A Union Chief’s Defeat Stirs Debate on Leadership

Do rank-and-file teachers want progressive or traditional relationship with administration?

When Louise Sundin, the president of the Minneapolis teachers’ union for more than 22 years, was routed in a re-election bid last month by an opponent who claimed she had gotten too close to the district management, she was the latest in a growing line of progressive, seemingly well- entrenched union leaders to face rejection.

Over the past few years, more than a half-dozen union leaders who have worked collaboratively with their districts have been voted out of office, including Edwin Vargas in Hartford, Conn.; Deborah Lynch in Chicago; Rick Beck in Cincinnati; and John Perez in Los Angeles.

Reform-minded union leaders attribute Ms. Sundin’s exit to a variety of problems in the Minneapolis district, among them a sharp drop in school enrollment, downsizing of the teacher...