The employees of the nation’s largest labor union have turned a downtown D.C. street into a picket line for the last four weeks, after the National Education Association locked out its own union amid stalled contract negotiations.
The contract between the National Education Association and the union representing its rank-and-file employees expired on May 31, and as negotiations stalled, the union went on strike for three days, claiming NEA leadership was engaging in unfair labor practices. At the end of the strike, they were locked out. Now dozens of members gather each day in front of NEA headquarters at 16th and M streets Northwest to demonstrate while negotiating teams meet with a mediator.
“I’m really worried because I think they’re creating a precedent that every bad school district and every bad corporation can look to and say, ‘If the largest union in the country can do this to their workers, why can’t we?’” said Justin Conley, a union member.
Organizers with the union consistently raised that point as they marched on Thursday morning.
“You would think we would hold ourselves to a higher standard, and that we’d be a model for others in the country on how to conduct employee-labor relations,” Conley said. “And it’s a shame, it’s a disgrace.”
Negotiations took a turn for the worse when the NEA threatened to cut off health insurance coverage for the employees it locked out.
“My son has a kidney condition. The fact that we were being told we were going to lose health insurance would have been catastrophic for my family,” Annelise Cohon said. “And it was unbelievably cruel of NEA to even consider doing something like that to their staff, knowing how hard we work, knowing how much we love this organization and knowing that we are just standing up for the values that they profess every day.”
Earlier this week the NEA rescinded that threat. Negotiators with NEA and its union were in mediation again Thursday, and neither side was willing to say what the main sticking points were at this point, because of confidentiality agreements.
However, in a statement, NEA Executive Director Kim Anderson said staff “enjoy competitive salaries, generous health care, nearly two months of annual paid leave, and, as a result, work alongside us for more than a decade on average.”
The statement went on to say: “Everyone of us at the National Education Association — the nation’s largest union with 3 million members — cares deeply about our members, the students they serve, and our staff colleagues and their families.”
She also said NEA has repeatedly offered to extend the old labor contract while negotiations on a new one continue, and offered to bargain more than the union has accepted.
Employees on the picket line are less aware of what the sticking points are right now, but didn’t seem to feel valued.
“I think it all comes down to a lack of respect for the folks who do this work day in and day out,” said Conley.
Juan Rangel, who lobbies on Capitol Hill on behalf of NEA, said the lockout imposed by his bosses make things harder for him as he talks to members of Congress.
“This is about the labor movement as a whole,” he said. “And it’s frustrating that we’re setting an example to employers across the country that this is OK for them to do. This is not just a tactic that was being used by corporations anymore. Unions themselves are now using it against their employees, and that’s frightening. And we’ve been highlighting that with members of Congress, who have been shocked to hear that labor unions have been employing these types of tactics.”
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