Nation’s largest union abandons its union values in contract negotiations

WASHINGTON—The National Education Association Staff Organization (NEASO), representing employees working at the National Education Association (NEA) headquarters in Washington, is sounding the alarm over its negotiations with management over a successor agreement. The three-year contract covers everything from employee salaries and healthcare benefits to retirement security and healthy working environments.

However, the management team at the nation’s largest union—which represents 3 million dedicated educators, public employees, and healthcare workers—is using the same anti-worker playbook against its staff that NEA stands up against every day across the nation. Dragging its feet on negotiations, NEA Management is using classic union-busting tactics like running out the clock at the table, forcing staff to work on an expired contract, tiering employee healthcare and retirement benefits, and contracting outside, often non-union and for-profit vendors to do union work on behalf of our union members. NEA holds itself out as an organization dedicated to racial and social justice. Yet, its negotiation team uses racist and sexist language at the bargaining table that is steeped in America’s slavery past and has disproportionately targeted staff members of color with disciplinary and punitive measures.

“The staff at the National Education Association have dedicated their lives to ensuring that all students have access to an excellent and just public education, no matter what they look like or where they live,” said NEASO President Robin McLean, who has worked for nearly 23 years to fulfill NEA’s mission for its members. “NEA’s Management team is fighting their staff on things they would never recommend NEA members agree to during negotiations. Once again, the nation’s largest union is utterly failing to live up to its union values.”

In May, NEASO members voted overwhelmingly, at 97%, to authorize a strike if an agreement could not be reached with NEA Management. The strike authorization vote came after little progress in bargaining sessions and in light of NEA’s pattern of struggling to deal fairly with its staff unions. Last year, NEA Management forced its second-largest staff union, the Association of Field Staff Employees, to work without a contract for more than six months.

“NEA Management proclaims they support the collective bargaining process, but their actions prove that they only value this important right when they are not the ones sitting at the negotiating table. NEA’s rhetoric has just been lip service,” added McLean. “NEA staff take contract negotiations and their families’ well-being very seriously. NEA Management should come to the bargaining table with the same care and concern.”

You can read more personal accounts from NEASO members and find all the latest news on informational pickets, strike authorization, and solidarity pledges at www.neasomatters.org/strike.  

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