In 2004, Feldman decided not to seek re-election as president of the AFT for health reasons, and AFT Secretary-Treasurer Edward J. McElroy served as acting president until his official election at the AFT's 2004 national convention. The union was founded in Chicago with Margaret Haley credited as its founder and first leader.[2][3]. The super PAC is seeking to take back "pro-worker" rhetoric from Trump by raising and spending $50 million, with the unions contributing around $1 million each. In September 2008, she announced the launch of the AFT Innovation Fund, a union-led, private foundation-supported effort to provide grants to AFT unions to develop and implement innovations in education. The union operated from one room of AFT Financial Secretary Freeland Stecker's five-room bungalow in Chicago. The AFT has been around for 100 years, and in that time it has positively impacted the lives of millions of members and their families, as well as the students with whom they work. The site also contains speeches from AFT presidents and AFT policy and reports on education reform that supported various education initiatives during the 1980s and early 1990s. The AFT, along with the AFL-CIO, strongly advocates continued access to free public education and affordable health care.

"In line with the slogan, 'Democracy in Education, Education for Democracy,' the AFT believed that the black teachers "were especially in need of whatever assistance could be given not only to the teachers themselves, but to the development of educational opportunities … throughout the country.". [1], According to OpenSecrets.org, the American Federation of Teachers spent $19,499,848 in the 2014 election cycle. Leadership. University Council-American Federation of Teachers (UC-AFT) is the union of more than 3,000 Non-Senate Faculty and 300 Librarians who are employed at the ten campuses of the University of California. And, during the 1960s, the AFT ran more than 20 "Freedom Schools" in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi; staffed by AFT volunteers, the schools supplemented the inadequate education offered to black students. "[8], The vote came just after a July 4, 2014 motion passed by the National Education Association seeking Duncan's resignation. American Federation of Teachers, Local 336 Records. It also provided for a grievance process and layoff and termination protections, as well as strengthening benefits and other critical rights. The union also offers numerous benefits and services to its members, including low-cost insurance, retirement savings plans, credit union services, legal representation, and consumer discounts. The collection has documents from the national headquarters; over 30 affiliate locals and state federations of the AFT as well as 70 personal collections.

The criteria for selecting documents by the AFT archivist and with consultation from the AFT were geography of the local, development of education reform, and type of reform element as well as amount of content to share with the general public. Loyalty oaths were being required in some locales, and teachers were dismissed for joining the AFT or for working on school board election campaigns. In 1919, the AFT called for equal educational opportunities for African-American children, and in 1928 called for the social, political, economic, and cultural contributions of African Americans to be taught in the public schools. Through collective bargaining and teachers’ strikes, it has obtained for its members better wages, pensions, sick leaves, academic freedom, and other benefits. They're part of the problem, not the solution. American Federation of Teachers Local 200 Photograph Collection. Antecedents to Education Reform Historical Collection is a collaboration between the Walter P. Reuther Library and WSU Library System's Digital Library Initiatives Team (WSULS DLI).

History.

Through his speeches, his weekly New York Times columns and his work with business leaders, policymakers and union leaders, Shanker turned conventional wisdom on its head—and made it perfectly brilliant and sensible. This is a disturbing development and one that requires a further explanation."

The union provided organizing assistance and resources to unionists and educators throughout Eastern Europe, for example, in the years leading up to the fall of communism. To view a complete list of the AFT historical collections please visit the Walter P. Reuther Library's Collections Page, housed at Wayne State University. Dublin Core Metadata Standards were used for descriptors. In this struggle UC-AFT has been working in coalition with other UC Unions that together now represent more than 60,000 UC employees system-wide, including 10,000 Graduate Student Instructors (UAW); 18,000 Clericals (Teamsters); 12,000 Technical, Health & Staff Research Assistants (UPTE/CWA); and 13,000 Service & Hospital Technicians (AFSCME) as well as nurses, fire fighters and other employees.
In its early days, AFT distinguished itself from the National Education Association (NEA) by its exclusion of school administrators from membership. AFT membership was 59,000 in 1960, 200,000 in 1970, and 550,000 in 1980. "Tough Liberal: Albert Shanker and the Battles Over Schools, Unions, Race and Democracy Columbia University Press, 2007. American Federation of Teachers The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is one of the nation's most militant labor unions.

Clinton and AFT president Randi Weingarten are longtime friends.

In 1997, Sandra Feldman was elected AFT president, becoming the first female president of the union since the 1930s. There are two national teachers unions in the United States today, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. [26] In 1918, the AFT called for equal pay for African-American teachers, the election of African Americans to local school boards and compulsory school attendance for African-American children.

By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. [20] AFT's official endorsement of Clinton caused controversy among some AFT members who felt that the endorsement came too soon and did not reflect the wishes of rank-and-file AFT members, some of whom supported Bernie Sanders.

[6] In 1963, the AFT actively supported the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) historical collection consists of almost 100 years of historical records covering subjects that deal with US public education, tenure and academic freedom for K-16 teachers, civil rights, collective bargaining in the public sector and public employee unionism. [4], AFT membership climbed during the Great Depression, reaching 33,000 by 1939. "The American Federation of Teachers and Desegregation,". Weingarten also has launched a number of major initiatives to reform education and other public institutions, among them the AFT Innovation Fund, Reconnecting McDowell, Share My Lesson and a partnership with First Book, as well as ongoing efforts to promote high-quality education for all children and develop accountability systems that go beyond a fixation on standardized testing. Further gains were achieved in 2005 and 2007 in workload, salary, job security, benefits, and other issues raised by our membership. [15] According to Department of Labor filings, Weingarten earned nearly $560,000 in total compensation during the 2013-2014 school year. In the 1950s, loyalty oaths cropped up again. Using the digitized TIFFs, the WSULS DLI team processed the files to PDF and ran Optical Character Recognition (OCR) on the documents to enable full-text searching. According to Politico, this would be the first super PAC funded by labor unions.
While these affiliations may seem distant from our campuses, each represents a crucial level of support for the defense of our rights. "[12], The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for "American+ Federation+ of+ Teachers", American Federation of Teachers News Feed. The American Federation of Teachers was founded in 1916. American schools are in crisis, yet the AFT opposes the vast majority of credible education reforms aimed at fixing our failing schools. While the AFT has continued to fight for civil and voting rights for all American citizens who remain disenfranchised, it has also championed the rights of religious and cultural minorities. The organization currently represents 1.5 million members. American Federation of Teachers (AFT), U.S. trade union for classroom educators, school personnel, and public employees. AFT was founded in Chicago, Illinois, on April 15, 1916. Worse, female teachers found themselves faced with "contracts which still stipulated that an employed teacher must wear skirts of certain lengths, keep her galoshes buckled, not receive gentleman callers more than three times a week and teach a Sunday School class," said the American Teacher magazine. The '60s also saw the first major strike by university professors in the United States and a one-day walkout by the United Federation of Teachers in New York City for collective bargaining. Facing opposition from politicians and boards of education, membership in AFT declined to 7,000 by 1930. More than 300 teacher strikes occurred throughout the country during the 10 years following the UFT's walkout. President Charles Stillman lived next door.

This had happened before, in 1934, when it became apparent that the convention hotel would not provide equal facilities to black delegates. A department spokesperson said of the vote, "the transformation that educators and policymakers are leading to prepare all students for college and careers is incredibly difficult, and too often the adults fight about how to best help the kids.

Under Weingarten's leadership, the union has continued its solid membership growth, with the total reaching at 1.7 million members in 2017. [19], In July 2015, AFT endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race. DeLacy won that election and later was elected to Congress.