Reauthorization of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, congressional action on increasing the minimum wage, and efforts to safeguard workers’ pensions and labor rights will be high on the agenda, legislative director Tor Cowan recently told AFT state federation presidents. Cornerstones of the effort will be grass-roots mobilization that supports traditional lobbying on Capitol Hill.

The union already has enlisted more than 25,000 AFT e-Activists who are using cutting-edge technology to take the union’s message directly to lawmakers. And the AFT’s Activists in Congressional Education (ACE) project continues to grow—more than 200 ACE committees have been established so far, allowing frontline professionals to meet regularly with congressional representatives in their home-district offices.

While the 2006 election results were a welcome development, the ACE and e-Activist programs are designed to drive home the union’s message in all political climates, Cowan said. “Regardless of the results, more members must participate in our grass-roots political and legislative programs in support of AFT’s priorities for us to continue to be effective.”

As lawmakers turn their attention to NCLB reauthorization, the union will seek sponsors to introduce legislation that incorporates AFT proposals for getting NCLB right (see story on page 13). The union also will be working to reverse the recent trend of underfunding education, healthcare and many other vital domestic programs.

Pension security also will be a priority. The union will support efforts to protect traditional pensions in both the public and private sectors. Attacks are sure to heat up in the coming months thanks to pension legislation approved in the last Congress. It puts the pressure on private sector employers to move from traditional pensions to riskier 401k-type vehicles. Among the early AFT lobbying goals for the 110th Congress will be a new federal bankruptcy law that doesn’t allow private sector employers to drop traditional plans they promised to workers.

And it’s critical that the union take a broad approach when mobilizing for pension security, AFT president Edward J. McElroy recently told union leaders. If there are fewer traditional pensions in the private sector, then Americans will be less likely to support solid plans in the public sector, he stressed.

Recent action by the National Labor Relations Board (see sidebar at right) means that protecting workers’ fundamental rights also will be high on the union’s lobbying agenda. The NLRB’s Kentucky River decisions allow employers to classify union members as supervisors, a move that could effectively block millions of rank-and-file workers from union participation. The AFT will work with the AFL-CIO in the courts and in the new Congress to challenge this dangerous NLRB decision—which has the potential to strip union rights from teachers who direct and assign paraprofessionals in schools.

The 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) undercut an important gain achieved by the AFT in 1997 that guaranteed the participation of general education teachers and related service providers in IEP meetings. In an effort to hold down costs for districts, this provision was removed in 2004. Current language allows the parents and districts to agree in writing that the attendance of an IEP team member is not required—a move that the AFT and other education groups strongly objected to.

The AFT will work in cooperation with its state and local affiliates to gather data on how this provision is playing out in the field. And the union will look for friends in Congress who will lead the push to restore the right of teachers and key staff to participate in IEP meetings.

The next Congress is sure to be a politically charged landscape, especially because the shadow of the upcoming 2008 presidential election will begin to loom larger, Cowan says. Moving our agenda and getting heard in such an environment, he adds, will require a union lobbying approach that extends well beyond Capitol Hill hearing rooms. “We are going to need the full participation of our rank-and-file members to make lawmakers sit up and pay attention to our message,” he says.