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| Date: July 6, 1998 4:35 pm Contact: Kathleen Lyons, 504-670-8005 or 800-275-9469 (pager) or Susan Whitmore, 504-670-8005 or 202-822-7200 (after July 6), both of the National Education Association |
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Latest News Releases
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NEA Sets Next Steps for Unity; Votes to Continue Cooperation with AFT | ||
| NEW ORLEANS - July 6 - Delegates to the National Education Association's
(NEA) Representative Assembly today set the association's course for continued cooperation
and collaboration with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), proclaiming their
commitment to pursuing unity. After a vigorous three-hour debate by almost 10,000 delegates, NEA members voted overwhelmingly to move ahead toward uniting the two organizations to better serve children and education. "Today, delegates have charted a clear direction," said NEA President Bob Chase. "The dream of uniting America's educators in a single organization is very much alive. NEA delegates will leave this Representative Assembly with a single voice, and that is a strong voice for unity. The NEA family is fully committed to reaching that shared goal." Overwhelming adoption of a New Business Item (NBI) directed the Association to continue the NEA/AFT Joint Council's efforts to enhance teacher quality, improve school safety and discipline, and modernize America's school building. The measure also established a procedure to set guidelines under which state affiliates could unite. Several states -- Montana, Florida, New Mexico and Minnesota -- are at various stages in developing unification agreements. As part of the action, delegates voted to encourage the NEA and AFT to continue their "no-raid" agreement, which discourages representational battles between local affiliates of both organizations. The action today affirms the Representative Assembly's commitment to the concept of a single, national organization that represents teachers and other education employees. The previous day, the delegates had voted down the Principles of Unity, which proposed a method to merge the two organizations. ------ The National Education Association is the nation's largest professional employee organization, representing more than 2.4 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support personnel, school administrators, retired educators, and students preparing to become teachers. -- Note: Text of the New Business Item follows. -- NEW BUSINESS ITEM # 1 AS ADOPTED The Representative Assembly affirms its historic commitment to the concept of unity with the AFT. Consistent with this commitment, the Representative Assembly directs the President, in consultation with the Executive Committee and a representative group of leaders from large and small state affiliates and state affiliates that supported and opposed the Principles of Unity, to analyze the results of the Representative Assembly debate on the Principles, and determine the appropriate steps to take in order to achieve unity with the AFT, including when and under what circumstances to resume unity discussions with the AFT. As part of this analysis, a written survey of the delegates to the 1998 Representative Assembly will be conducted to identify those aspects of the Principles of Unity which were unacceptable to some delegates including, but not limited to, secret ballot, minority guarantees, AFL-CIO affiliation, one person-one vote, governance structures, and term limits. If unity discussions with the AFT are resumed, the NEA negotiating team will be guided by the results of this survey. The NEA negotiating team will, in addition, consult on a regular basis with a negotiations advisory committee consisting of, among others, a representative group of leaders from large and small state affiliates and state affiliates that supported and opposed the Principles of Unity. The Executive Committee will keep the Board of Directors and state affiliates informed of developments, provided that no commitments regarding a merger between NEA and AFT will be made without the approval of the Representative Assembly by a 2/3 majority vote in a secret ballot election. The President and Executive Committee will develop guidelines to deal with the question of mergers between NEA and AFT state affiliates before an NEA/AFT merger takes place, and arrange for the introduction of any amendments to the NEA Constitution and Bylaws that may be necessary. These guidelines will be approved by the Board of Directors before they are implemented, and any proposed amendments to the Constitution and Bylaws will be approved by the Board of Directors before they are introduced. No state affiliate mergers will take place except in accordance with these guidelines. While these actions are taking place, the NEA shall propose to the AFT continuation of the AFT/NEA Joint Council and the AFT/NEA national no-raid agreement, including the provisions of the agreement dealing with non-bargaining states. This NBI supersedes NBI 1995-A, but does not supersede or waive any provision of the NEA Constitution and Bylaws, or any other policy of NEA. -0- |
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