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The American Federation of Teachers fights for a better life for all and for the next generation to do even better. We fight for good jobs and the right to a union; for high-quality and well-resourced healthcare, public services, and public schools and colleges; to counter discrimination and division; and to protect the right to vote, the integrity of elections and our imperiled democracy.
As professionals and as a union, we care, we fight, we show up and we vote. We choose hope and aspiration over fear and division. It is time to turn the aspiration that unites everyone in our richly diverse country—the aspiration for a better life for ourselves, our children and our communities—into action.
Member highlights
#IamAFT
Black Lives Matter
Making Black Lives Matter at school every day
Our members care, fight, and show up for their students. Part of that is making sure that Black students know they are loved, valued, and capable in a society that often gives them the opposite message.
Fighting exploitation
Fighting exploitation of teachers from the Philippines
The AFT is helping defend teachers from the Philippines who are being lured to the US and then exploited. This is where our story meets theirs.
Teaching in a pandemic
COVID-19
AFT member Matt Haynes details all of the ways his life as a teacher has changed, both at home and in the classroom.
DACA DREAMers center
Higher Education
AFT member Luz Maciel de Villarroel works with new immigrants, refugees and many undocumented students, and says she still learns as much from them as they do from her.
We are the helpers
Making a difference
Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers fame said that in times of trouble, look for the helpers. At the AFT, we are the helpers, making a difference in this COVID-19 pandemic.
AFTerburners offer a boost
Retirees
Just like afterburners in an engine, an AFT group of retirees, the AFTerburners are looking to boost union power.
Bend, Ore.
On the picket line
Hospital technical workers in Bend, Ore., picket for fair contracts and better working conditions.
Growing grief in schools
A school counselor speaks
AFT Member and school counselor Julie Taylor details the ways grief is mounting in her students and colleagues, as well as the ways it manifests.
Justice for adjuncts
Fighting for what's right
When Bobbi-Lee Smart realized that adjunct professors were treated as a subclass of faculty, she decided studying it was the way forward. Here's what she found.
AFT Retiree Legacy Project
Activists never retire
Through the AFT Retiree Legacy Project we want our retirees to share their truths, heal and grow together, because it is never too late to be an activist or an ally!
Philadelphia, Penn.
Safe working conditions now!
Educators in Philadelphia demand safer working conditions before in-person instruction resumes.