Nation’s largest union fails to bargain fairly, hit with more Unfair Labor Practice filings

WASHINGTON—The National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest union, was charged with an additional Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) for failing to comply with basic union requirements like bargaining over unilateral changes. The National Education Association Staff Organization (NEASO), representing employees at the NEA headquarters in Washington, filed a ULP charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) over the failure to bargain over unilateral changes in working conditions. NEA defines a ULP as a violation of the bargaining statute that gives employees the right to a union and engage in union activities without fear of retaliation.  Collective bargaining laws also require unions and employers to bargain in good faith, a practice NEA extols for its members but has fallen short of with its own employees.

This first of two recent ULP filings accuses NEA of unilaterally denying holiday overtime pay, violating the expired contract and past practice and amounting to wage theft. NEA has continued to make unilateral changes to long-standing policies to retaliate against employees and disregard language in the union contract for more than two decades.

The second ULP filing concerns NEA’s failure to answer NEASO’s information request about outsourcing more than $50 million worth of employee work to contractors. NEASO requested information about these contractors. Contrarily, NEA proposed removing the current restrictions and parameters on contracting.  NEA’s failure to provide the information requested violates its obligations under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). NEA spent an additional $179 million over the same period on other contracted services deemed not to be bargaining unit work. Among the millions of dollars used on contractors is a receipt of $8,500 for three days of hairstyling for the NEA president—all paid for by hard-earned NEA dues dollars.

“We have witnessed excessive, even exorbitant, spending on just the NEA president’s physical appearance.  Their failure to provide basic details about outsourcing makes us wonder what else the National Education Association is hiding,” said NEASO President Robin McLean. “For a public-service union that purports to oppose outsourcing members’ work, it is unconscionable that NEA would spend hundreds of millions of NEA member dues on contractors while union-busting and shrinking its staff unions.”

The additional ULP charges come just days before NEA’s Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly (RA). This year’s convention, which will be held in Philadelphia over the Fourth of July weekend, draws nearly 7,000 RA delegates to vote on the union’s budget and priorities for 2024-25. In an election year as important as this one, RA delegates have been informed to prepare for “special visitors” to the annual meeting. The ULP filings open the possibility of another historic strike by NEASO, who had not previously walked off the job since the early 1970s.

NEASO is still negotiating with NEA Management over a successor agreement. The three-year contract covers everything from employee salaries and healthcare benefits to retirement security and healthy working environments to telework policies and probationary terms changes. In late April, NEASO members voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike to secure a fair and just successor contract that reflects the shared union values that brought them to work on behalf of 3 million NEA members. The NEASO Board of Directors requested the strike authorization vote because of NEA Management’s continuous pattern of starting negotiations in bad faith when presented with commonsense contract proposals and paltry concession offerings at the bargaining table. In its last three contract negotiations with its union staff, NEA has bargained in this fashion. NEASO’s contract expired on May 31, 2024.

“As we have demonstrated in our response to a manager’s retaliation against a staff member she assaulted and the related failure to bargain, we will continue to file unfair labor practice charges and engage in concerted work actions as necessary to improve our working conditions and our ability to work for NEA members,” added McLean. “Until a tentative agreement on a successor contract is reached and NEASO members are treated justly, there will be no labor peace.”

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

Follow on social media at Facebook.com/NEAStaffUnion, Instagram.com/NEAStaffUnion, and X, formerly known as Twitter, at @NEAStaffUnion

Keep up with the conversation at #ImWorthMore