AFT history

In 1918, the AFT demanded pay equalization for teachers, without racial distinction.

By the end of the 1920s, AFT membership had dropped to less than 5,000—about half the number in 1920.

Under the leadership of Albert Shanker (1928–97; pres.

Facing opposition from politicians and boards of education, membership in AFT declined to 7,000 by 1930.

Because public employees were exempted from the National Labor Relations Act (1935) giving workers the right to bargain collectively, postwar teachers could not regain lost earning power.

Records show that the 1938 AFT convention, which was planned to be held at a Cincinnati hotel, was moved to an entirely new location because blacks were confined to using freight elevators in the hotel.

AFT membership climbed during the Great Depression, reaching 33,000 by 1939.

The more conservative factions had secured control of the national AFT leadership by 1940.

In 1941, the charters of three locals were withdrawn following an investigation and recommendation by the AFT executive council.

Not until 1953 did the AFT leadership reassess how the anticommunist investigations compromised the accused teachers' academic freedom and civil liberties.

In 1954 the AFT filed a brief before the United States Supreme Court in support of the plaintiffs in Brown v.

In 1957, the AFT revoked the charters of its few remaining segregated southern locals.

The age of teacher militancy began in November 1960 with a one-day walkout of the United Federation of Teachers of New York City; two years later the UFT won the first comprehensive teacher contract in the country.

The pressure led to President John Kennedy's 1962 Executive Order 10988, extending collective bargaining rights to federal employees, and to enactment of state collective bargaining laws for teachers.

In 1965, the NEA had 943,000 members, although the union bargained for only 21,000 teachers.

The 1968 clash over the establishment of New York City's Ocean Hill–Brownsville local school board polarized the membership and altered the relationship of the AFT to the civil rights movement.

In 1969, the UFT led the way for other AFT locals when it successfully won the right to represent 10,000 paraprofessionals in New York City.

Albert Shanker was elected president of the AFT in 1974.

Meanwhile, beginning in 1977, the CFT organized K-12 and community college paraprofessionals and won certification in some school and community college districts.

In 1983 the AFT also won representation rights for nontenure-track lecturers and librarians in the University of California system.

The AFT also sent help to a struggling black trade union movement in South Africa and lent support to the Chilean teachers union, which played a major role in ridding Chile of the Pinochet dictatorship in 1988.

Since 1992 the Robert G. Porter Scholars Program has awarded $1,000 grants to AFT members who want to pursue courses in labor relations and related fields, and $8,000 four-year college scholarships for dependents of AFT members who wish to study labor, education, health care, or government service.

Fifteen AFT observers were on hand to monitor the first free and democratic elections in South Africa in 1994.

Launched in 1995, this initiative promotes high academic standards, stronger curricula, and more safe and orderly classrooms.

Yet after Barker's retirement, no woman followed until Sandra Feldman's election in 1997.

In 1998, the membership of the NEA rejected a proposed merger with AFT. The AFT's membership is half that of the NEA.

The new NEAFT Partnership of 2001 makes AFL-CIO affiliation optional for them.

His successor, former UFT president Sandra Feldman, remained at the helm of one of the fastest-growing unions in the AFL-CIO until her retirement in July 2004.

McElroy retired in 2008 and was succeeded by former United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who was elected president at the union's national 2008 convention in Chicago.

In 2011, following Cortese's retirement, Johnson was appointed secretary-treasurer and Francine Lawrence as executive vice president.

Both were re-elected to their posts at the 2012 AFT convention.

In 2017, membership was around 1.6 million, and the union had due income of $35 million.