Back to top

Minneapolis Teachers' Strike, 1970

Creator: 
  • Cite
  • Share
  • Correct
  • Print
Minneapolis teachers on strike, 1970

Minneapolis teachers on strike, April 9, 1970. Photograph by Church for the St. Paul Dispatch/Pioneer Press. From box 281 of the Twin Cities Newspapers Negatives Collection, Minnesota Historical Society.

In April 1970, Minneapolis public school teachers went on strike to demand higher pay and smaller class sizes. The strike resulted in the passage of the Public Employment Labor Relations Act, granting public employees—including teachers—the right to bargain collectively.

Teachers’ unions were active in Minnesota from 1861, when the Minnesota Education Association formed in Rochester. In 1946, St. Paul Public School teachers went on strike—the first organized teachers’ strike in the nation. More than 1,100 teachers struck for over a month, demanding smaller class sizes, funding for textbooks, improvements to facilities, and higher pay. The strike succeeded and attracted national attention.

Five years later, the Minnesota legislature passed a law prohibiting all strikes by public employees. The law shifted in the next several years to include provisions that encouraged both sides of a labor dispute to negotiate and compromise, but the law did not require employers to recognize workers’ demands. If public employees––including teachers––were dissatisfied with pay or working conditions, they could not go on strike to insist their demands were heard.

In the late 1960s, Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) faced the same challenges that their counterparts across the river had protested twenty years earlier. Class sizes were growing significantly. Classroom supplies were scarce, and teachers were forced to purchase their own or beg families to contribute. Negotiations between the teachers’ unions and district administration to address these issues, as well as teacher pay, had been in process for several months of the 1969–1970 school year, without reaching an agreement. By spring 1970, the teachers’ bargaining units were preparing to take further action.

MPS teachers belonged to one of two separate unions: the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and the Minneapolis Education Association. On April 6, 1970, Local 59 of the federation voted to go on strike. The association did not vote to strike, instead asking the district for two days’ leave of absence for its members, which the district declined.

On the morning of April 9, 1970, 2,200 Minneapolis teachers picketed in front of district schools, an act that was illegal under Minnesota law. Teachers on strike risked losing not only their jobs, but also their benefits and pensions. For twenty days, teachers walked the picket line, often alongside their students and families. The Minneapolis School District closed all schools starting April 13; more than half of the district’s teachers were on strike, making instruction during regular school days impossible.

The strike ended on April 29, when teachers accepted a compromise from the district. MPS leadership offered a revised wage and a no-reprisal clause that prevented the school board from imposing penalties on teachers who were illegally on strike.

The long disruption of school schedules threw into sharp relief the impact of work stoppages and the impact of public employees’ limited bargaining power. In 1971, the Minnesota legislature passed the Public Employee Labor Relations Act (PELRA), granting public employees bargaining rights similar to those in the private sector. PELRA allows for public employees to strike legally if negotiations are deadlocked and certain requirements are met.

During the same state legislative session, the Minnesota legislature passed new tax laws that, alongside PELRA, contributed to an overhaul of the state’s public school systems. Schools were solely funded by local property taxes, which increased local residents’ tax bills, levied additional pressure on school districts to balance their budgets, and created disparities between low-income and high-income communities. The set of reformed laws known as the Minnesota Miracle determined school funding until 2002, when tax laws changed.

Minneapolis Public School teachers did not go on strike again until March 2022, and this time, they struck with the legal protection of PELRA. Their demands mirrored their 1970s peers’, and after two and a half weeks, Minneapolis teachers returned to school with an agreement that increased pay, addressed class sizes, and provided supports for teachers’ mental health.

  • Cite
  • Share
  • Correct
  • Print
  • Bibliography
  • Related Resources

Brown, Curt. “1946 St. Paul Teachers’ Strike Got Everyone’s Attention.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, February 3, 2018.
https://www.startribune.com/1946-teachers-strike-got-everyone-s-attention/472516213

Gale Family Library. Public Education Funding Reform: The “Minnesota Miracle of 1971”: Overview. Minnesota Historical Society.
https://libguides.mnhs.org/publiced

Head v. Special School Dist. No. 1. 208 N.W.2d 294 (1973).
https://law.justia.com/cases/minnesota/supreme-court/1973/43687-1.html

Minn. L. Rev. Editorial Board. “Labor Law: Sympathy Strikes Un[d]er the Minnesota Public Employment Relations Act.” Minnesota Law Review 63 (1979): 1023–1036.
https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/mlr/3124

“Minneapolis Strike Staged by Teachers.” New York Times, April 10, 1970.
https://www.nytimes.com/1970/04/10/archives/minneapolis-strike-staged-by-teachers.html

Mitchell, Rev. John W. “What is the Teachers Strike All About?” Minneapolis Spokesman, April 23, 1970.
https://newspapers.mnhs.org/jsp/viewer.jsp?doc_id=mnhi0031/1DFIOV5H/70042301&page_name=1

Schmedemann, Deborah A. “The Scope of Bargaining in Minnesota Public Sector Labor Relations: A Proposal for Change.” William Mitchell Law Review 10, no. 2 (1984): 213–266.
https://open.mitchellhamline.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1050&context=facsch

Shockman, Elizabeth, and Andrew Krueger. “Deal Reached to End Minneapolis Teachers Strike; Classes Expected to Restart Tuesday.” MPR News, March 25, 2022.
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2022/03/25/tentative-agreement-reached-to-end-minneapolis-educators-strike

Related Images

Minneapolis teachers on strike, 1970
Minneapolis teachers on strike, 1970
Minneapolis teachers on strike, 1940s
Minneapolis teachers on strike, 1940s
Minneapolis teachers on strike, 1970
Minneapolis teachers on strike, 1970
Minneapolis students during the 1970 teachers’ strike
Minneapolis students during the 1970 teachers’ strike
Minneapolis students during the 1970 teachers’ strike
Minneapolis students during the 1970 teachers’ strike
Minneapolis students during the 1970 teachers’ strike
Minneapolis students during the 1970 teachers’ strike

Turning Point

On April 9, 1970, more than half of the teachers employed at Minneapolis Public Schools go on strike.

Chronology

1951

The Minnesota legislature passes laws prohibiting public employees from striking.

1960s

Minneapolis Public Schools face growing class sizes, stagnant pay, and a lack of funding for classroom supplies.

1970

After contract negotiations deadlock, Minneapolis Federation of Teachers votes to strike on April 6.

1970

Minneapolis Education Association does not vote to strike, but asks the district for a leave of absence for its members on April 7. The district declines.

1970

More than 2,000 teachers picket at the Minneapolis Public School buildings on April 9.

1970

After a compromise between the unions and district leadership, the strike ends on April 29.

1971

The Minnesota legislature passes the Public Employees Labor Relations Act, overhauling labor laws in the state.

1971

The Minnesota legislature changes tax laws to direct state funding to schools, otherwise known as the “Minnesota Miracle.”

2022

Minneapolis Public School teachers go on strike on March 8.

2022

The Minneapolis Public Schools strike ends on March 25.