by AFT President Sandra Feldman
December 1999

Unions are helping
professionals serve
people better and
maintain standards.

"Why would self-employed psychologists want to join a union?" That's a question I was asked many times when the New York State Psychological Association announced plans to affiliate with the AFT. These psychologists are highly educated professionals. They are entrepreneurs. What can union membership do for them?

Part of the answer is easy. Teachers are professionals, and they have been unionized for almost a century. Members of the nursing profession have been joining unions for at least 70 years and have been in the AFT for two decades. Professionals are just as interested in decent working conditions and decent wages as other workers. They want what unions fight for: health benefits, a dignified retirement, and voice. And they value the contact that a union gives them with other professionals-- people who have faced similar workplace problems and have solutions to share.

Unions support professionalism

However, there is something new and--to some--surprising about psychologists becoming members of a union. First, they are self-employed--entrepreneurs, really. They don't work under a contract or engage in collective bargaining. But as any member of a professional union will tell you, unions also support professionals' efforts to live up to the standards of their profession and do the best possible job for their clients--ideally through a cooperative relationship with management.

Psychologists are a perfect example. Like nurses and doctors, they find that managed health care has put them into a very tough position. Their patients, many of whom are suffering from debilitating illnesses, depend on their therapist's professional expertise to help them recover. But managed-care companies have come between the professional and the patient. If administrators say that someone with a particular condition is eligible for only five visits, their word is law--even though they have never seen the patient and have no way of judging the patient's particular needs. Of course this is a bread-and-butter issue as well, but most psychologists are far more concerned about the overriding of their professional judgment, and they are outraged about the harm it can do to some of their patients.

Skilled and educated--but with no clout

The world of professional psychologists has changed dramatically. On their own, psychologists are hampered in their ability to act in the best interests of their patients. Union affiliation will help them get back their professional autonomy so they are once more free to act according to the standards of their profession. When the AFT's other professional workers--K-12 and college teachers, paraprofessionals, nurses, and public employees--add their voices to those of New York State Psychological Association members, the psychologists will have a better chance of being heard.

We can't be sure exactly what the workplace of the 21st century will look like, but we know it will include many new and unfamiliar labor arrangements. The psychologists, who are self-employed professionals but whose terms of employment and ability to serve their clients depend on massive for-profit companies, are just one example. We'll also see many more project workers, some of them highly skilled and educated people, who have no regular connection to a company and therefore no benefits, no pensions, and no clout. Portable health and pension benefits, assistance in moving from one temporary job to another, and help in developing their professional expertise--unions can assist with these.

In education, too, the workplace is changing. But professionals, who care about the service they provide and whose first concern is the well-being of the people they serve (including children), want to maximize their ability to exercise their professionalism. They can't do it alone. That's where unions come in.