The AFT executive council has unanimously approved a partnership agreement with the NEA that will create a 30-member joint council from the two organizations and encourage work on common goals and projects at the local, state, regional and national levels.

The council’s July 11 vote within a week of delegates to the NEA representative assembly in Los Angeles approving the agreement in a 59 percent to 41 percent vote. The NEA's vote marked a dramatic turnaround from the 58 percent to 42 percent vote against the 1998 unity agreement. The joint council (15 members from each organization, including members of both organizations’ executive committees) will oversee the agreement and will meet at least three times a year. It will be jointly funded and staffed by both organizations and have the authority to "advance common goals" within the policies and directives of the governing bodies of the AFT and NEA. The joint council will not independently set policy.

The AFT executive council also approved a jurisdictional (no-raid) agreement, which the NEA board of directors had approved on July 1. The jurisdictional agreement between the national organizations would remain in effect until July 31, 2003. It includes a six-month window for state affiliates either to negotiate their own no-raid agreements or to accept the terms of the national agreement, with both national organizations pledged to support and facilitate such state efforts. The agreement includes a ban on each national organization from challenging or assisting in challenges of established bargaining agents of the other partner or locals that have won exclusive consultation.

Both organizations are also prohibited from granting a charter to any organization--other than locals or state organizations created as a result of a merger--affiliated with the partner at the time the national jurisdiction agreement becomes effective. It also includes the option for non-bargaining states to develop their own definition of established representative as part of a no-raid agreement.

"We're very pleased that the AFT and the NEA now will have a more formal partnership that allows us to focus together on goals that we share, especially ensuring that every child has a quality education," said AFT president Sandra Feldman in a statement following the executive council's vote. She noted that the the joint council will provide a framework for more regular and focused cooperation between the two unions, overseeing such activities as joint conferences and coordinated legislative and legal actions.

AFT vice president Maureen Dinnen, president of Florida's newly merged NEA/AFT affiliate, Florida Education Association, told executive council members she was "heartened by the debate and the vote" at NEA’s representative assembly in early July. Dinnen, who spoke on the issue during NEA's floor debate, told council members that she emphasized Florida’s track record in getting to merger. This included taking plenty of time, she said, and participating in numerous joint activities, including conferences, lobbying efforts and meetings among leaders of both organizations. [Trish Gorman, Janet Bass, Frank Stella]

July 11, 2001