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 The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is the second largest teacher's labor union in America (the largest being the National Education Association). The union was founded in Chicago. John Dewey and Margaret Haley were founders. About 60 perc ...

(AFT),

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 ...

. The union's official name is the Cincinnati Teachers Union, but is more commonly referred to as the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers or CFT.

History

The CFT was formed on December 18, 1936 as Local 479 of the AFT. Lacking the legal right to bargain collectively, the nascent union pushed for higher wages, an end to discrimination against married women teachers, smaller class sizes and

desegregation Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups, usually referring to races. Desegregation is typically measured by the index of dissimilarity, allowing researchers to determine whether desegregation efforts are having impact o ...

. The CFT competed for the allegiance of teachers with the Cincinnati Teachers Association (CTA), an affiliate of the

National Education Association The National Education Association (NEA) is the largest labor union in the United States. It represents public school teachers and other support personnel, faculty and staffers at colleges and universities, retired educators, and college stude ...

(NEA). In the post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

era, the CFT focused on desegregation more than wages and benefits, or a collective bargaining relationship. The CTA, which emphasized higher teachers wages and was much more aggressive in its dealings with the school district administration, added many new members (often at the expense of CFT). By 1952, CFT had only a small number of active members. In 1964, in the wake of the formation 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 ...

and a surge in teacher union militancy within the union, the AFT issued a new charter for a union of Cincinnati educators and the Cincinnati Teachers Union (CTU) became Local 1520. The CTU began an aggressive campaign to elect pro-union supporters to the city council, mayor's office and school board. The goal was to elect a majority of elected officials willing to pass a collective bargaining law. In 1976, the CTU was successful in winning passage of a collective bargaining ordinance. In the election which followed-in which teachers could vote for the CTU, CTA or no union-CTU won easily. It negotiated its first contract in the following months. CTU later won an election to represent paraprofessionals (such as school nurses, teachers aides, librarians, counselors, school health personnel and others). In 1979,

Tom Mooney Thomas Joseph Mooney (December 8, 1882 – March 6, 1942) was an American political activist and labor leader, who was convicted with Warren K. Billings of the San Francisco Preparedness Day Bombing of 1916. It quickly became apparent that Mo ...

, a teacher of government in a Cincinnati high school, was elected president of the CTU. In early 1980, Cincinnati public school office personnel represented by the Association of Cincinnati Public Schools Office Personnel (ACPSOP) voted to affiliate with CTU. Ohio's Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act, enacted in 1984, provided additional legal support for the CTU's collective bargaining relationship. In 2000, Mooney stepped down as CTU president after winning election as president of the

Ohio Federation of Teachers The Ohio Federation of Teachers (OFT) is a statewide federation of unions in Ohio, affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), AFL–CIO. The OFT represents more than 20,000 members in 54 local unions. Its members include public ed ...

(OFT). CTU began calling itself the "Cincinnati Federation of Teachers" (CFT) after Mooney's departure, although many union members still prefer CTU. The CFT is affiliated with the Ohio Federation of Teachers, the Cincinnati Central Labor Council, and the Ohio AFL–CIO.

References

CFT History, Cincinnati Federation of Teachers' website
* Kemme, Steve. "Teachers' advocate dies." ''Cincinnati Enquirer''. December 4, 2006

External links

Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, Local 1520, AFT, AFL–CIO
{{Authority control Trade unions established in 1936 Trade unions established in 1964 American Federation of Teachers Education trade unions Education in Cincinnati Trade unions in Ohio