The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is the second largest teacher's

labor union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (s ...

in America (the largest being the National Education Association). The union was founded in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

John Dewey John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the fi ...

and

Margaret Haley Margaret A. Haley (November 15, 1861 – January 5, 1939) was a teacher, unionist, and Georgist land value tax activist,Arnesen, Eric. Encyclopedia of U.S. Labor and Working-class History. New York: Routledge, 2007. who was dubbed the "lady l ...

were founders. About 60 percent of AFT's membership works directly in education, with the remainder of the union's members composed of paraprofessionals and school-related personnel; local, state and federal employees; higher education faculty and staff, and nurses and other

healthcare professional A health professional, healthcare professional, or healthcare worker (sometimes abbreviated HCW) is a provider of health care treatment and advice based on formal training and experience. The field includes those who work as a nurse, physician ( ...

s. The AFT has, since its founding, affiliated with

trade union federation A national trade union center (or national center or central) is a federation or confederation of trade unions in a country. Nearly every country in the world has a national trade union center, and many have more than one. In some regions, such ...

s: until 1955 the

American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutua ...

, and now the

AFL–CIO The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO) is the largest federation of unions in the United States. It is made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 12 million ac ...

History

AFT was founded in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, on April 15, 1916. Charles Stillman was the first president and Margaret Haley was the national organizer. On May 9, 1916, the American Federation of Labor chartered the AFT. By 1919, AFT had 100 local affiliates and a membership of approximately 11,000 teachers, which amounted to 1.5% of the nation's teaching force. In its early days, AFT distinguished itself from the National Education Association (NEA) by its exclusion of school administrators from membership. Facing opposition from politicians and boards of education, membership in AFT declined to 7,000 by 1930. During this period, the organization had little impact on local or national education policy. AFT membership climbed during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, reaching 33,000 by 1939. During the 1930s, AFT, whose members had historically been primary school teachers, saw influential college professors join the union. Also during the 1930s, the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel ...

gained influence within the AFT. In 1941, under pressure from the AFL, the union ejected three local unions in New York City and Philadelphia (including its prominent early member, the New York City Teachers Union, AFT Local 5) for being communist-dominated. The charter revocations represented nearly a third of the union's national membership. The 1940s were marked by a series of teacher strikes, including 57 strikes that occurred from 1946 through 1949. By 1947, AFT had a membership of 42,000. The 1960s and 1970s also saw numerous teacher strikes, including 1,000 strikes involving more than 823,000 teachers between 1960 and 1974. AFT membership was 59,000 in 1960, 200,000 in 1970, and 550,000 in 1980. In 2017, membership was around 1.6 million, and the union had due income of $35 million. Since 1977, AFT has published a quarterly magazine for teachers covering various issues about children and education called '' American Educator''. In 1998, the membership of the NEA rejected a proposed merger with AFT. The AFT's membership is half that of the NEA.

Presidents of the AFT

;Albert Shanker In 1974,

Albert Shanker Albert Shanker (September 14, 1928 – February 22, 1997) was president of the United Federation of Teachers from 1964 to 1985 and president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) from 1974 to 1997. Early life Shanker was born on Manhatta ...

was elected president of AFT. He served in this role until his death on February 22, 1997. For 27 years, Shanker wrote a weekly column entitled "Where We Stand" that ran as an advertisement in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. Shanker was an early advocate of

charter schools A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of autono ...

. He also called for a national competency test for teachers, merit pay for teachers, and more rigorous requirements for high school graduation. During his tenure as AFT president, Shanker was jailed twice for leading illegal strikes. ;Sandra Feldman Sandra Feldman served as AFT's president from 1997 to 2004. Feldman helped craft the

No Child Left Behind Act The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) was a U.S. Act of Congress that reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; it included Title I provisions applying to disadvantaged students. It supported standards-based educati ...

. ;Edward J. McElroy Edward J. McElroy, the AFT's secretary-treasurer since 1992, was elected president of the AFT in 2004, replacing Feldman. On February 12, 2008, McElroy announced he would retire at the union's regularly scheduled biennial convention in July. On July 14, 2008, Randi Weingarten was elected to succeed him. ;Randi Weingarten On July 14, 2008, Randi Weingarten, then the president of the

United Federation of Teachers The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) is the labor union that represents most teachers in New York City public schools. , there were about 118,000 in-service teachers and 17,000 paraprofessional educators in the union, as well as about 54,000 ...

