The National Education Association (NEA) has a labor strike on its hands as its 48 employees protest low wages, Axios reports.
The NEA, which represents 3 million educators, has encouraged several massive teacher strikes in past. Now, its own employees have voted unanimously to strike, claiming that wages have not risen to meet surging inflation in recent years.
Thousands of NEA-affiliated Portland teachers went on strike in October over low pay and large class sizes, among other issues. The strike is ongoing. Teachers in Massachusetts and Columbus enjoyed NEA support while they went on strike last year. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Disney’s Latest DEI Move Is To Give Pronoun Pins To Epcot Janitors)
“The NEA is going to have step up and honor the values of the organization,” the bargaining chair for the union representing the NEA’s staff, LaToya Johnson, said.
Johnson said she hoped that the organization would give their employees the same benefits they fought for the teachers they represent to have.
The NEA is on strike…
…against itself.
The nation’s largest teachers’ union can’t even keep its own employees happy as they voted unanimously to authorize the strike.https://t.co/yfmjkwJ69A
— Americans For Fair Treatment (@AmericansFair) November 13, 2023
“NEA has engaged in negotiations in good faith,” an NEA spokesperson told Axios. “[A]nd continues to apply a solutions-based approach to resolve the outstanding issues in a manner that addresses articulated priorities of AFSE while also balancing the strategic priorities of NEA and its members.”
The NEA, along with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), collaborated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to decide on when and how in-person education would be allows after the COVID-19 pandemic, according to emails obtained by Americans for Public Trust.