Wayne State University's Walter P. Reuther Library Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, in the College of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs (CULMA), is featuring the opening of the "American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President\'s Office: Albert Shanker Collection."

The collection documents the presidency of Albert Shanker from 1974 till his death in 1997. Scholars who are interested in public and professional employee unionism, and the education reforms of the 1970s through the 1990s, will find this collection priceless.

Shanker is considered one of the most important labor leaders of the late 20th century. He began his education career education as a substitute math teacher and rose to national prominence as the president of the AFT. Shanker gained national attention as the militant strike leader of the New York City teachers and later became known as an elder statesman on education, trade unionism and human rights.

The collection contains 105 linear feet of correspondence, reports, memos, court records, newspaper articles, transcripts of speeches and interviews, as well as other materials related to various education reform initiatives, the labor movement; especially with teacher unions and international human rights.

Records related to the American education system are extensive. Subjects range from class size, tuition tax credits, teacher salaries, restructuring of the school, for-profit schools, peer review, merit pay and standards. There are detailed records on the formation and growth of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. In addition, there is invaluable documentation about international teacher unions and their respected education systems. The collection also has extensive of information on affirmative action issues including records related to the Bakke and Weber cases. Labor issues are of course very widespread, with information on organizing and collective bargaining in the public sector, jurisdictional disputes with various AFL-CIO unions and the pitched battles with the National Education Association. There also is correspondence with AFT affiliates about the various education reforms they were conducting in their cities and states, strike information and the endless attacks on public education.

Unique to this collection is information about the "Where We Stand" column that Albert Shanker published in the New York Times every week from1970 through 1997. There is a series of correspondence about the column from teachers, governors and senators that either approves or disapproves of the weekly issue. The series also has a short run of various drafts of columns and the re-writes.

The collection may be accessed at the Walter P. Reuther Library Monday-Tuesday, 11 a.m. - 6:45 p.m. and Wednesday-Friday, 9 a.m. - 4:45 p.m.

For more information on the Albert Shanker collection contact Dan Golodner, AFT archivist, at (313) 577-4024 or email ad6292@wayne.edu.

Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 12 schools and colleges to more than 33,000 students in metropolitan Detroit.