The largest labor union in the U.S. locked out its staff
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For nearly a month, about 300 staffers at the country's largest labor union haven't worked or been paid. Their employer, the National Education Association, took the rare step of locking them out of work last month amid contract negotiations.
Why it matters: Barring employees from work, i.e., a lockout, is an aggressive step for any employer to take — especially for one that happens to be a labor union.
- "It's not a good look for a union," Paul Clark, a professor of labor and employment relations at Penn State University, told KFF Health News.
- The NEA's tactics could put the big union in an awkward position when it has to negotiate on the other side of the table, on behalf of its members.
Catch up fast: The NEA represents about 3 million teachers at all grade levels. The union's staffers are represented by a different union, called NEASO, which has been negotiating since April for a new contract (it expired on May 31).
- During the NEA's annual convention in Philadelphia in July, the staff union went on a three-day strike.
- President Joe Biden, scheduled to speak, backed out, saying he wouldn't cross a picket line.
- The strike interrupted the business of the convention, the organization's executive director, Kim Anderson, wrote in a letter to the staff union on the last day.
- NEA would begin a lockout "effective immediately," the letter said.
What they said: The lockout is meant to "safeguard NEA's operations against further disruptive and unprotected work stoppages."
- Health benefits would get cut off by the end of the month, she wrote.
Context: Taking away medical benefits as a negotiating tactic is a drastic step. It's prohibited for state employers in California, and Democratic federal lawmakers introduced a bill last year that would bar employers from taking it.
Zoom in: KFF Health News reported on the health care situation on July 26. A few hours later, the NEA reversed and said employees would have health benefits during negotiations.
- In a statement to Axios this week, Anderson said, "We made the decision to ensure there is no lapse in benefits because we care about our colleagues and their well-being, and because it's the right thing to do."
What they're saying: "I have been bargaining contracts on behalf of NEASO since 1992," says Branita Griffin Henson, a senior writer and editor at NEA. "Some negotiations are more contentious than others, but I don't recognize what this is."
- "With first a lockout, and then a threat to end health care benefits for people with chronic illnesses, NEA's leaders are saying to school districts: This is how you do it. This is how you break a union," Kate Hilts, a digital strategist for NEA wrote in a post online last month.
For the record: In the emailed statement to Axios, Anderson says "NEA offered multiple times to extend the terms of the previous contract so that NEA employees can remain at work while we negotiate a new contract."
The other side: The NEA and the staff union are in discussions with a mediator to end the lockout, and they're meant to be confidential, the staff union's president, Robin McLean said, in a statement to Axios.
- Anderson's statement about offering to extend the contract is "a complete violation of the confidentiality of mediation and demonstrates NEA's bad faith in the process."
- "We are gravely disappointed that NEA would release information that is not only false but also compromises our ability to come to a successor agreement through mediation."
The bottom line: Labor relations are tricky, even for employers that specialize in it.
