The Chronicle: NEA locals allowed to affiliate with labor federation
The AFL-CIO and the National Education Association announced on Monday that local chapters of the NEA would now be allowed to affiliate with the labor federation.
An agreement between the two labor groups will grant NEA members entry into the AFL-CIO’s Central Labor Councils, local bodies where union chapters coordinate political activity. On the state level, the agreement will help the educational association and the labor federation consolidate their lobbying muscle.
Jamie Horwitz, a spokesman for the American Federation of Teachers, an AFL-CIO affiliate, said that the NEA and AFL-CIO independently carry significant political clout in many state and local legislatures. Combine those forces, he said, “and you might have critical mass on some issues.”
While Monday’s announcement signaled a significant new political partnership between the two groups, it is not a merger — nor is it the prelude to one, an NEA spokesman said.
The NEA, which represents 2.8 million teachers and other education workers, is the largest independent union in the country. The various unions that make up the AFL-CIO together represent nine million workers.
The pact will bolster the finances and the political leverage to the AFL-CIO, which last year lost nearly a third of its members to a splinter federation called Change to Win.
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