NEA staff union goes on strike – NEA’s largest annual meeting is cancelled

Tensions between the nation’s largest teachers union and its employees reached a boiling point on June 5, when employees went on strike, disrupting the four-day representative meeting where thousands of delegates from across the country vote on the union’s budget and priorities.

Union representatives were sent back to their hotels. The NEA said it would not break the picket line of its employees.

A work stoppage at the core of the NEA appears to be unprecedented and could effectively end the assembly. The Representative Assembly continued virtually for two years during the COVID-19 pandemic and returned to an in-person event in 2022.

The strike, which took place this year in the swing state of Pennsylvania, also undermines the union’s political goals as its leadership seeks to mobilize its members in support of its candidate for November’s presidential election, President Joe Biden.

Biden is under observation in and out of his own party after a troubling debate performance last week, is expected in Philadelphia as part of his campaign efforts. He had planned to address delegates on Sunday, but the campaign team announced that he would no longer attend.

“President Biden is a passionate supporter of unions and he will not break picket lines,” a spokesperson told EdWeek by email.

Striking workers formed a line outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center before the second day of the convention was set to begin, holding picket signs that said they were “strike to defend union values.” They plan to continue doing so for the remaining days of the convention, which will last through Sunday.

The NEA said it remained “committed to a fair negotiation process” and accused the human resources organization of misrepresenting the contract negotiations.

An NEA spokesman said they have maintained “a generous benefits package, a competitive salary, a pension plan that provides a secure retirement for all employees, and accessible, high-quality health care for employees and their families, making NEA an outstanding employer nationwide.”

“We have worked in good faith to develop a proposal for our NEASO staff to address their expressed interests while ensuring the long-term health of our organization and the needs of our members,” the spokesperson said. “We will respect the picket lines of our staff. In the end, we are confident there will be an agreement that ensures we continue to serve our mission and support our members.”

The staff organization’s contract expired at the end of May, which increased tensions between union leadership and staff. NEA union employees went on strike for the first time in 50 years in June for alleged unfair labor practices.

The NEA’s human resources organization is accusing NEA management of not paying employees holiday pay because they work for the July 4 convention. Employees claim the NEA is making “unilateral changes” to policies to retaliate against employees.

Employees also say the NEA outsources millions of dollars worth of employee work to contractors, and have made some very personal allegations: Among the millions spent on contractors, they say, “is a receipt for $8,500 for three days of hair services for the NEA president – all paid for with hard-earned NEA membership dues.”

The human resources organization said it had filed additional complaints with the National Labor Relations Board that are considered grounds for the strike.

“We have witnessed excessive, even exorbitant, spending on the mere appearance of the NEA president. Your failure to provide basic details about outsourcing makes us wonder what else the National Education Association has to hide,” said Robin McLean, president of the NEA Staff Organization, in a prepared statement. “For a public sector union that claims to oppose outsourcing of its members’ work, it is unconscionable for the NEA to spend hundreds of millions of its member dues on contract workers while simultaneously busting unions and downsizing its staff unions.”

NEA President Becky Pringle had asked delegates on the evening of June 4 to suspend the rules because they expected a work stoppage. Delegates confirmed the suspension, which allows them to vote by mail on certain matters – elections, constitutional and bylaw amendments, the strategic plan and the budget – if the meeting does not continue.

“We continue to negotiate in good faith,” Pringle told delegates after the vote, advising them to check their emails for updates. She received thunderous applause.