Even with the 2004 elections still months away, the campaign for president is in full swing. And when more than 800 AFT members from around the country gathered in Washington, D.C., in April for the national union's 27th annual PSRP Professional Issues Conference, politics was the hottest topic.

PSRPs have developed a reputation in the AFT for being some of the most enthusiastic participants in grassroots political activity. “What guarantees a win [in elections] are the foot soldiers, and you are the foot soldiers,” said Lorretta Johnson, chair of the AFT’s PSRP program and policy council. The meeting’s three main general sessions all focused on politics in ways linked to the conference theme of “Union Voices: Be Strong!”

AFT executive vice president Nat LaCour thanked the audience during the opening session for the vital but sometimes overlooked roles that support staff play in schools. He reeled off dozens of job titles and even more duties in rapid succession to show the scope of what PSRPs do.

“You want to be treated with dignity. You want to be afforded respect. You want to be paid a salary that reflects that work and that commitment,” LaCour said. Just as PSRPs are key elements of the school team, he continued, “We’re calling on you to be a major part of the team” for the fall elections.

Four years ago, unions provided a big boost for Al Gore, turning out in far greater numbers than most other voting segments. Almost three-quarters of AFT members voted for Gore. This year, the AFT and the AFL-CIO are looking to boost those numbers even more, to reach the point where union households account for about 30 percent of the overall turnout. (That figure was 25 percent in 2000.) The target for AFT members is 80 percent support for presumptive nominee John Kerry.

Kerry on the issues

In explaining the union’s support for Kerry, LaCour said it all comes down to issues. “The only thing that matters is where elected officials and candidates for public office stand on our issues,” he said, adding that Kerry has a 97 percent voting record on the key issues AFT tracks. Put another way, on the 86 votes the AFT has tracked since Kerry took office in the Senate, he has voted with the AFT all but two times. He has compiled a similarly strong record on labor and environmental issues.

“There’s a great difference between the candidates,” LaCour said, “and we need to make our members understand those differences.”

Before they came to the nation’s capital for the conference, attendees were surveyed. Their top three issues: the rising cost of healthcare, and funding for education and Social Security. Those flashpoints provided the basis for an entertaining mock presidential debate held during one general session. Answering questions from a panel of PSRP leaders, Candidate A and Candidate Z both read actual quotes from President Bush over the years. Without knowing where the comments came from, the audience voted overwhelmingly for Candidate Z, who expressed lots of positive-sounding positions. Needless to say, members of the crowd were taken aback when they found out they had picked Bush.

As Liz Smith, director of the AFT’s political department, pointed out, “His record and his rhetoric don’t quite match up.” On the economy, on education, on healthcare and on Social Security, Smith provided facts and figures showing that the Bush administration’s record has been terrible, despite nice speeches and promises to the contrary. At the end of the session, participants were encouraged to fill out a form pledging to think about persuasive arguments that might work with different people, and then to talk with friends, family, co-workers and other AFT members about the candidates.

The luncheon address, which usually features an elected official, was a special occasion this year because it was the first time that Lorretta Johnson, in all her years as a dynamic and hugely popular leader of the PSRP division, delivered a featured address to the conference. She started off with the good news about the growth of the AFT’s PSRP division—more than 13,000 new members and 75 new locals chartered since the last conference.

Rather than focus entirely on politics, Johnson talked about her 35 years of activism with the union and some of the successes she has enjoyed in Baltimore and elsewhere over the years. “We still face many challenges,” she said, including privatization of jobs, the growth of part-time jobs and the reduction in the number of hours many members are working. As a result, Johnson continued, in politics as well as in our other union activism, “We have to stay organized, and we have to advocate, and we have to be outspoken. It’s the only thing [our opponents] understand … They are afraid of us being united.”

Johnson read a proclamation from a former AFT PSRP leader who herself attended many AFT conferences over the years. Last fall, Jeion Ward, a former paraprofessional and president of the Hampton (Va.) Federation of Teachers, was elected to the Virginia Legislature. Ward introduced an official proclamation from the Virginia House of Delegates that offered “sincerest congratulation” to the AFT in recognition of the PSRP conference.

New Mexico leader wins pioneer award

Longtime New Mexico PSRP leader Kathy Chavez was honored during the opening session of the PSRP conference with this year’s Albert Shanker Pioneer Award. The award is given each year to an outstanding AFT PSRP leader. As part of the award, Chavez also received a $10,000 check from Gardner-Rich Co. Half of the award money goes to the recipient and the other half is to be used to benefit school employees at the winner’s worksite or some other local project.

A union activist of more than 20 years, Chavez leads the Albuquerque Educational Assistants Association and is executive vice president of the New Mexico Federation of Educational Employees. Chavez, a former bus driver and paraprofessional, has taken on the whole range of union roles, from building representative to member of the AFT’s national PSRP program and policy council. She also has served on a variety of other AFT national committees and task forces, most recently the national union’s organizing committee.

Chavez was recognized for her leadership on professional issues as well as political issues. She was central in advocating for professional development for PSRPs in her district and state, negotiating a paraprofessional career ladder and helping bring collective bargaining back to New Mexico.