, was elected to succeed McElroy as AFT president. In September 2008, she announced the launch of the AFT Innovation Fund, a union-led, private foundation-supported effort to provide grants to AFT unions to develop and implement innovations in education. In 2014, Weingarten announced that AFT was ending a five-year funding relationship between the

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was ...

and the AFT Innovation Fund. According to Department of Labor filings, Weingarten earned nearly $560,000 in total compensation during the 2013–2014 school year.

Political activities

Since 1980, AFT and the NEA have contributed nearly $57.4 million to federal campaigns, an amount that is about 30 percent higher than any single corporation or other union. About 95 percent of political donations from teachers unions have gone to Democrats. In 2008, AFT provided a campaign contribution of $1,784,808.59 to

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

and $1,997,375.00 to

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

. In July 2015, AFT endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race. Clinton and AFT president Randi Weingarten are longtime friends. AFT's official endorsement of Clinton caused controversy among some AFT members who felt that the endorsement came too soon and did not reflect the wishes of rank-and-file AFT members, some of whom supported

Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 20 ...

. Members' dues underwrite much of AFT's political activities. In 2015, four California teachers sued AFT and its California unit, the California Federation of Teachers, over the use of member dues for political activities. The plaintiffs argued that unions were violating their constitutional right to free speech by forcing them to either support union-favored causes and candidates or lose access to important job benefits such as disability and life insurance. In 2018, the landmark Supreme Court ruling in ''

Janus v. AFSCME ''Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31'', No. 16-1466, 585 U.S. ___ (2018), abbreviated ''Janus v. AFSCME'', was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court on US labor law, concerning the power of la ...

'' resolved this matter, concluding that public sector union fees violate the First Amendment, compelling nonmembers to "subsidize private speech on matters of substantial public concern". Unions will, subsequently, need to gain the affirmative consent of individual teachers before enrolling them in the union.

Activities

Race relations

The AFT was one of the first trade unions to allow African-Americans and minorities to become full members of their trade union. In 1918, the AFT called for equal pay for African-American teachers, the election of African Americans to local school boards and compulsory school attendance for African-American children. In 1919, the AFT called for equal educational opportunities for African-American children, and in 1928 called for the social, political, economic, and cultural contributions of African Americans to be taught in the public schools. In 1951, the union stopped chartering segregated locals. It filed an amicus brief in the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court desegregation case '' Brown v. Board of Education''. In 1957, the AFT expelled all locals that refused to desegregate. This resulted in the loss of over 7,000 members. In 1963, the AFT actively supported the

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, also known as simply the March on Washington or The Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic rig ...

Collective bargaining

By the late 1940s, AFT was slowly moving toward

collective bargaining Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The ...

as an official policy. By the end of the 1970s, collective bargaining agreements covered 72% of public school teachers.

Active shooter drills

In 2020, the union along with the National Education Association issued a report expressing opposition to active shooter drills being held in schools, calling on the drills to be revised or eliminated.

Share My Lesson

In 2012, AFT partnered with Britain's TES Connect to create a curriculum sharing website called Share My Lesson. The AFT and TES invested $10 million to develop the site.

Reception

In 2010, four American film documentaries, most notably '' Waiting for Superman'', portrayed the AFT as hurting children by opposing

charter school A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of autono ...

s and protecting incompetent teachers.

Leadership

Presidents

:1916: Charles Stillman :1923: Florence Rood :1925: Mary C. Barker :1931: Henry R. Linville :1934: Raymond F. Lowry :1936: Jerome C. Davis :1939: George S. Counts :1942: John M. Fewkes :1943: Joseph F. Landis :1947: John M. Eklund :1952: Carl J. Megel :1964:

Charles Cogen Charles Cogen (October 31, 1903 – February 18, 1998) was president of New York City's United Federation of Teachers (UFT) (1960–1964) and subsequently, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) (1964–1968). During Cogen's tenure the teache ...

:1968: David Selden :1974:

:1997: Sandra Feldman :2004: Edward J. McElroy :2008: Randi Weingarten

Secretary-Treasurers

:1916: F. G. Stecker :1926: Florence Curtis Hanson :1935: George Davis :1936: Irvin R. Kuenzli :1953: ''Post vacant'' :1963: Robert Porter :1992: Edward J. McElroy :2004: Nat LaCour :2008: Antonia Cortese :2011: Lorretta Johnson :2020: Fedrick C. Ingram

Notable AFT members

* J. Quinn Brisben,

Socialist Party USA The Socialist Party USA, officially the Socialist Party of the United States of America,"The article of this organization shall be the Socialist Party of the United States of America, hereinafter called 'the Party'". Art. I of th"Constitution o ...

candidate for President of the United States in the 1992 U.S. presidential election *

Ralph Bunche Ralph Johnson Bunche (; August 7, 1904 – December 9, 1971) was an American political scientist, diplomat, and leading actor in the mid-20th-century decolonization process and US civil rights movement, who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize ...

