Education – ABCs of AFT

The following piece is part of a column that Matt created for the American Federation of Teachers:

ABC’s of AFT

American Federation of Teachers (n.) –

An organization founded in 1916 that represents 1.5 million educators, health care professionals, librarians and public employees in 3,000 local affiliates nationwide. The second-largest education labor union in the United States, the AFT is affiliated with the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and is currently headed by President Randi Weingarten, who was elected in 2008.

   The AFT counts among its membership Nobel Prize-winning educator and writer Elie Wiesel, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and educator Frank McCourt, education pioneer John Dewey, and scientific pioneer Albert Einstein. In addition to being one of the first American unions to extend full membership to minorities, the AFT also filed an amicus brief in the 1954 case of Brown v. Board of Education. Many AFT members also participated in Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s historic march on Washington. The union was also one of the first organizations of its kind to divest in Apartheid-era South Africa. When the United States Congress amended the National Labor Relation Act in 1974 to expand the rights of health care workers, the AFT also amended its constitution to permit health care workers and public employees to join the union, eventually forming what is today known as AFT Healthcare, a division of the AFT that includes nearly 80,000 nurses and health care workers. In 1985, public employees were given their own division, which is now called AFT Public Employees. Today, AFT represents over 100,000 public employees.

   Among the AFT’s most prominent issues are education reform and innovation. In recent years, the union has had to face vocal opponents who champion such concepts as those of charter schools and school voucher programs. With its strong base of educators and other vital service providers, the AFT looks forward to facing the future in strength and security.

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