[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 93 (Friday, June 27, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6783-S6784]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   WILL ISEA PART WAYS WITH THE NEA?

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I know that all of us agree there is no 
greater national treasure this Nation has than our children. Nurturing 
and encouraging them to live up to their potential is one of the most 
important things we can do. That is why our educational system must be 
the best it can be and our Nation's educators must be the best they can 
be. But there is something that I believe all the members of congress 
need to be aware of because it may have a profound and lasting effect 
on educators throughout the country. I am referring to the ongoing 
merger talks between the National Education Association and the 
American Federation of Teachers.
  This matter is of prime importance to NEA members across the United 
States and I know it is of tremendous importance to the Iowa State 
Education Association. It is disturbing that many members of the NEA 
are not aware of this because this is not just joining of two teachers' 
organizations. Given the AFT's affiliation with the AFL-CIO and the 
apparent willingness of the NEA to accede to the demands of the AFT. 
Should the merger go through, this new organization would be a member 
of the AFL-CIO, which could have tremendous policy implications for the 
largest organization representing educators. For that reason, I urge 
other members of congress to read the article I am submitting for 
consideration.
  The article follows:

                   Will ISEA Part Ways With the NEA?

                          (By James Flansburg)

       The Iowa State Education Association is thinking about 
     dropping its affiliation with the National Education 
     Association.
       At ISEA's annual meeting in Ames in early April, a number 
     of members said they fear that the NEA is moving toward a 
     militant unionism that could severely harm professionalism in 
     teaching.
       The course being followed by the NEA would take away the 
     independence of local and State affiliates, while, at the 
     same time, putting them deeply into partisan politics and 
     formal efforts to control local school boards and policies.

[[Page S6784]]

       ISEA represents about 35,000 Iowa teachers, and a vast 
     majority of them have misgivings over terms of a proposed 
     merger between NEA and the late Albert Shanker's American 
     Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO.
       Critics of the proposed merger contend that, more than an 
     endeavor to improve the lot of teachers, it's a surreptitious 
     effort aimed at strengthening the labor movement and 
     rebuilding the Democratic Party.
       NEA has a membership of about 2.2 million and AFT about 
     800,000, but the merger terms being pushed by NEA's national 
     leaders endorse AFT's way of doing business instead of the 
     more moderate approach of the traditional NEA.
       An indication of that came in a February speech by NEA 
     President Robert Chase at a National Press Club luncheon.
       ``I came here this afternoon to introduce the new National 
     Education Association--the new union we are striving to 
     create in public education,'' he said.
       Chase called for ``building an entirely new union-
     management relationship in public education.''
       No one knows more than teachers what schools need, he said: 
     ``higher academic standards; stricter discipline; an end to 
     social promotions; less bureaucracy; more resources where 
     they count, in the classroom; schools that are richly 
     connected to parents and to the communities that surround 
     them.''
       ``To this end,'' he continued ``we aim not so much to 
     redirect the NEA, as to reinvent it.
       ``The new direction . . . is about action. It is about 
     changing how each of our local affiliates does business, 
     changing how they bargain, changing what issues they put on 
     the table, changing the ways they help their members to 
     become the best teachers they can be.''
       The union's goal? ``An agreement that allows teachers, in 
     effect, to co-manage the school district.''
       Terms of the NEA-AFT merger would make the new organization 
     a member of the AFL-CIO, with the power to override the 
     concerns of local and State affiliates.
       Such things as student welfare and professional teachers' 
     concerns and local school conditions could be lost in the 
     dust of battle over union politics, local and national, and 
     wages, hours and working conditions.
       Local concerns would come behind the union's national 
     priorities. A community might find itself held hostage by 
     national union goals that have nothing to do with the 
     community itself.
       The new national organization would have the power to take 
     control of local and state organizations for refusing to 
     follow the national organization's policy and political 
     lines.
       In effect, it would have the power to trample the 
     professional and ethical considerations that have led the 
     huge majority of teachers in Iowa and the nation to join a 
     professional association such as ISEA rather than a local of 
     the AFT.
       The Iowa and New Jersey state affiliates of NEA have been 
     the most vocal critics of the merger terms, which seem 
     basically dictated by the AFT's power sources in New York and 
     other big urban centers.
       Although a substantial majority of teachers across the 
     country may oppose merger terms, top NEA officials and 
     staffers have the power to bring it off.
       That's because a number of state organizations are 
     financially dependent on NEA and have little choice except to 
     do its bidding.
       ISEA, in contrast, is not financially dependent on NEA. But 
     it might have to drop its affiliation with NEA to avoid being 
     taken over by the newly merged organization.
       So the ISEA has no alternative but to think about and start 
     making contingency plans to cancel its NEA affiliation.
       The details of that dominated a number of private 
     discussions at the ISEA's delegate assembly at the Hilton 
     Coliseum at Ames in April.
       In most places, the merger seems a well-kept secret.
       The idea is to keep the implications of the merger from the 
     teachers in the states where local organizations and their 
     leaders are beholden to NEA and AFT leaders.
       ISEA has kept Iowa teachers up to date on the merger talks, 
     and has advocated that other state organizations mirror the 
     effort.
       ``The more information that comes out on the proposed 
     merger, the more the membership seems disinclined to do it,'' 
     said one person who has been following the merger talks.
       It's probably not hard to find people who would dismiss all 
     this as intramural arm wrestling between two unions.
       That may well be. For the public, it may not make any 
     difference which view prevails.
       I've fought with ISEA over the years, and have been soundly 
     denounced by dozens of teachers for dismissing it as little 
     more than a trade union.
       Whatever. If I were an Iowa teacher, I'd be against the 
     merger because it surely would take away all hopes of the 
     organization ever becoming a professional association that 
     cared about anything except wages and hours.
       On a practical basis, moreover, a merger would take away 
     the implicit threat that many teachers' groups now are able 
     to use.
       Deal with the moderate ISEA or its equivalent, they lead 
     the school boards and others to believe, or you may end up 
     with the blood-letting unionism of the AFT.
       On the other hand, I'd choose the AFT's militance before 
     I'd relegate Iowa teachers to the kind of second-class 
     citizenship--lots of respect and no money and no say about 
     their working conditions--they suffered under before they 
     acquired the ability to collectively bargain with the school 
     districts about 25 years ago.

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