, former United Nations Under-Secretary-General and

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolo ...

winner *

Tony Danza Tony Danza (born Anthony Salvatore Iadanza; April 21, 1951) is an American actor. He is known for co-starring in the television series ''Taxi'' (1978–1983) and '' Who's the Boss?'' (1984–1992), for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award a ...

, film and television actor * Paul Douglas,

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and power ...

from Illinois *

, educator *

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theor ...

, scientist * Michael Harrington, political activist *

Hubert Humphrey Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing ...

, U.S. vice-president and U.S. Senator from Minnesota * Mike Mansfield, former United States Senate Majority Leader and

U.S. Ambassador Ambassadors of the United States are persons nominated by the president to serve as the country's diplomatic representatives to foreign nations, international organizations, and as ambassadors-at-large. Under Article II, Section 2 of the U. ...

to Japan *

Frank McCourt Francis McCourt (August 19, 1930July 19, 2009) was an Irish-American teacher and writer. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his book ''Angela's Ashes'', a tragicomic memoir of the misery and squalor of his childhood. Early life and education Frank ...

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...

-winning author * Robert Oppenheimer, scientist *

Donna Shalala Donna Edna Shalala ( ; born February 14, 1941) is an American politician and academic who served in the Carter and Clinton administrations, as well as in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2019 to 2021. Shalala is a recipient of the Preside ...

, former U.S. Representative from Florida and former

United States Secretary of Health and Human Services The United States secretary of health and human services is the head of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, and serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all health matters. The secretary is ...

Elie Wiesel Elie Wiesel (, born Eliezer Wiesel ''Eliezer Vizel''; September 30, 1928 – July 2, 2016) was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored 57 books, written mostly in F ...

winner *

Kshama Sawant Kshama Sawant (; born October 17, 1973) is an Indian-American politician and economist who has served on the Seattle City Council since 2014. She is a member of Socialist Alternative, the first and only member of the party to date to be elected ...

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

activist and member of the

Seattle City Council The Seattle City Council is the legislative body of the city of Seattle, Washington. The Council consists of nine members serving four-year terms, seven of which are elected by electoral districts and two of which are elected in citywide at-la ...

Notable AFT locals and federations

* Chicago Teachers Union *

Cincinnati Federation of Teachers The Cincinnati Federation of Teachers (CFT) is a labor union representing teachers, paraprofessionals, support personnel and others in the Cincinnati public school system. The union is Local 1520 of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), AFL ...

* Education Minnesota * Florida Education Association * Health Professionals and Allied Employees *

Montana Federation of Public Employees The Montana Federation of Public Employees (MFPE) is a Montana labor union. Its 23,000 members make it the largest union in the state. MFPE is a public employee union with a diverse membership embracing public school teachers and classified person ...

* New York State United Teachers * Ohio Federation of Teachers * Professional Staff Congress (

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the public university system of New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven senior colleges, seven community colleges and seven pro ...

) * Public Employees Federation (New York state) *

Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals The Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals (RIFTHP) is a statewide federation of trade union, labor unions in the state of Rhode Island in the United States. The federation's local unions represent teachers and other education ...

Temple University Graduate Students Association The Temple University Graduate Students Association (TUGSA) is a graduate employee union at Temple University. The union won recognition on September 26, 2001 when the Temple board of trustees voted to recognize their union. The union ratified its ...

(New York City) * United Teachers Los Angeles * United Teachers of New Orleans * University Health Professionals (Connecticut state) * Washington State Nurses Association

References

External links

*
The Washington State Teacher (1945–1951)
from The Labor Press Project
AFT
on

OpenSecrets OpenSecrets is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that tracks data on campaign finance and lobbying. It was created from a merger of the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) and the National Institute on Money in Politics (NIMP) ...

American Federation of Teachers Oral History Collection
Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives,

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives Printed Ephemera Collection on the American Federation of Teachers
Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University
Joyce Wheeler American Federation of Teachers Papers
Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University {{Authority control 1916 establishments in the United States AFL–CIO Education trade unions Education International Public Services International Education-related professional associations Teacher associations based in the United States Educational organizations based in Washington, D.C.