued cease-and-desist orders against respondents, holding that it had properly assumed jurisdiction over the schools. Exercise of jurisdiction was asserted to be in line with its policy of...

The Supreme Court ruled in the affirmative for all of these questions. This signified a major victory in the progression towards "card check."

"In the course of holding that respondent company committed 'unfair labor practices' when it refused to interview or retain 11 job applicants because of their union membership, the National Labor Relations Board determined that all of the applicants were protected 'employee[s]' as that word is defined in the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. 152(3), even though they intended to try to...

A precursor to the National Labor Relations Act, the Norris-LaGuardia Act "curbed the power of the courts to issue injunctions or restraining orders against strikes, absent violence or fraud." Furthermore, "Congress declared the policy of the United States to be that workers were free to join unions and bargain collectively."

Pamphlets issued by opponents of the Labor Management Relations Act (also known as the Taft-Hartley Act). The pamphlet’s rhetoric included, "Common pickpockets are frowned upon in decent society. That's why it take [sic] something fancy, and even downright unreadable, like the Taft-Hartley law to make thievery appear respectable… But labor's house is built of bricks and won't blow in so easily...

This case emerged following a Pattern Makers strike in Rockford, Illinois and Beloit, Wisconsin. After several union members resigned during the strike and chose to go back to work, the union attempted to fine them. The NLRB declared that this was an unfair practice inconsistent with the law, a decision with which the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court agreed.

"The National War Labor Board was created as part of the war machinery of the country and it is passing out of existence as the need for war machinery is passing. Its existence has covered a term of barely 13 months, only one-half of which was a period of active hostilities. The War Labor Board served as a means of adjusting labor disputes without stopping production of things essential to the...

Addressing foreign labor leaders, President Richard Nixon said, "You have all heard of the American Revolution, of Washington and Jefferson and Lincoln, and many get the impression that it sprang full blown with a free trade union movement and all the other institutions that we now have in this country.

However, any student of American history knows that is not the case. There was no...

In a speech before a potentially hostile audience, President Ronald Reagan highlighted the similarities between himself and his unionized listeners. "Some people would have forgotten-except your president very graciously reminded you—that I am the first man to attain this high office who was formerly president of an AF of L-CIO union."

A photo of the author of Wagner Labor Act, Senator Robert E. Wagner, with the Act's administrator, NLRB Chairman J. Warren Madden, during a hearing before the Senate Judicial Subcommittee on January 27, 1938.

This document presents a speech by the initiator of the National Labor Relations Act. According to Senator Wagner, his bill "merely provides that employees, if they desire to do so, shall be free to organize for their mutual protection or benefit."

Over the decades, the Board has revised its rules periodically, looking for ways to achieve a broadly-shared goal: making the representation process work as well as possible.

"Mr. Chairman, Members of the House Committee on Education and Labor, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. My name is Bradley W. Kampas. I have actively participated in collective bargaining and labor contract administration for over 25 years. My experience includes negotiations on behalf of educational institutions, and I have negotiated in many first contract settings. While...

"My name is Clyde Summers, and I am Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law school. I have been asked to come here today by Chairman Boehner.

My limited purpose today is to provide some background on the Labor-Management Reporting Act of 1959, more commonly known as the Landrum-Griffin Act. I want to focus particularly on the fundamental premises and purposes of the...

"The Indiana State Building and Construction Trades Council and the Central Indiana Building and Construction Trades Council appreciate the opportunity to appear before this Subcommittee and express their views on one of the lawful, peaceful and effective means of Union organizing called 'salting.' This Union organizing tool is a highly successful method for labor unions to communicate with...

"The NLRB is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1935 to administer the National Labor Relations Act, as amended, the primary law governing relations between unions and employers in the private sector. The statute guarantees the right of employees to organize and to bargain collectively with their employers, and to engage in other protected concerted activity with or without a...

"The labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce. Nothing contained in the antitrust laws shall be construed to forbid the existence and operation of labor, agricultural, or horticultural organizations, instituted for the purposes of mutual help, and not having capital stock or conducted for profit, or to forbid or restrain individual members of such organizations from...

In the early 1940s, Congressman Howard Smith pursued a variety of hearings on the issue of the National Labor Relations Board. This article from TIME Magazine depicts some of the sentiments over the hearings and the labor industry at that time.

"To revise, codify, and enact without substantive change certain general and permanent laws, related to public buildings, property, and works, as title 40, United States Code, 'Public Buildings, Property, and Works'."

According to the U.S. Justice Department, the Hobbs Act "prohibits actual or attempted robbery or extortion affecting interstate or foreign commerce. Section 1951 also proscribes conspiracy to commit robbery or extortion without reference to the conspiracy statute at 18 U.S.C. § 371....

A precursor to the National Labor Relations Act, the Railway Labor Act sought "to avoid any interruption of interstate commerce by providing for the prompt disposition of disputes between carriers and their employees." It also "protects the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively."

"AN ACT To provide conditions for the purchase of supplies and the making of contracts by the United States, and for other purposes."

According to this Supreme Court decision, "The Hobbs Act, which makes it a federal crime to obstruct interstate commerce by robbery or extortion, does not reach the use of violence (which is readily punishable under state law) to achieve legitimate union objectives, such as higher wages in return for genuine services that the employer seeks."

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