Education Minnesota
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Education Minnesota | |
| Founded | 1998 |
|---|---|
| Members | 70,000 |
| Country | United States |
| Affiliation | NEA, AFT |
| Key people | Judy Schaubach, president |
| Office location | Saint Paul, Minnesota |
| Website | www.educationminnesota.org |
Education Minnesota (EM) is an American trade union representing teachers in Minnesota. It is affiliated with both the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and is affiliated with the AFL-CIO. EM represents preK-12 teachers and paraprofessionals as well as higher education faculty.
The union's headquarters are located in St. Paul, Minnesota, and it represented over 70,000 members in 2005. An annual Delegate Assembly of approximately 900 representatives meets each year, and is the organization's highest governing body. Between Delegate Assemblies, a 44-member governing board meets monthly. The governing board sets dues, establishes a budget and carries out the policy directives of the Delegate Assembly. Three full-time officers—a president, vice president and secretary-treasurer—guide the union between meetings of the governing board. EM employed about 150 staff in 2005.
[edit] Merger
The union was created in March 1997 by the merger of the Minnesota Education Association (MEA) and the Minnesota Federation of Teachers (MFT). The merger was approved by both parent unions, and took effect on September 1, 1998. At the time, the AFT and NEA were discussing a national merger. The two unions had increasingly worked collaboratively for several years, and the merger of the two unions was considered a precursor to national merger. Subsequently, neither parent union laid down many ground rules for the merger.
The planned merger between the AFT and NEA fell through after the merger agreement, which had been approved by the AFT, failed to win the necessary two-thirds majority at the NEA convention.
However, EM—which was dually-affiliated with both the AFT and NEA—remained unaffected by the failed national merger. Judy Schaubach, president of MEA, and Sandra Peterson, president of MFT, were elected as co-presidents.[1] But the lack of pre-merger ground rules came back to haunt the merged union. Disagreement between the two parent unions broke out over payment of per capita dues. Each parent union insisted that it receive its full dues, which would have doubled the dues of EM members. The issue remained unresolved for two years, until an agreement was reached which established a new dues level. Back-dues to NEA were paid down, while AFT forgave the anticipated dues it should have received.
[edit] Impact on other NEA/AFT mergers
Several NEA and AFT state and local teacher unions had merged in the 1960s and 1970s, including affiliates in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New Orleans and throughout Florida. The EM merger had encouraged other NEA and AFT state teacher unions in the U.S. to consider merger as well. The Montana Education Association and Montana Federation of Teachers merged in September 2000, and discussions were under way in Missouri, New Mexico, New York and Texas. Meanwhile, in 26 states NEA and AFT state affiliates had signed 'no-raid' agreements which set jurisdictions for each state affiliate and which prohibited each union from raiding the other.
Meanwhile, AFT president Sandra Feldman publicly voiced her conclusion that state mergers would continue, until a de facto merger of the two unions occurred.
Both parent unions recognized a need for ground rules prior to any additional state mergers. The each union adopted a series of guidelines for approval of state mergers. Through the NEA-AFT joint council, 'NEAFT,' the AFT and NEA agreed to additional guidelines that must be met in order for future state mergers to move forward smoothly.
